The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[Vena]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I think it's actually pessimistic. They've got a century to accomplish a very loosely defined goal. They just have to get nanotech to help in some kind of medical treatment (any kind of medical treatment, from cancer cure to diet to erectile dysfunction) and declare victory.

Nano-science/medication already exists by even the most stringent of definitions and has been proven at least partly successful or more successful than contemporary counter parts (its largely being held back by price of manufacturing). The issue is that nanotechnology is a misnomer that drives people to think about nanomachines of some sort, which does not exist because of physical limitations (microtechnology is a valid and real field). Nano-medication, nano-delivery, nano-a lot of things, already exists and has been either tested rigorously or has started to flow into practical applications like cancer treatment, therapy, and the like. So there's no prediction to be had if this is what they were talking about because it already exists. Predicting whether or not it will become common place is tantamount to predicting that the sun will rise in the morning.

[Ithekro]

Applied "Nano" Techology

Is this showing that it is, or is not, idiot proof?

(Had to do it)

Though in truth "nano" is just a metric prefix for one billionth of something. A messure of the very small.

[Kyuu]

So long Megaupload:

Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site's founder have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

Investigators denied a link to recent protests against proposed piracy laws, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US Justice Department said that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369

Despite all the SOPA stuff that has happened in recent days... this case - implying from the rest of the article -- was done in due-process. That's fine.

Investigation? Check.
Search warrant? Check.
Grounds for arrest and shut down? Check.

OK, good job government.

[Paranoid Android]

Jesus, what? O___O

[Darkbeat]

Oh dear...

Didn't see this coming.

Mediafire and Rapidshare next?

EDIT: It's the ennnnnd of the Internet as we know it! (and I'm just fine)

[Paranoid Android]

Originally Posted by Darkbeat

EDIT: It's the ennnnnd of the Internet as we know it! (and I'm just fine)

It's gonna take a couple of months before you really feel that pain and realize there's a huge gaping hole in just about everything your 21st century lifestyle depends on and leaves you as nothing but an incompetent and lost man in an ocean of chaos with the other 4 billion internet users. Then you would collapse to your knees and stare up at the unforgiving pale ceiling and wonder how it came to this. God ain't taking back no lemons.

I am not sure what I just wrote.

[gecd]

so...is this the first strike from goverment for protesting SOPA?

[Dhomochevsky]

Or you just switch to one of the 500 other download platforms.
Everything worthwhile is mirrored over several of them anyway.

To be fair, I never understood how they get away with openly hosting warez and such stuff, while other sites get into trouble just linking to something like that...

[Paranoid Android]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

Or you just switch to one of the 500 other download platforms.
Everything worthwhile is mirrored over several of them anyway.

To be fair, I never understood how they get away with openly hosting warez and such stuff, while other sites get into trouble just linking to something like that...

I know eh? How on earth is isohunt and piratebay still operating? LOL. But that's not the point that megaupload is shut down. But that the law enforcers just proved they can take such massive file sharing websites down with ridiculous claims. That makes me feel like everything else is just lined up on their hitlist.

Seriously, Megaupload doesn't even support piracy, nor is it doing the pirating. It's the people that upload illegal content that's breaking the law. Yet that's enough to take down the medium of piracy.

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by Paranoid Android

Seriously, Megaupload doesn't even support piracy, nor is it doing the pirating. It's the people that upload illegal content that's breaking the law. Yet that's enough to take down the medium of piracy.

Consider YouTube... which is choke full of... well... random stuff, included copyrighted stuff. YouTube complies because there exists a policy to remove such material. Sure, it's impossible to remove them all or outright prevent the uploading of copyrighted material. BUT, the policy to remove exists; and it is actively executed, as demonstrated by videos removed upon the complaint of particular copyright holders.

[Dhomochevsky]

Originally Posted by Paranoid Android

I know eh? How on earth is isohunt and piratebay still operating? LOL. But that's not the point that megaupload is shut down. But that the law enforcers just proved they can take such massive file sharing websites down with ridiculous claims. That makes me feel like everything else is just lined up on their hitlist.

Seriously, Megaupload doesn't even support piracy, nor is it doing the pirating. It's the people that upload illegal content that's breaking the law. Yet that's enough to take down the medium of piracy.

Torrentsites don't host any files other than torrents. That should be ok.

Megaupload on the other hand has all the compromising stuff on their servers and readily offers it to everyone. The whole reason why P2P became so big was, that you could share things no one would ever put on a webserver, out of fear of getting in trouble.
And then those one click hosters popped up everywhere. Really, I still don't understand the concept that makes them work.

[RRW]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

Or you just switch to one of the 500 other download platforms.
Everything worthwhile is mirrored over several of them anyway.

well this include megavideo which where most anime (especially old one) is stored and a doubt most of them get mirrored

[Vena]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

Consider YouTube... which is choke full of... well... random stuff, included copyrighted stuff. YouTube complies because there exists a policy to remove such material. Sure, it's impossible to remove them all or outright prevent the uploading of copyrighted material. BUT, the policy to remove exists; and it is actively executed, as demonstrated by videos removed upon the complaint of particular copyright holders.

I thought megaupload had that same policy and, in fact, enforced it?

[Tempester]

Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

Okay, that's it. I was worried and annoyed by this SOPA trash before, but now I've gone livid with rage. It's very, very unfair to simply shut down the website without any notice. What about all the people who have been using Megaupload for legal purposes, such as backing up important files and documents? Is that information going to be lost forever now?

Hopefully this will serve as (yet) another wake-up call to American citizens, to give this proof of what to expect if the SOPA does pass.

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by Vena

I thought megaupload had that same policy and, in fact, enforced it?

Even if there's a policy to remove...

The individuals and two corporations – Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited – were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 5, 2012, and charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/J...2-crm-074.html

Well... there's the indictment. And looking at that list... there's more than just "piracy".

The indictment states that the conspirators conducted their illegal operation using a business model expressly designed to promote uploading of the most popular copyrighted works for many millions of users to download.

Even if there's a policy to remove... there's promoting the act of uploading copyrighted material...

[Dhomochevsky]

I am wondering what a "a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia" has to say in this case.
None of the suspects are american citizens and most likely were not based in the U.S. either.

[Darkbeat]

That being the case, then perhaps it will be Mediafire, Rapidshare and others next. There was nothing particularly unique in Megaupload's case, only that they are the biggest.

[Vena]

Originally Posted by Darkbeat

That being the case, then perhaps it will be Mediafire, Rapidshare and others next. There was nothing particularly unique in Megaupload's case, only that they are the biggest.

Rapidshare was deemed legal by US and European courts... so that'd be a hard one to pull off.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

Torrentsites don't host any files other than torrents. That should be ok.

Megaupload on the other hand has all the compromising stuff on their servers and readily offers it to everyone. The whole reason why P2P became so big was, that you could share things no one would ever put on a webserver, out of fear of getting in trouble.
And then those one click hosters popped up everywhere. Really, I still don't understand the concept that makes them work.

The concept is "they're easier to use than torrents". No need for a specialized client, no need for a good upload deal with your ISP. There's also increased surveillance on P2P exchanges that doesn't exist on direct downloads (depending on legislation, I guess?).

[Dhomochevsky]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

The concept is "they're easier to use than torrents". No need for a specialized client, no need for a good upload deal with your ISP. There's also increased surveillance on P2P exchanges that doesn't exist on direct downloads (depending on legislation, I guess?).

You did not get my point.
A long time ago, people stopped distributing files via webservers. It was too dangerous to actually have those files on a server (for the serverowner!). That was when p2p took over. At that time (and I'm talking at least 10 years ago) everyone 'knew' the time of direct download was over for good (for warez that is...).
At that time, finding a ddl link to anything suspicious was hard work.
It usually involved going through long lists of mirrors and trying all sorts of ftp logins, to check if any of them still worked.
Do you think no one ever had the idea of setting up a server and having others upload data? That excuse did not fly with the prosecutioners. The only servers unlucky enough to have it happen to them were occupied against their owner's will.
Which is why those links were only viable for a short time.

Anyway ddl was a pretty rare thing for quite some time.

Then we got Megaupload and the like and suddenly hosting all that stuff became legally ok (again: for the serverowners). Today you can find links to warez plastered all over the net and most of them work. They all go to one-click-hosters. These sites did not get into trouble (until now), which kind of begs the question what was happening before?