post by Alx_Casket at Jan 19,2012 3:35pm edited Jan 19,2012 3:35pm
aril wins again, looks like we're stuck with 128kbps rips!
McLEAN, Virginia (AP) — One of the world's largest file-sharing sites was shut down Thursday, and its founder and several company executives were charged with violating piracy laws, federal prosecutors said.
An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy.
The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Two other defendants are at large.
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 Hong Kong-based company listed Swizz Beatz, a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO.
Before the site 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.
A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined comment Thursday.
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 films, TV shows, games, music and other 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, Virginia.
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 conspiracy in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.
Dotcom is founder, former CEO and current chief innovation officer of Megaupload.
so they unleash a big anti pirating campaign against a major website the day after the internet has a blackout boycott against piracy to show all the retards who fall for this shit that sopa is a good idea after all? fuck this country.
post by RustyPS should be working at Jan 19,2012 3:46pm
It blows my mind that Swiss Beatz was their CEO, so weird
it's too bad there's not a billion other sites out there like megaupload...
one at a time. plus they only need to take one to court to be able to use that ruling in all future cases.
wait, for real? is that like the law that you can't charge a husband and wife for the same crime?
really though i guess the basis was that megaupload had leased some servers based in virginia which is how the US justice dept could come into play. i think it's different in every case.
Watch they'll try and spin that to say that the internet needs more controls, because the average person doesn't comprehend that SOPA has nothing to do with that attack. It all comes down to hacker's creed: if man can make it, man can break it.
post by Alx_Casket at Jan 19,2012 6:30pm edited Jan 19,2012 6:30pm
Justice.gov and universalmusic.com are allegedly being DDOS'd now. Too bad DDOS doesn't stop politics, just makes suits get busy. Anon is the new job creators LOL
post by Alx_Casket at Jan 23,2012 12:15am edited Jan 23,2012 12:20am
MegaUpload Closed.
FileSonic (Owns WUpload and UploadStaion) ALL Sharing disabled. Closed affiliate program. Deleting files and accounts.
FileServe Deleting multiple files. Closed affiliate program.
FileJungle (Owned by FileServe) Deleting multiple files. Testing out blocking some USA IP addresses.
UploadStation (Owned by FileSonic) Deleting multiple files. Testing out blocking some USA IP address...
MegaUpload Closed.
FileSonic (Owns WUpload and UploadStaion) ALL Sharing disabled. Closed affiliate program. Deleting files and accounts.
FileServe Deleting multiple files. Closed affiliate program.
FileJungle (Owned by FileServe) Deleting multiple files. Testing out blocking some USA IP addresses.
UploadStation (Owned by FileSonic) Deleting multiple files. Testing out blocking some USA IP address...
Angrychairs Blogspot:
Today marks the end. Mediafire deleted every one of my links. My account is empty and every post on the blog is dead. I knew something like this would happen but words cant describe it right now....
Agreed. Demonoid was awesome. I really liked that they had a huge selection of audio books, too, which make long drives a little more tolerable. What do people use now? I occasionally hit up Pirate Bay, but that's about it. I've been trying to find a decent private/invite only tracker, but haven't had much luck.
