MegaUpload Shut Down

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Published on 01-19-2012 08:16 PM

26 Comments

The filesharing site Megaupload.com has been taken down by the FBI as the Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging seven people associated with the site. The 72-page indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury in Virginia on January 5, charges the seven people, including Megaupload's founders Kim Dotcom and Mathias Ortman, with conspiracy.

Four of the people named—including Dotcom Ortmann, Megaupload.com chief marketing officer Finn Batao, and developer Bram van der Kolk—are in custody, arrested in New Zealand today, according to the FBI. The FBI worked with authorities from New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, the UK and the Phillipines, and in concert with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the case.

The indictment charges that the "Mega conspiracy" has for more than five years operated websites that willfully distributed pirated movies, often before their theatrical release, and other illegal copies of copyrighted works, earning the company over $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue.

Megaupload is also charged with money laundering by paying uploaders through an "uploader reward program," and paying other companies to host the pirated content.

As of the afternoon of January 19, the site for Megaupload.com had not been redirected, and requests simply timed out. Ars will provide additional coverage as details develop.

FBI Press Release

Categories:
FileSharing

26 Comments

predateur - 01-22-2012, 10:59 PM
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Filesonic is dead too (anyway ...for sharing)

IdolEyes787 - 01-23-2012, 12:25 AM
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Originally Posted by SonsOfLiberty

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/0...w-domain-name/

Originally Posted by LAMOVIDA

Anonymous save us from the devil

You see one thing I see another.

8hobo8 - 01-23-2012, 06:53 AM
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fun fact

today's banner

http://www.megaupload.com/banner.jpg

yesterdays banner

http://s3.amazonaws.com/usdoj/banner.jpg

seedprick - 01-23-2012, 11:37 AM
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more misuse of the american taxpayers dollars at work. We all know these kind of activities will never stop or even slow down file sharing. It's kinda like the millions the gov't spends on stopping Marijuana from coming in through the Mexican border. When 90% of the stuff in the states came from California or is homegrown.

IdolEyes787 - 01-23-2012, 01:31 PM
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So in defense of a highly profitable business of questionable ethics Anonymous unilaterally decides to put the security of thousands of innocents at risk.Again who are the real villains here?
I'm all for "Fight the Power" but this is just more childish muscle flexing.The U.N.?Want to do something really brave?How about fighting the Russian mob or something?

Snee - 01-25-2012, 08:14 PM
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@idle: Missed that clip, and can't access it now, but wasn't this just operation Avenge Lasagna or whatever mkII? IE using LOIC to shutdown a few sites related to the industry and/or government? Not exactly the crime of the century if so.

I'd like it if it had any positive effects at all, but it'll probably make the reactionary fuckwits running the show get even more entrenched in their foxholes of stalwart ignorance towards the intricacies and workings of any technology introduced after the eighties.

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And if Megaupload really did make as much money as they say, why in the world haven't UMG or someone tried running their own filehosting service allowing personal backups and approved media? Given how much money MegaUpload are supposed to have made off subscriptions and advertisements, I don't understand why they aren't trying. They could make money from any old dodgy rips off of their own stuff, and legally.

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And lastly:

Originally Posted by MASSIVEENTITY

Rapidshare —-> Eliminated

Wat?