Two men who helped run the once wildly popular pirating website Megaupload have each been sentenced by a New Zealand court to more than two years in prison. The sentencing of Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk ended an 11-year legal battle by the men to avoid extradition to the United States on more serious charges that included racketeering. The sentencing came after the men struck a deal last year with prosecutors from New Zealand and the U.S. Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload, is continuing to fight the U.S. charges and threat of extradition. He has said he expects his former colleagues to testify against him as part of the deal they struck.

Man this chaps my hide

  • TiredSpider@slrpnk.netEnglish
    51·
    2 years ago

    good thing they got these dangerous menaces behind bars! Who knows how many poor widdle defenseless mega corps got hurt :,(

  • FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    50·
    2 years ago

    This is actually so ridiculous. Megaupload literally had anti piracy warnings everywhere and would block you from being a top uploader if you hosted pirated content, not to mention the fact that they had a moderation team actively deleting pirated files and implemented filesize limits. Can’t wait for a generation that actually understands the internet to be in charge. IIRC thats more than was sentenced for literally running down two teengaers with a car. this really makes my blood boil.

    • Boots@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 years ago

      IIRC the feds found out they were paying groups from East Asia to upload stuff though a reward program they set up on mega.

      Sadly this fucked them hard

  • travis@lemmy.blueEnglish
    20·
    2 years ago

    Ortmann was sentenced to 2 years and 7 months while van der Kolk was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months. Each had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison but argued they should be allowed to serve their sentences in home detention.

    Does the punishment fit the “crime”?

    • Death Metal@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      18·
      2 years ago

      All of the people who need to be in jail to protect us from them seem to never go, and they are busy busting people like these guys and Ross Ulbricht who were actually advancing use of technology.

      • travis@lemmy.blueEnglish
        16·
        2 years ago

        What’s worse:

        Meanwhile Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload, is continuing to fight the U.S. charges and threat of extradition. He has said he expects his former colleagues to testify against him as part of the deal they struck.

    • EuphoricPenguin@normalcity.lifeEnglish
      15·
      2 years ago

      Considering copyright shouldn’t exist, then obviously not. These people did nothing but copy data that happened to be censored by “property laws” that are based on a flawed definition of what people can actually own.

    • BriongloidEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      I used to watch movies from them at work, back in 2008.

    • Death Metal@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      Probably a plea deal. Plead guilty to a few charges and others are considered closed. If you do not have the millions required to litigate this mess, it is probably the safest option.