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[magic]

Popular file-sharing website Megaupload shut down

McLEAN, Virginia – One of the world's most popular file-sharing sites was shut down, and its founder and several company officials were accused of facilitating millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content.

A federal indictment Thursday accused Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to make it easier for authorities to go after sites with pirated material, especially those with overseas headquarters and servers.

The news of the shutdown seemed to bring retaliation from hackers who claimed credit for attacking the Justice Department's website. Federal officials confirmed it was down Thursday evening and that the disruption was being "treated as a malicious act."

A loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" claimed credit for the attack. Also hacked was the site for the Motion Picture Association of America and perhaps others.

Megaupload is based in Hong Kong, but some of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va., which gave federal authorities jurisdiction, the indictment said.

The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, 37, and three other employees were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Three other defendants are at large.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that, "This kind of application of international criminal procedures to Internet policy issues sets a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?"

Before Megaupload was taken down, it posted a statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were "grotesquely overblown."

"The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the DOJ said its web server for justice.gov was "experiencing a significant increase in activity, resulting in a degradation in service." It was working to fix it and "investigate the origins of this activity, which is being treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause of the disruption," the agency's statement said.

A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America said in an emailed statement that the group's site had been hacked, although it appeared to be working later in the evening.

"The motion picture and television industry has always been a strong supporter of free speech," the spokesman said. "We strongly condemn any attempts to silence any groups or individuals."

Megaupload was unique not only because of its massive size and the volume of downloaded content, but also because it had high-profile support from celebrities, musicians and other content producers who are most often the victims of copyright infringement and piracy. Before the website was taken down, it contained endorsements from Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keys and Kanye West, among others.

The company listed Swizz Beatz, a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO. He was not named in the indictment and declined to comment through a representative.

According to the indictment, Megaupload was estimated at one point to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet. Current estimates by companies that monitor Web traffic place it in the top 100.

The five-count indictment, which alleges copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering, described a site designed specifically to reward users who uploaded pirated content for sharing, and turned a blind eye to requests from copyright holders to remove copyright-protected files.

For instance, users received cash bonuses if they uploaded content popular enough to generate massive numbers of downloads, according to the indictment. Such content was almost always copyright protected.

The site boasted 150 million registered users and about 50 million hits daily. The Justice Department said it was illegal for anyone to download pirated content, but their investigation focused on the leaders of the company, not end users who may have downloaded a few movies for personal viewing.

A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined comment Thursday. Efforts to reach an attorney representing Dotcom were unsuccessful.

Megaupload is considered a "cyberlocker," in which users can upload and transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, estimated that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.

The website allowed users to download some content for free, but made money by charging subscriptions to people who wanted access to faster download speeds or extra content. The website also sold advertising.

The indictment was returned in the Eastern District of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction in part because some of the alleged pirated materials were hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va. Prosecutors there have pursued multiple piracy investigations.

Steven T. Shelton, a copyright lawyer at the Cozen O'Connor firm in New York, said opponents of the legislation are worried the proposals lessen the burden for the government to target a wide variety of websites. Shelton said he expects to see the government engage in more enforcement in the future, as technology makes it easier to catch and target suspected pirates.

"I think we'll be seeing more of this," he said. "This is just the beginning."

Dotcom, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany, made more than $42 million from the site in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.

Dotcom had his name legally changed. He was previously known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor. He is founder, former CEO and current chief innovation officer of Megaupload.

Officials estimated it could be a year or more before Dotcom and the others arrested in New Zealand are formally extradited.

The others arrested were Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, the company's chief marketing officer; 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; and Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming.

Still at large are Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, the site's graphic designer; Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, head of business development; and Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, head of the development software division.

Several sister sites were also shut down, including one dedicated to sharing pornography files.


http://www.usatoday....down/52678528/1

[magic]

That is not good. I used that site for larger files and now it's gone

[HanabiChick]

It's hard to believe that this has happened. I rarely downloaded from this site, but it was used quite a lot in forums. For the US to be able to do this with a site hosted in another country is wrong. I completely disagree with the US wanting to police and control the whole internet when they have no clear understanding of how the internet works because it will affect everyone all over the world. Before you judge something or try to control it you should learn what you can instead of just slamming what you don't understand. If you're not willing to do something other than target sites and bully people then the problems will continue. Another site will be set up like this and replace it, and the whole thing will happen all over again.

[Sharon007]

I would often download films from there site and so surprised it was shut down. Also something else happened this week with wikipedia, google and twitter. Its a bad day when these sites close.

Btw did you know that the guy who invented the internet didnt get ant money from it.

[magic]

Quote

I would often download films from there site and so surprised it was shut down. Also something else happened this week with wikipedia, google and twitter. Its a bad day when these sites close.

What happened with Twitter, Wikipedia and Google? They still work for me.

Quote

Btw did you know that the guy who invented the internet didnt get ant money from it.

I tried to Google who invented Internet and the answer I found was that there wasn't one person who invented it, there were many since 1961. Which one you're talking about?

[HanabiChick]

Sites like Twitter, Wikipedia and Google are against the US' SOPA bill so some sites chose to shut down on the 18th as protest to show what it could be like online if SOPA passes. Even deviantART put black thumbnails on all uploads that day because it too could be shut down if SOPA passes. If the US can shut down a site like MU, which is hosted in another country, it's scary to think of what it could do if they have SOPA or the other bill like it pass and become law. It won't be just the US that's effected by it, the whole world will be too.

[magic]

Yeah, I think it's strange that USA can shut down site outside their own country. I have no idea how can it work.

What exactly is SOPA?

I support Twitter, Wikipedia and Google then.

[soap]

magic, on 22 January 2012 - 03:47 PM, said:

Yeah, I think it's strange that USA can shut down site outside their own country. I have no idea how can it work.

What exactly is SOPA?

I support Twitter, Wikipedia and Google then.

If you read the article, it's because they were using servers based in US.

Read here about SOAP: https://www.google.c...tion/sopa-pipa/

[Sharon007]

magic, on 20 January 2012 - 10:46 PM, said:

What happened with Twitter, Wikipedia and Google? They still work for me.


I tried to Google who invented Internet and the answer I found was that there wasn't one person who invented it, there were many since 1961. Which one you're talking about?

SOPA bill shelved after global protests from Google, Wikipedia and others
Just two days after broad Web protests of the proposed anti-piracy bills known as SOPA and PIPA, lawmakers have delayed action on the measures. Hayley Tsukayama reports:

The main sponsor of a House bill targeting online piracy announced Friday that he will postpone further action on the measure that has triggered fierce protests, blackouts from Internet sites and some rethinking among lawmakers.

 Coordinated efforts to fight the proposed Stop Internet Privacy Act before Congress changed the face of the Internet on Jan. 18. Here’s a glimpse.

The action by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) on the Stop Online Piracy Act came a couple of hours after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that he would delay a cloture vote on a similar Senate bill, the Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act.

The bills are intended to narrowly address the problem of piracy on foreign Web sites. They differ slightly, but both measures grant the Justice Department the power to order Web sites to remove links to sites that are suspected of pirating copyrighted materials. Proponents of the legislation, including movie studios and recording companies, say that the bill safeguards American intellectual property and protects consumers against counterfeit goods. But opponents argue that the legislation gives the federal government too much power to take control of Web sites and amounts to a form of Internet censorship.

“I have heard from the critics, and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith said in a statement. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

The decisions came just two days after prominent Web sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit darkened their sites for 24 hours in protest and, along with others, such as Google, encouraged visitors to urge their Congress members not to support the bill. The sites collected signatures from millions of users opposed to the measures, and several co-sponsors of the measures withdrew their support of the online piracy legislation.

Smith said the House Judiciary Committee will postpone consideration of the legislation. Markup on the bill, which began in December, had been slated to continue in February.

Smith had remained firm in his resolve to move ahead with discussion of the bill earlier this week but said Friday that he is willing to work with copyright owners and Internet companies to develop a consensus on the best approach to stopping piracy on the Web.

Sen. Ron Wyden called the delays a major victory for grassroots advocacy groups. Greg Sargent writes:

In a huge victory for grassroots online organizing, the Senate Dem leadership announced this morning that it was indefinitely postponing votes on the PIPA bill — the companion to SOPA — in the wake of massive protests.

The next question: Does the Senate Dem leadership really understand that its approach was a major threat to what makes the Internet a democratic force and that it needed a complete overhaul?

I just got off the phone with Senator Ron Wyden, the primary driver of opposition to the bill within the Senate, and he confirmed that the leadership grasps the depth of the problems with its approach, and is ready to address them head on.

Source: Washington Post

I am talking about Tim Berners Lee who worked at CERN he invented the world wide web that we know today http://www.ibiblio.o...neers/lee.html. I learned this when I was studying Management Information Systems in College.

[HanabiChick]

List of other sites who are now closing or being forced to close:

http://pastebin.com/3gjTuKQS

[magic]

Latvia wants to join SOPA only in Latvia it's called ACTA. Today there were a demonstration outside of ministry building. Some signs said that once again Latvia is trying to kiss @$$ of USA.

I don't know how it happens in other countries but some ppl were wearing the famous V for Vendetta masks. Police asked those persons to take off their masks. One person was arrested cause he refused to take off his mask. I don't know how it was in USA cause I did see pics with ppl with masks in demonstrations