Megaupload Fights Feds to Save Customers' Data

When authorities shut-down the Web’s most popular file-sharing site last month, the impact was felt by more than just the entertainment biz execs who said that the industry suffered $500 million in lost profits.

Roughly 150 million account holders were left in the dark by the closing of Megaupload. 

The shutting down of the site and the subsequent imprisonment of its founder might make some sharers of illegal materials think twice about pirating music and movies. Being the biggest file hosting site of its kind on the Web, however, Megaupload provided legitimate services to clients with paid accounts that have since suffered as well.

At one point Megaupload was among the top-20 most popular sites on the Web, and operated in part by selling subscriptions to users so that they’d be able to use the site as a storage locker of sorts for their own material. As authorities paint the federal crack-down of Megaupload and indictment of founder Kim Dotcom as a step in thwarting piracy, legitimate users of the site have been unable to access their content nearly three weeks after the shut-down of the site. With potentially billions of personal files any moment away from permanent purging, the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that they will fight to help users once again be able to access their own data.

A Financial System Built to Fail - Capital Account with Karl Denninger

Remember the financial crisis? Remember september 2008? Remember Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke? Remember George Bush and Nancy Pelosi? Remember how they all told us that this was a once in a life-time event -- a once-in-a-century calamity -- and that after the crisis' immediate dangers were addressed, that the underlying causes would be tackled immediately? It's been more than three years since then, and we never cleaned up the mess. Now we are seeing the consequences.

Bill Still Report: Fort Knox

www.Still2012.com. The History Channel -- "H2" -- filmed a segment with Bill Still just before Christmas on the missing gold from Fort Knox. It will run on H2 this Saturday, Feb. 4 at 10 pm Eastern, 9 pm Central. Source

The Historical Case For $960 Silver

Taxpayer-Funded Freddie Mac Caught Betting Billions Against Struggling American Homeowners

As homeowners across the nation struggle to keep up with mortgage payments—and in the worse cases face foreclosure—a new investigation reveals that taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, Freddie Mac, made multi-billion-dollar investments that profited if borrowers stayed stuck in high-interest mortgages. Freddie Mac began increasing these investments dramatically in late 2010, at the same time it was making it harder for homeowners to get out of such mortgages. Several U.S. lawmakers and prominent economists are now calling for Congress and the White House to end this financial conflict of interest. This comes just one week after President Obama promised "no more red tape" for homeowners looking to refinance. We speak with Jesse Eisinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior reporter at ProPublica, who co-authored the investigative report with NPR news. [includes rush transcript]

‘Syria on its knees – prelude to NATO invading Iran’

The idea of the Syrian opposition dancing to a foreign tune has been floated by John R. Bradley, author of the book, After the Arab Spring. He says NATO members are committed to toppling the regime and will make Iran their next target.

Calls to stop Syria 'killing machine' at UN as Russia, China slam sanctions

A major diplomatic battle over the fate of Syria has begun at the United Nations, with Russia and China the only permanent Security Council members challenging the UN's right to ‘meddle’ in sovereign states’ internal problems.

Israel’s call for loyalty alienates American Jews

An ad campaign in the US paid for by the Israeli government has left many Jewish Americans feeling insulted. The commercials, designed to encourage Israeli Jews to return to their roots, seem to have done more harm than good.

Bitter cold records broken in Alaska – all time coldest record nearly broken, but Murphy’s Law intervenes

by Anthony Watts: Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80°F set in 1971, which is not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States. Unfortunately, it seems the battery died in the weather station just at the critical moment.
While the continental USA has a mild winter and has set a number of high temperature records in the last week and pundits ponder whether they will be blaming the dreaded “global warming” for those temperatures, Alaska and Canada have been suffering through some of the coldest temperatures on record during the last week.

Breaking News Ellis Martin Report with Jim Sinclair

In this unedited interview with Ellis Martin, Jim Sinclair reveals an impending undeclared default of 5 major US banks this week per the ISDA International Swaps and Derivatives Association related to events in Europe. Listen and learn. Links>>

New Greek Proposal Even Greater Creditor Losses and Officials Attack EU and IMF as Debt Talks Stall

Greek officials launched a vociferous behind the scenes attack on European Union and International Monetary Fund negotiators as talks in Athens over the country's mounting debts appeared to stall.

Prime minister Lucas Papademos told aides that a crisis meeting of party leaders would be called as early as Thursday to thrash out a response to an increasingly intransigent negotiating team sent by Brussels, which is demanding severe austerity measures before sanctioning a further €130bn (£109bn) of bailout funds.

Papademos, the economist temporarily heading a transition government in Athens, wants party leaders backing his administration to make further concessions to bring talks to a swift end.

Papademos and his team of aides returned in sombre mood on Tuesday from a round of talks in Brussels and Frankfurt at the offices of the European Central Bank (ECB), despite relief that a German proposal to install an EU commissioner in Athens, with special oversight of Greek finances, had been quashed.

One aide said: "All round there is an understanding that the situation is quite dramatic. Our discussions in Brussels were tough and honest with things being laid out in an austere manner.

"We understand how difficult it is for MPs who are now faced with the hard option of voting through another round of austerity measures but the stakes are very high and one of our greatest concerns is that they don't understand just how high they are."

'Greek citizens disapprove bailout terms'

A prominent political analyst says the Greek government is planning for a new EU bailout despite citizens' objections to its likely payback scenario. Press TV has conducted an interview with Ian Williams from Foreign Policy in Focus to further discuss the issue. Source/UK banned Press TV