Tech FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy - The Takedown of MegaUpload

[Sexy Beast]

WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down Thursday one of the world's most popular file-sharing websites, MegaUpload.com, and announced the arrest of four of the people behind it in a global crackdown against the suspected online pirates.



The FBI's move pushed the raging piracy debate to new territory: the role of online 'lockers' where users around the world store and share material, often times pirated movies and music. The raid came a day after Washington lawmakers were besieged by complaints about legislation designed to crack down on offshore file-sharing services. Internet sites like Wikipedia and Google Inc. protested the legislation as censorship.


MegaUpload, which is based in Hong Kong and was knocked offline Thursday, claimed it had 50 million daily users. The site lets individuals upload files—anything from a document to a digital movie—and provide Internet links that other individuals can use to download a copy. It charges for memberships that give users faster and unlimited amounts of transfers.

Lawyers for MegaUpload couldn't immediately be reached.

The fight escalated late Thursday, when the Anonymous hacker collective said that it had shut down the U.S. Justice Department's website in retaliation for the government's shutdown of MegaUpload. The claim could not be immediately verified, but the Justice Department's home page was having trouble loading Thursday evening.

"The government takes down Megaupload? 15 minutes later Anonymous takes down government and record label sites,'' read the tweet from YourAnonNews, a twitter account linked to Anonymous.

A Justice Department official did not immediately comment.

Seven people have been charged with online piracy crimes in an indictment unsealed in Northern Virginia. Four of those suspects, including the site's alleged founder and senior executives, are already in custody, authorities said.

The four were arrested in New Zealand. Federal agents and other law enforcement agencies simultaneously moved to search bank records and server farms in multiple locations around the globe, authorities said. The charges include conspiracy to commit racketeering and criminal copyright infringement.

MegaUpload.com is already engaged in a legal fight with Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group over a promotional video featuring some UMG artists, including Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, Kim Kardashian and others. Universal filed a lawsuit to have the video removed from YouTube saying the video violated its copyrights.

The site's chief executive has been reported to be music producer Swizz Beatz, whose real name is Kaseem Dean and who is the spouse of Alicia Keys. Mr. Dean wasn't named in the indictment. A spokeswoman for Everest Entertainment, which is distributing an coming album by Swizz Beatz, had no immediate comment.

On a "frequently asked questions'' section of the website, MegaUpload acknowledges that some have criticized its practices, but insists it is an aboveboard business. "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,'' the website reads in part.

The Justice Department paints a different picture.

According to the indictment, MegaUpload is responsible for at least $500 million in losses for the owners of the copyrights in question. The indictment calls the company "a world-wide criminal organization whose members engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scale.''

Investigators estimate that MegaUpload's piracy business has earned them more than $175 million, according to the indictment.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204616504577171060611948408.html
Poor, poor Megaupload .

 

[Linnaete]

I can't say I use Megaupload, but it's worrying that the FBI can take down something that's based on the other side of the world, let alone beyond the US's borders and jurisdiction. The fact that this has happened without SOPA and PIPA even passing is just as worrying.

In fact, this entire internet wars episode describes one thing: American democracy is a sham if big, powerful corporations can have such an influence while elected officials dance along to their tune. You want to get rid of piracy entirely? You may as well shut off the internet, as people will find loopholes and other measures eventually. And I don't quite think many people would want that.

Anonymous going berserk in retaliation though, may just be as counterproductive, for it can just encourage its opponents to introduce tougher crackdown measures. It's like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

It's quite depressing since I download all my music, albeit not from Megaupload. This will just be a start, sending out the warning signals to all other uploading sites. That said, if that one site alone has caused losses of half a billion dollars then it was only a matter of time and in reality, deserved. The overall figure for all pirating sites must be huge. It's pretty basic law that the wrongdoer cannot profit from the losses of the wronged which is a bigger motive to those pursuing claims rather than the actual loss.

Group Anon are just a bunch of geeky dickheads who have absolutely no concept of reality. The sort of cunts that support Julian Assange for leaking secret and confidential information that put soldiers' lives at risk and hacking major credit card companies exposing personal and account information just waiting to be exploited causing huge losses to families simply for 'freedom of expression'. Complete and utter morons, all of them. I'd love to see them all take a bullet to the head.

 

[Steve-O]

it pretty scary that the us government can do this WITHOUT having SOPA and PIPA helping them, i didn't even know the us government had that kind of power to take down a site that over the other side of the world it just crazy, MEGAUPLOAD wasn't even like that because like they took anything down that was against piracy and copyright laws. also, the FBI arrested the Graphic designer, yes the FBI arrested the god dam graphic designer, why the hell did they have to do that. I agree that copyright laws and piracy has to be tackled, but this was just far over the top

but god, this has started a internet war, the group anonymous are going for it, their already taken down like 7 sites.. including universal music and BMI Music http://www.pcworld.com/article/2484..._takedown_knocks_mpaa_riaa_sites_offline.html

 

[ribbit]

Well they didn't necessarily take everything down that was illegal, but they tried. They can only do so much, what with thousands of files uploaded a day and only so many people actually working there. They can't really be blamed for what users upload.