Pensu
Member • Jan 19, 2012
The Copyright War- Govt Takes Down Megaupload, Anonymous Takes Down Govt!
One of the world’s most popular file sharing website Megaupload.com has been shut down by U.S. government under anti-piracy law. Seven individuals and two companies were charged in the largest criminal copyright case ever brought by United States.
#-Link-Snipped-#
Megaupload, which witness 50 million hits daily and claims about 4 percent of the total internet traffic and was 13th most visited website once, was seized and the users were welcomed with above shown notice. The site is based in Hong Kong but they also use some leased servers in Virginia, United States, which gave the federal authorities jurisdiction. According to the indictment the website and a company associated with it, Vestor Limited, caused a loss of $500 million to copyright holders and in turn generated $175 million of revenue. The indictment said,†In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides the fast reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its computer servers located around the world. Premium users of the site are able to download and upload files with few, if any, limitations.†The five count indictment, which came from Eastern District of Virginia, said that it seized all the 18 domains connected to Megaupload including Megaupload.com, Megavideo.com, Megaclick.com etc.
The site’s founder Kim DotCom (Formerly known as Kim Schmitz), a 37 year old citizen of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, has been arrested in New Zealand by New Zealand authorities. Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram Van Der Kolk (aka Bramos) were also arrested in New Zealand. Three other suspects Julius Benko, Sven Echternach and Andrus Nomm are at large. The company has named Swizz Beats as its CEO, who has not been named in the indictment. The feds alleges that in 2010, DotCom alone made $44 million of fortune. The indictment accused all the suspects of conspiring to commit copyright infringement, money laundering, participating in a racketing conspiracy and two other accounts of copyright infringement. If convicted, the suspects can face 20 years in prison.
The indictment has come after a day when some big internet giants like Google, Wikipedia, Wordpress etc. blacked out in order to oppose SOPA and PIPA. Looks like the U.S. government wants to show people that it won’t stop and will continue to take action against internet piracy.
Well, the story doesn’t ends here! Just after an hour of announcement of the indictment, the justice departments’ website www.justice.gov was taken down with a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. Hacker group Anonymous has taken the responsibility for the attack.
#-Link-Snipped-#
Anonymous also claimed the responsibility for taking down several sites including the Universal Music website, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) website and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) website. All of these victims are big supporters of copyright infringement laws. Hacker group claimed that this is the largest operation ever by Anonymous with 5,635 confirmed users are taking part in DDoS attack.
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
Update: Megaupload is back, users can access the site here : https://megavideo.bz/
Update: FBI.gov is down.
Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
Megaupload, which witness 50 million hits daily and claims about 4 percent of the total internet traffic and was 13th most visited website once, was seized and the users were welcomed with above shown notice. The site is based in Hong Kong but they also use some leased servers in Virginia, United States, which gave the federal authorities jurisdiction. According to the indictment the website and a company associated with it, Vestor Limited, caused a loss of $500 million to copyright holders and in turn generated $175 million of revenue. The indictment said,†In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides the fast reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its computer servers located around the world. Premium users of the site are able to download and upload files with few, if any, limitations.†The five count indictment, which came from Eastern District of Virginia, said that it seized all the 18 domains connected to Megaupload including Megaupload.com, Megavideo.com, Megaclick.com etc.
The site’s founder Kim DotCom (Formerly known as Kim Schmitz), a 37 year old citizen of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, has been arrested in New Zealand by New Zealand authorities. Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram Van Der Kolk (aka Bramos) were also arrested in New Zealand. Three other suspects Julius Benko, Sven Echternach and Andrus Nomm are at large. The company has named Swizz Beats as its CEO, who has not been named in the indictment. The feds alleges that in 2010, DotCom alone made $44 million of fortune. The indictment accused all the suspects of conspiring to commit copyright infringement, money laundering, participating in a racketing conspiracy and two other accounts of copyright infringement. If convicted, the suspects can face 20 years in prison.
The indictment has come after a day when some big internet giants like Google, Wikipedia, Wordpress etc. blacked out in order to oppose SOPA and PIPA. Looks like the U.S. government wants to show people that it won’t stop and will continue to take action against internet piracy.
Well, the story doesn’t ends here! Just after an hour of announcement of the indictment, the justice departments’ website www.justice.gov was taken down with a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. Hacker group Anonymous has taken the responsibility for the attack.
#-Link-Snipped-#
Anonymous also claimed the responsibility for taking down several sites including the Universal Music website, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) website and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) website. All of these victims are big supporters of copyright infringement laws. Hacker group claimed that this is the largest operation ever by Anonymous with 5,635 confirmed users are taking part in DDoS attack.
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
Update: Megaupload is back, users can access the site here : https://megavideo.bz/
Update: FBI.gov is down.
Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#