in Check It Out, Follow-Up, Politics

Why Did the Feds Target Megaupload? And Why Now?

Gizmodo points out the obvious: if the US DOJ can bust Megaupload in New Zealand, why does it need SOPA/PIPA?

The feds—those tasked as intellectual property sentinels in particular—want more power to kill sites like Megaupload. It looks like they’re not going to get their way through legislation, so setting a prominent target ablaze in a very public and dramatic manner is a great screw you to SOPA’s foes.

If that’s the case, the Department of Justice should be gagging on irony: their swift destruction of Megaupload sans SOPA proves how gratuitous the bill was in the first place. This week has been the week of copyright warfare, but the decision to nuke the king copyright violator so spectacularly only goes to show how little the feds need bigger bombs.

via Why Did the Feds Target Megaupload? And Why Now?.