pezus said:
This wasn't just any website and certainly not a US one. What gives them the right to pull down a foreign website? |
Well, technically it wasn't a foreign website. It was a US website. Any Internet domain with the .COM, .NET, .ORG, or .GOV is a US-based website.
The US Government forecasted its intentions some time ago and stated that it would consider any US registered website bound by US law because legally speaking those sites are doing business in the US. Even individuals are bound by international law or for US citizens another state's laws when the servers are located in another country or state. The only difference is that the US government said, if you're using a US registrar for your domain, which the ICANN is the US registrar of domains, then you're going to be subject to US law. As well, the US government acted on this threat previously, which for any foreign company whose operations were not fully on the up and up might have wanted to consider moving their domain to a local registrar. For MegaUplodad it would have meant an .HK domain.
So, that's the legal loophole the US government used to go after MegaUpload once it discovered what was going on. And if I recall correctly, this all happened because MegaUpload shined a big, bright light on their competition, suggesting what other companies were up to.
As far as criminals go, they were arrogant and stupid, which is a bad combination for a someone doing something illegal.
