Thug Life Army

Federal prosecutors say data from users of Megaupload could be deleted as soon as Thursday.

U.S. prosecutors blocked access to Megaupload and charged seven men, saying the site facilitated millions of illegal downloads of movies, music and other content.

The company says its millions of users stored their own data, including family photos and personal documents. They haven't been able to see their data since the government raids earlier this month, but there has been hope would be able to get it back.

Megaupload hires outside companies to store the data, for a fee. But Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken said Sunday that the government has frozen its money.

A letter filed in the case Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said storage companies Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc. may begin deleting data Thursday. Spokespersons for the two companies and for the U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to messages Sunday night.

The letter said the government copied some data from the servers but did not physically take them. It said that now that it has executed its search warrants, it has no right to access the data. The servers are controlled by Carpathia and Cogent and issues about the future of the data must be resolved with them, prosecutors said.

Rothken said the company is working with prosecutors to try to keep the data from being erased. He said at least 50 million Megaupload users have data in danger of being erased.

Rothken said that, besides its customers, the data is important to Megaupload so it can defend itself in the legal case.

"We're cautiously optimistic at this point that because the United States, as well as Megaupload, should have a common desire to protect consumers, that this type of agreement will get done," he said.

Megaupload is based in Hong Kong. U.S. authorities said they had authority to act because some of its leased servers are in Virginia.

We all know money matters and some might say it helps increase power. I happen to believe that money matters everywhere in society even at its lowest level. It affects the type of food you can afford to buy; the type of cloths and maybe even the home you live in. Sometimes I wonder why if money matters to virtually everyone, it is only vaguely understood? Money has a rich history around the world and knowing the power of money is as important if not more important than making the money.

Today there are not many things money cannot buy, this is to include people. If we were to go way back to the days of slavery, we could see how money was a deciding factor in the fate of many innocent people. One should ask, what is the true essence of our democracy? I am inclined to believe that it must include the luxurious history of money and power. This brings me to my broader question of power and money.

When looking at the rising cost of everything from eggs to the energy we consume, at what point does the public become outraged? The Poetic Justice of not fully understanding money is to not value the influence it has on our everyday lives. When ordinary families are making decisions on things like gas for their vehicles or food for the family, there is a fundamental flaw in our Democracy. Have we relinquished our freedom to a particular group as if we were initiated in a gang?

Are we just following rules and behaviors of the masses to avoid the feeling of being an outcast? Is it not bad enough that in small towns and some larger cites all across America business are being forced to close their doors? Is this a new America, where groups who yield power and influence keep all the money to themselves? I am proposing these questions in my ongoing effort to characterize the current state of our Democracy. Today Corporations to include the rich seem to be driven by the same ideologies of gangs such as the Bloods and Crips.

If you fully understood the history of gangs, it would be easier to recognize the similarities. For starters this country was founded on the principles of gang affiliation. In theory we still have gangs running our country today to the likes of Demarcates and Republican. Some would even argue the police department and other government agencies should be implicated in this characterization. Gangs became more popular and mainstream when they began to organize. Today gangs are only synonymous with youth and illegal activities such as street crimes.

Considering the history of gangs, this loose association to our youth is feeding the mis-information machine. Gangs can be positive and they are not always ill intended, just look at Corporations. I took the liberty to look up the definition of both gangs and corporations to be fair. The Free Dictionary defines gangs as a group of criminals or hoodlums who band together for mutual protection and profit. While it defines Corporations as a group of people combined into or acting as one body for profit.

With just these two definitions alone one could see how strikingly similar Corporations are to Gangs. Both seem to have similar purpose, which is to form a group for mutual protection and often time profit. What you rarely hear about is the types of power that comes from forming these groups. One might argue if Corporations can exercise human rights violations against individuals, there really isn’t a difference from street crime and white collar crime. The question we should all be asking is what principles define a strong democracy and can we continue to forfeit power over to groups who may not be working in the best interest of America. After all if Freedom is truly what we all seek then forming groups is in direct assault to that principle, right?