Digital Enterprise for Megaupload Breach of U.S - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theDigital Enterprise for Megaupload Breach of U.S. Answer: Megaupload breach of U.S. Copyright Laws (Copyright Infringement)? On January 5, 2012 the US district Court issued an indictment against a company Megaupload Limited and its principals Kim Dotcom, Finn Batato and others which confirms the alleged involvement of the company in the issues of copyright infringement (Reilly, 2017). They were arrested on the charges of gaining profits through the infringement of copyright guidelines through the operation of megavideo.com and megaupload.com domain names. The company used to operate as cyberlocker where the users could upload the content to the servers of Megaupload and after getting the URL from the company, they could download the file wherever required. This service was charge free at the basic level and the premium membership option was open for the customers at an affordable rate which provided them with better band width. It also gave the uploaders rewards who uploaded the files that are extensively popular (Fowler, Barrett, Schechner, 2012). The allegations were made on the defendants that they used to upload the materials and files from other sources without taking their permission which is an issue of copyright infringement. The company also allegedly promoted the users to copy the files from unauthorized sources. The company benefitted from the infringement of the copyright financially and also provoked and included others to commit the crime of copyright infringement. Yes, the company breached the laws of copyright infringement in US. The company was charged as criminals under copyright infringement according to the section 17 U.S.C. 506 and 18 U.S.C. 2319 of US constitutional Acts where the files and videos were uploaded by the defendants without taking permission of the patent holders. They were also charged for money laundering (18 U.S.C. 1956) for making money through the acts of copyright infringement. The company was also legally charged for not designating a copyrighting agent under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 512) where they were sent an infringement notice but they did not pay any attention and just deleted the link of the file on which the complaint was lodged (DMLP, 2012) Customers of sites like Megaupload have uploaded personal data to the sites similar to Megaupload service. Who owns that data and what are the implications of this? The data uploaded on Megaupload was owned by the company Megaplaud.com only. Similarly, the data uploaded on websites with the same functioning is owned by the software companies only. Also, the data which the customers upload on such websites are also owned by the software companies developing them (Copyright Council of New Zealand, 2017). The copyright law of New Zealand is governed by the Copyright Act 1994. It states that any intellectual or innovative work of any user is owned by the user only. The rights for economic exploitation of the work are solely in the hands of the user and if any person has to use the work, he/she must take the permission of the developer or else the developer can file the law pursuit against the user (Wells, 2017). The privacy policies of most of the companies do not ensure absolute confidentiality of the data. They inform that how their data can be shared, exchanged or sold but do not confirm that their data will not be used anywhere. The companies that ask for the sharing of data online do not guarantee its protection. Even the data which is not very useful for us can be extremely beneficial and enough for the cyber criminals for example the email address, mothers name etc. There are several reported cases of the data breaches online. The cyber criminals patch the complete identity of a person from the bits of data they steal from the websites of the company. The pictures of the users can be used in a wrong profile and the information of the profile can lead to the penetration to the financial records of the users. These records can be used for making illegal purchases. To stay protected from such breaches, the users must read all the terms of usage on the online sites of the merchants before making any financial transactions. The management of the cookies of the browser can help in minimizing the risk (CSID, 2015). Despite all the above discussion, the fact is that copyright infringement is an illegal activity in both US and New Zealand and it is the only reason behind Dotcoms extradition in New Zealand. Implication on Users: Now, the question raised that who owns the uploaded data. After Megauploads shut down, the growing concern were related to the uploaded data on site. On the basis of the policies of Megaupload, users have to keep the copies of their files they would have no ownership on data that is uploaded on website and this data can be terminated by the website with the prior notice. Users access to their files can be possible if Megaupload wins the case but still there is no guarantee for file access. Implication for Apple cloud: Megaupload created a negative impact for cloud storage services. Other operators have taken the precautionary actions by changing their policies to avoid the legal implications. They disabled some certain file sharing functionalities to avoid such legal turmoil. iCloud has created itself as brand image for its superior services so its business has not been affected. So we can conclude that collateral damage is related to the trust (Leonhard, 2012). Conclusion This assignment evaluates the New Zealand copyright law and identifies that Megaupload broke such laws or not. On the basis of the available facts, it can be concluded that Megaupload caught in illegal activity breached the copyright norms. References CSID. (2015). The Implications of Sharing Personal Data. Retrieved from www.csid.com: https://www.csid.com/2015/01/implications-sharing-personal-data/ Fowler, G. A., Barrett, D., Schechner, S. (2012). U.S. Shuts Offshore File-Share 'Locker'. Retrieved from www.wsj.com: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204616504577171060611948408 Reilly, C. (2017). Kim Dotcom eligible for extradition to US in Megaupload case. Retrieved from www.cnet.com: https://www.cnet.com/news/kim-dotcom-eligible-for-extradition-to-usa-megaupload-new-zealand-high-court/ Staff, D. (2012). United States v. Megaupload Limited. Retrieved from https://www.dmlp.org: https://www.dmlp.org/threats/united-states-v-megaupload-limited Wells, J. . (2017). Copyright infringement - an overview. Retrieved from https://www.jaws.co.nz: https://www.jaws.co.nz/information/category/copyright/copyright-infringement-an-overview Zealand, C. C. (2017). Welcome Copyright Owners. Retrieved from https://www.copyright.org.nz: https://www.copyright.org.nz/owners.php