mega upload shut down by sopa/protect ip

[Zippo]

even though its not implemented yet..!? 

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MegaUpload, one of the largest file-sharing sites on the Internet, has been shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom and three others were arrested by the police in New Zealand at the request of US authorities. MegaVideo, the streaming site belonging to same company, and a total of 18 domains connected to the Mega company were seized and datacenters in three countries raided.

Just a few weeks ago, MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak that his Mega ventures have nothing to worry about, as they operate within the rules of the law.

“Mega has nothing to fear. Our business is legitimate and protected by the DMCA and similar laws around the world. We work with the best lawyers and play by the rules.

“We take our legal obligations seriously. Mega’s war chest is full and we have strong supporters backing us,” Dotcom said.

But behind the scenes powerful forces were at work, plotting the forceful demise of MegaUpload, one of the world’s biggest websites.

An indictment unsealed today by the Department of Justice claims that MegaUpload has caused the entertainment industries more than $500 million in lost revenue and generated $175 million “in criminal proceeds.”

Two corporations – Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited – were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on January 5th, 2012, and charged with “engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.”

Today, the authorities executed in excess of 20 search warrants in the United States and eight other countries.

Data centers in the Netherlands, Canada and Washington housing MegaUpload’s equipment were raided. In an apparent reference to the latter location, a source has just informed TorrentFreak that the FBI are currently detaining everyone at the ISP Cogent Communications’ headquarters in Washington DC, in connection with a Mega-related search warrant.

In addition to MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom who was arrested today in New Zealand, another six alleged members of the Mega “conspiracy” were charged in the indictment:

- Finn Batato, 38, Mega’s chief marketing officer and a citizen and resident of Germany
- Julius Bencko, 35, Mega’s graphic designer from Slovakia
- Sven Echternach, 39,Mega’s German head of business development;
- Mathias Ortmann, 40, the German CTO, co-founder and director of Mega
- Andrus Nomm, 32, programmer and head of the development from Estonia
- Bram van der Kolk, 29, a Dutch citizen who oversaw programming and network issues.

Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested today in Auckland, New Zealand, by authorities there. Bencko, Echternach and Nomm are still at large.

The authorities seized approximately $50 million in assets, which appears to include Kim Dotcom’s treasured collection of several dozen cars, as detailed below.


A total of 18 Mega-related domains were also seized by authorities including Megastuff.co, Megaworld.com, Megaclicks.co, Megastuff.info, Megaclicks.org, Megaworld.mobi, Megastuff.org, Megaclick.us, Mageclick.com, HDmegaporn.com, Megavkdeo.com, Megaupload.com, Megaupload.org, Megarotic.com, Megaclick.com, Megavideo.com, Megavideoclips.com and Megaporn.com.

According to the Department of Justice, the individuals named in the indictment face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering, five years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five years in prison on each of the substantive charges of criminal copyright infringement.

The legal action against Mega will set a precedent for similar cloud-hosting services. The MegaUpload site itself had no search function to discover content directly, but according to the indictment this was done to “conceal the scope of its infringement.” Would the same be true for services such as Dropbox?

Breaking story, more to come.


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what, the, FUCK!?

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

Actually SOPA/PIPA had nothing to do with this, but it does raise an interesting question, WHY IN THE FUCK DO THEY NEED SOPA/PIPA if they can already do this kind of shit?

I think this propaganda move they pulled is going to backfire severely. Because now people will be asking that very question and/or be wondering what the true motivations of these bills are.

But at least this event shows us what SOPA/PIPA will allow, minus all the legal provisions, safeguards, the "innocent until proven guilty" or prior warning that would normally protect website from false allegations or user caused infringements.

It is a dark day of the internet.

[El]

Holy SHIT!  Since when do we hold executives of giant corporations legally responsible for criminal behavior??  That's fishy as FUCK.  If a bunch of people had been killed in an industrial accident caused by systemic negligence, nobody'd have been charged except maybe a couple of whipping boys near-ish the bottom of the food chain.

God, I fucking hate the world sometimes.

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

Holy SHIT!  Since when do we hold executives of giant corporations legally responsible for criminal behavior??  That's fishy as FUCK.  If a bunch of people had been killed in an industrial accident caused by systemic negligence, nobody'd have been charged except maybe a couple of whipping boys near-ish the bottom of the food chain.

God, I fucking hate the world sometimes.

When it comes to loss revenue and piracy, everyone's to blame and will be exterminated by the IP and Copyright police. Clearly it's not Entertainment industry spiralling down the shitter in terms of quality or their dinosaur stance to keeping up with the times, totally not that, it's the evil pirates arrrr, always. You mean you didn't you?

[Parts]

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

Heh, but here's something horrifying to think about, what if they took out 4chan under copyright infringement reasoning? I feel so sorry for anyone involved with that decision. The internet would explode into a full blown war, far worse than what's being seen right now.

[Parts]

Like you said even without SOPA they can do pretty much of what ever they want now.  There is a disturbing trend with a lot of laws these days not just this in that technically they can fine or arrest you at there whim for some obscure violation that is there but unenforced

[TA]

Am I the only one that thinks the government is trying to play hardball with the tech companies that blacked out yesterday?

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

Like you said even without SOPA they can do pretty much of what ever they want now.  There is a disturbing trend with a lot of laws these days not just this in that technically they can fine or arrest you at there whim for some obscure violation that is there but unenforced

Well if you think SOPA/PIPA is scary, the NDAA basically overrides the Bill of Rights and was written into law January 1st, 2012 by Obama. The U.S is officially a police state now as they can indefinitely detain, torture, even assassinate anyone foreign or domestic citizens deemed a threat to national security, considered an enemy combatant or just plain 'terrorism', without need for court approval or due process. So if you become a serious nuisance, you could be made to silently 'disappear'.

Seriously, I think something big is about to go down, because they seem determined to impose such draconian laws in such a short time frame. Probably has a bit to do with the prospect of a world war looming. A perfect opportunity to gain control over the masses. I don't know, but no sir, I don't like it.

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

Am I the only one that thinks the government is trying to play hardball with the tech companies that blacked out yesterday?

Nope, quite a few people are highly suspicious of the timing. I personally suspect it was a propaganda move to gander up support for the legislation and distract people from the opposition. Ironically though, this will likely backfire and have the opposite effect.

[Parts]

I follow most of these laws and rules while I don't think something big is about to go down I am very disturbed none the less.

[Icequeen]

MegaUpload.

Rapidshare is probably next on the list.

Fuck.

I hope this shit blows up in their face.

[Squidusa]

Heh, but here's something horrifying to think about, what if they took out 4chan under copyright infringement reasoning? I feel so sorry for anyone involved with that decision. The internet would explode into a full blown war, far worse than what's being seen right now.

Personally , I'd find that hilarious.

The drama would be utterly entertaining.

[Calavera]

No worries. It'll be back up soon.

Something similar happened with PirateBay, too.

[Phallacy]

No worries. It'll be back up soon.

Something similar happened with PirateBay, too.

Even then, the "new" MegaUpload would have nothing that the "old" one did. All of the data is lost forever.

When Pirate Bay got seized, nothing was actually lost.