You can't imply that all uploads generating links where done by people who were not licensed to do so.
This is why copyright is such a minefield. There is no way to know if someone has a license allowing them to do the things that they do.
I know the Youtube defense and all are beaten to death about this but they can easily find out that two videos are the same. If someone sends a take down for video 1 you say video 2 should also be taken down except it might very well have been uploaded by a legitimate licensee of the video.
If you were a betting person, would you bet that a jury will reasonably conclude that the terabytes and terabytes of copyrighted video on MegaUpload is or isn't properly licensed?
The DMCA shields service providers from criminal charges if and only if they pass three tests: (a) no internal knowledge of actual infringement (and, expeditious autonomous removal of infringing content without notice required), (b) no financial interest in infringement, and (c) responsiveness to takedowns.
While I guess we can noodle around about what a court is going to find in this case (although I think I have a spoiler for you on that), it's harder to argue that prosecutors don't have a case here that they are likely to win.
If I had to bet i'd bet on a mistrial due to an error by the prosecution.
Someone in a previous comment did a rough analysis of why it's not certain that 100% of the 25 petabytes of data on mega uploads servers was unlicensed material.
Depending on the defense skills they definitively can win this outright. You've seem to have already made your mind but you can't tell me that you are sure that they are criminally guilty of copyright infringement beyond reasonable doubt. If I was in the jury and you explained to me all the details such as safe harbor provision, DMCA take down requests and compliance... You bet I'd have some doubts. This stuff is not black or white.
I briefly considered making the same kind of statement, but keep in mind that a (ostensibly reasonable) jury awarded hundreds of thousands in damages to the RIAA in the Jammie Thomas case..
I have little to no faith in the jury system, especially where federal trials are concerned.
Did you read any of the backstory in the Thomas case? She lied under oath, deliberately destroyed evidence, attempted to blame her kids, and even then refused settlement offers. The best you can say about her is that she was the victim of legal malpractice by her defense attorneys.
What (a) means is that any evidence that establishes MegaUpload ever knew about and failed to act on infringing material is going to damn them in court. For instance, if they can establish a finding of fact that MegaUpload paid site members it knew to be infringers, or even that it targeted its promotional marketing towards other hubs of infringement on the Internet.
The DMCA isn't a computer program. That section (a) does not mean "here are the steps you must take when analyzing your logs". Think instead of a graph and a path through that graph that starts at "Kim Schmitz driving around NZ in a Veyron" and enda t "Kim Schmitz in a minimum security prison", where one path involves edges between vertices involving how much MegaUpload knew about, catered, promoted, or knowingly benefited from piracy.
I supposed that depends on what you mean by "knew to be infringers." I don't think having received a (or several, or...what is the number?) DMCA takedown concerning one's account earns someone the label, but in this context it appears to be what you're saying.
How about this: you operate a file locker service, and in an effort to encourage people to upload files that will be popular and serve as a magnet for ad revenue, you offer to pay people $1/1000 downloads if they join an affiliate program. Later, when reviewing affiliate payouts, you send an email to a coworker breaking down some of your top payouts, noting that you've paid (say) $100 to someone who uploaded "several popular DVD rips".
How do you think that one's going to play out in court?
Or, how about, you want to watch The Sopranos, or Seinfeld, so you send your team a blast email asking for links to those series on your locker site, since it surely must be there. Maybe you complain when the first links you find are in the wrong language. French, say.
How do you think that's going to go?
It is a mystery to me why copyfighters think that MegaUpload is a good case to make a stand on.
This is why copyright is such a minefield. There is no way to know if someone has a license allowing them to do the things that they do.
I know the Youtube defense and all are beaten to death about this but they can easily find out that two videos are the same. If someone sends a take down for video 1 you say video 2 should also be taken down except it might very well have been uploaded by a legitimate licensee of the video.