File-Sharing Site MegaUpload Indicted for Internet Piracy, Shut Down by US - johnsonfrowleall

File-Sharing Site MegaUpload.com Indicted for Internet Piracy; Shut Down by U.S. Officials

MegaUpload.com, one of the Internet's known file-sharing sites, was shuttered by federal officials Thursday. Additionally, give way Kim Dotcom (formerly Kim Schmitz) and three early executives connected to the nurture company MegaUpload Limited were arrested in New Zealand.

The hacker collective Unnamed appeared to respond to the government's carry through by taking down several high-profile sites with a quickly coordinated distributed-denial-of-service attack, operating theatre DDoS onset.

Anonymous logo

As of Thursday afternoon, Anonymous seemed to receive shut down the websites for the RIAA, the MPAA, Universal Music Group, and even the U.S. Right of first publication Berth. The timing of the indictment almost surely fanned the flames of Anonymous's anger, coming just one solar day after the mathematical group participated in a nationwide protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which the group had vigorously conflicting for months.

[Learn: Were SOPA/PIPA Protests a Success?]

A 72-Page bill of indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.), charges MegaUpload.com with conspiracy to commit racketeering, copyright misdemeanor, and money laundering, among other charges affined with illegal use of copyrighted materials. The bill of indictment was signed by U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia. Some of MegaUpload.com's servers reportedly are in Chromatic, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District.

A statement from the FBI calls the action "among the largest criminal right of first publication cases ever brought by the Coalesced States and directly targets the misuse of a national happy storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellect property crime."

More Details

The indictment alleges that the criminal enterprisingness is LED by Dotcom and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand. Northern statements say that Dotcom founded MegaUpload Limited and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has served to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites.

The FBI statement says that the following people also were charged in the bill of indictment:

Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Federal Republic 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 growing;
Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Deutschland and a resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, cofounder, and director;
Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and a resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software naval division;
Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and a resident of some Netherlands and New Seeland, who oversees computer programing and the inherent web structure for the Mega websites.

Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann, and van der Kolk were arrested Thursday in New Seeland.

The indictment calls MegaUpload.com "a commercial web site and service…that reproduces and distributes copies of popular copyrighted content concluded the Internet without authorization." The indictment also says that employees and organizations attached with MegaUpload were part of a "Mega Confederacy."

The indictment estimates that the infringements cost copyright holders adequate to $500 trillion in amends, while the keep company and its leaders reported incomes of more than $175 zillion. It also states: "The site claims to have had more than one billion visitors in its history, more 180,000,000 registered users to date, an common of 350 zillion day-to-day visits, and to write u for more or less four percent of the gross dealings on the Internet."

Background

According to the indictment, MegaUpload.com, established around 2005, was at 1 point the 13th-most-visited place happening the Cyberspace, and accounted for vast amounts of Internet traffic equally users uploaded and downloaded euphony, movies, books, video games, and computer software. The site was unique among file-share-out sites in that it had the support of several high up-profile celebrities (Kanye Westmost and Will.i.am, among others, appeared in a MegaUpload video posted on YouTube). Users have also viewed the site in the main as a mode of sending files that are to a fault with child to be sent by e-mail.

The indictment states that the incomes the company's executives made came primarily from advertising revenues and "premium subscriptions" purchased by heavy users of the MegaUpload service. "In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides the debauched reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of proprietary works from its computer servers located around the world," prosecutors claim.

The bill of indictment of MegaUpload Constricted cites respective movies available for free on MegaUpload.com–ranging from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to Twilight Saga: Breakage Get across-Part 1–and gives the localization of the servers from which the movies were ready-made publically available.

MegaUpload.com's bill of indictment comes at a time when Congress is debating stricter copyright infringement laws, in the form of the Stop Online Piracy Routine (SOPA) in the Mansion and the Protect IP Act (Genus Pipa) in the Senate.

[Take: SOPA and PIPA: Just the Facts]

The Associated Press reports that ahead the site was condemned down, MegaUpload.com posted a statement locution that allegations of piracy were "grotesquely overblown."