So what do you think - was the seize a legitimate move by the FBI? Were there in fact lines being crossed here (on either side)?
Well, I personally don't know what most of Megauploads files were, but I used it mostly for TWC downloads (it was the nicest and fastest alternative to FileFront and other ugly looking sites)... although I believe I have used sometime for some less legal things :P
What I don't like is that they have all the data from people that had accounts there, and that the fact that the owner got 50 years in prison (when a murderer and rapist gets like 20). It's plain ridiculous.
Indeed, it kind of irks me a bit that the FBI went and shut the whole site down when there are a lot of people, like us, who have legitimate files that we can't get back now.
Is the case over already?
I think that it should be possible to register a different type of company for internet companies; call them "internet user services" or something. Includes Google, Bookface, Megaupload, etc. Essentially, because these companies deal in uploaded data, they should be able to get people to sign a disclaimer saying that anything they upload is on their own head. Whilst I'm not a massive Nancy Pelosi fan, she had this one right: when you have speeding problems, you fine drivers. You don't put speed-bumps on the motorway.