Quote - Megaupload (and other file sharing sites) do provide an invaluable service to everyone on the net. Tink about all the hosted pirated poser content.

Fixed this for you..

C'mon, there was ample evidence in the form of company emails indicating that the staff at MU were well aware of the fact the majority of their income was being derived from illegal distribution of copyrighted material.

I've had to deal with MU's DCMA reporting system countless times this past year and although they do tear down files within 24-48 hours they did not appear very effective at banning the uploader as they would simply reload the file (renamed, of course) 24 hours later.  Considering that the vast majority of uploaders are doing it for the money that the file hosters pay them for each download it would be very easy for file hosters to perma-ban someone who continually violates copyrights.

After all, the file hoster would have personal identifying information for people they are paying such as a paypal address, yet they still chose to turn a blind eye and let the user continue to upload pirated content, like many other file hosters (who are all sweating bullets right now).

Don't be surprised if the authorities go to the length of auditing the data on the seized MU servers and starts going after the uploaders themselves.  Word of advice; if you've got illegal content on any file hoster still standing you'd probably want to take the time to delete it before they too get taken down.  Otherwise, you may find your local law enforcement knocking at your door some time in the near future.

PIPA and SOPA needn't have been devised if these sorts of legal actions had been taking place all along.  If you don't want to police yourself, then expect someone to do it for you.