MegaUpload, one of the largest file-sharing sites on the Internet, has been shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom and three others were arrested by the police in New Zealand at the request of US authorities. MegaVideo, the streaming site belonging to same company, and a total of 18 domains connected to the Mega company were seized and datacenters in three countries raided. Just a few weeks ago, MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak that his Mega ventures have nothing to worry about, as they operate within the rules of the law. “Mega has nothing to fear. Our business is legitimate and protected by the DMCA and similar laws around the world. We work with the best lawyers and play by the rules. “We take our legal obligations seriously. Mega’s war chest is full and we have strong supporters backing us,†Dotcom said. But behind the scenes powerful forces were at work, plotting the forceful demise of MegaUpload, one of the world’s biggest websites. An indictment unsealed today by the Department of Justice claims that MegaUpload has caused the entertainment industries more than $500 million in lost revenue and generated $175 million “in criminal proceeds.†Two corporations – Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited – were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on January 5th, 2012, and charged with “engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.†Today, the authorities executed in excess of 20 search warrants in the United States and eight other countries. Data centers in the Netherlands, Canada and Washington housing MegaUpload’s equipment were raided. In an apparent reference to the latter location, a source has just informed TorrentFreak that the FBI are currently detaining everyone at the ISP Cogent Communications’ headquarters in Washington DC, in connection with a Mega-related search warrant. In addition to MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom who was arrested today in New Zealand, another six alleged members of the Mega “conspiracy†were charged in the indictment: • Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the chief marketing officer; • Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, who is the graphic designer; • Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the head of business development; • Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director; • Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software division; • Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure for the Mega websites. Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested today in Auckland, New Zealand, by authorities there. Bencko, Echternach and Nomm are still at large. The authorities seized approximately $50 million in assets, which appears to include Kim Dotcom’s treasured car collection as detailed below. A total of 18 Mega-related domains were also seized by authorities including Megastuff.co, Megaworld.com, Megaclicks.co, Megastuff.info, Megaclicks.org, Megaworld.mobi, Megastuff.org, Megaclick.us, Mageclick.com, HDmegaporn.com, Megavkdeo.com, Megaupload.com, Megaupload.org, Megarotic.com, Megaclick.com, Megavideo.com, Megavideoclips.com and Megaporn.com. According to the Department of Justice, the individuals named in the indictment face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering, five years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five years in prison on each of the substantive charges of criminal copyright infringement.
Wasn't a real fan myself... a bit slow to be honest... but fuck - that's a huge hit to the industry. And imagine losing 50 million just like that.
Before the next user expresses outrage over this, it might help to take time to read the actual indictment: http://documents.latimes.com/justice-department-indictment-file-sharing-site-megaupload/ And look up the U.S.' 4th amendment on seizures. That is, if any of those asked above isn't too much to ask for.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia have shut down one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and others with violating piracy laws. The indictment accuses the company of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed Thursday, one day after websites shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs. Megaupload.com has claimed it is diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material. The indictment says at one point, Megaupload was the 13th most popular website in the world. There won’t be any file uploading to popular service Megaupload anytime soon, mega or otherwise. The site has been taken down today amidst FBI charges of criminal copyright infringement, according to the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, this has nothing to do with the latest outrage against two proposed acts, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA): Investigators said there was no connection between arrests in their two-year investigation and the political firestorm that erupted this week over a pending vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act. It was revealed today that the CEO of Megaupload is none other than Swizz Beatz, husband of popular recording artist Alicia Keys. The site is already battling multiple legal issues, and had a huge public run-in with Universal Music over a video it had posted on YouTube featuring music from some of its hottest artists. The service has gotten support from well-known artists and figures like P Diddy, Chris Brown, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Black Eyed Peas. Megaupload is a service that lets you upload and share files of any type or size, and has been accused of becoming a hotbed for the trading of copyrighted content, specifically full albums of music. The indictment referred to Megaupload as being one of the top 20 websites in the world at one point. The site is accused of causing over $500 million in lost revenue from “pirated†content such as music and movies. So far, the FBI charges consist of seven suspects that work at Megaupload, and four based in New Zealand have been apprehended already. The FBI has busted the alleged operators of Internet locker service Megaupload, which had become one of the most popular video destinations on the Web, according to a statement from the U.S. Justice Department. Seven people have been named in an indictment and that four suspects have been taken into custody. They have been charged in northern Virginia with crimes related to online piracy. In a statement issued by the U.S. Justice Department, the indictment alleges that the criminal enterprise is led by Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz, a German with a colorful history who was convicted of a felony but has repeatedly denied engaging in piracy. Along with Dotcom, Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand was also arrested. Authorities say that Dotcom founded Megaupload and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites. "This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States," the Justice department said in a statement. The arrests "directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime." In August, CNET profiled DotCom after he was sued by a **** studio and after film industry sources told me that Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had complained to law enforcement officials again that Megaupload was getting rich off of helping millions of people pirate films and TV shows.
Yeah ^^ - sooooo... aren't we all trying to make money I still can't believe that it's gone, there goes 1000's of videos from sites... 100's of 1000's of pages are gonna be hit hard... Google will have to remove millions of pages from their index... Sidereel are gonna get slapped hard for all their non functioning links... Who's next? 2012 - is gonna be a hell of a ride... Anonymous are gonna go to fkn town!!
megavideo is faster than youtube to answer DMCA, its not fair to Megaupload company, why not youtube or thepiratebay....congress are just showing off to us telling to us that they are cool, but the truth they are just a bunch of ridiculous people that trying to kill the cyber world...just like google says...Kill Piracy not Liberty
I grow weary of the MPAA and the like making shit up but there is in fact some fairly interesting claims in the indictment. Funny timing though ehh? Parts of it are frankly a tad ridiculous as well. Nigel
This is actually a serious issue, especially for those who work behind the scenes for sites such as MegaUpload. Wonder who is next.
Anonymous replied immediatly bby taking down justice.gov (back online since) and universalmusic.com (still under maintenance by the time I am writing this), MU hvae had some issues with UM, the latest taking down their channel on yourtube after complaining for infringement. would 2012 december would be the end of internet after a cyberwar?