agent17 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tec...IRBQ_story.html APNewsBreak: US prosecutors shut down one of world’s largest file-sharing sites, MegauploadBy Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, January 19, 4:10 PM McLEAN, Va. — 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 other executives 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. He was not named in the indictment and declined to comment through a representative. 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. The site boasted 150 million registered users. 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, Va. 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. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. No more Megaupload or Megavideo, or any of it's associate sites. All content is now gone. Edit: updated news article Edited January 19, 2012 by agent17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeeebuuus Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I wonder why it is such a short article. Strange timing with the SOPA thing and a day after wikipedia blackout. Weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurch Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 f*ckin bummer. Used the sh*t out of those sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnyboy Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 No more Porn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K^2 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 What about all the people who used it for legitimate means and now going to suffer financial losses due to the ruling? This is total bullsh*t, honestly. Information distribution should not be punishable in any form. There are better ways to look after copyright than shutting down information distribution sites. Prior to filing a bug against any of my code, please consider this response to common concerns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.2D Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 This is a bit of a shame. I'll live, there's plenty of other sites to use, but it's a real shame that these are down, I used them quite a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vertical limit Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 We shall never forget this nor forgive them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeperRed Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) What about all the people who used it for legitimate means and now going to suffer financial losses due to the ruling? This is total bullsh*t, honestly. Information distribution should not be punishable in any form. There are better ways to look after copyright than shutting down information distribution sites. This. MPAA and whoever else are just too f*cking lazy to catch the copyright violators so they just decide to take down an entire site. The fact this was even allowed to happen indicates that SOPA and PIPA will get passed. When someone shoots murders someone with a gun who is arrested ? The man who used the gun incorrectly or the company who made the gun ? Edited January 19, 2012 by DeeperRed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyGanteks Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Oh...no...has it began? Megavideo...where am i gonna watch all those movies and shows for free now. It was the best site for such stuff..damn it, i can't believe this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tryst Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 What about all the people who used it for legitimate means and now going to suffer financial losses due to the ruling? This is total bullsh*t, honestly. Information distribution should not be punishable in any form. There are better ways to look after copyright than shutting down information distribution sites. I'm personally going back to email and skype for my song collab and demo transfers... Course those are pirate sites too its only a matter of time before those are shut down too. Art Dela Me-+-Ze Music Le Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.Rez Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 YOU CAN TAKE OUR MEGAUPLOAD, BUT YOU'LL NEVER TAKE, OUR MEDIAFIRE!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlowe. Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 If they take down Mediafire, I'll seriously consider killing myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeeebuuus Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 It was the 13th most popular website in the world? And they shut it down. I've never heard of it. It must have been one of the biggest free movie sites. The other big websites must be really pissed off because if they can do that to it then whats to stop them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agent17 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 What about all the people who used it for legitimate means and now going to suffer financial losses due to the ruling? This is total bullsh*t, honestly. Information distribution should not be punishable in any form. There are better ways to look after copyright than shutting down information distribution sites. Megavideo was one of the largest file sharing websites on the internet, thousands of people using it legitimately, think of those people who had important files backed up on Megaupload... Truly devastating. They hit the internet where it hurts, Megaupload was one of the easiest and hassle-free ways to distribute files, and exchange information. This is probably only the start.... The US governments seems to be doing everything in it's power to shut down sites they see fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.s Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agent17 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 It was the 13th most popular website in the world? And they shut it down. I've never heard of it. It must have been one of the biggest free movie sites. The other big websites must be really pissed off because if they can do that to it then whats to stop them... Megaupload and it's associate sites covered all areas of file sharing, video sharing/streaming, image hosting etc. Having used the website countless times to download *legitimate* files, I could tell it was one of the best free file sharing services available. Thousands of people are going to be affected by this, not just the website's users, but the site's staff. Those people are all out of work now. I believe over 150 employees ran the website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punk-in-Drublic Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Bollocks, this means Mediafire and Rapidshare could be next. Wankers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shahmen Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 What a shame, i just love that site. And why Megaupload and not Mediafire or Rapidshare? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Well this sucks; no more streaming movies/TV shows from Megavideo! I'm actually scared for the internet now that SOPA is actually happening... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dallasa Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 So what about the users that paid for premium accounts? What about the millions of legitimate files, many of which may have only existed online on Megaupload, that are now permanently wiped? Considering how much I relied on Megaupload day-to-day (and no, not for piracy), I'd say I'm more than a little pissed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agent17 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 Bollocks, this means Mediafire and Rapidshare could be next. Wankers. These sites are probably next in line, there is nothing stopping them from being shut down in a similar fashion. I've I had any important files on these websites I would begin re-uploading them to someplace safe, a lot of people lost entire libraries of content unexpectedly, simply because they had it backed up on megaupload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bread Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 If Mediafire, Rapidshare, and 4share is next, I'm gonna commit an e-suicide. That's it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeeebuuus Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 So what would happen if I tried to go to the site right now? Will it simply not exist? I don't want to try it for they might come after me and call me a pirate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunrise Driver Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 F**king copyright scum they'll get what they deserved. I'm sure site like this will reappear soon under other name. Why can't anonymus hack these criminal bastards instead of PSN? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agent17 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 F**king copyright scum they'll get what they deserved. I'm sure site like this will reappear soon under other name. That's like saying youtube deserves to be shut down because the users upload illegal content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyGanteks Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) Is it just my internet, or do Putlocker & Videobb not work too? They were similar as Megavideo, now they seem down too, for me at least. It was my internet. Edited January 19, 2012 by AndyGanteks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunrise Driver Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 F**king copyright scum they'll get what they deserved. I'm sure site like this will reappear soon under other name. That's like saying youtube deserves to be shut down because the users upload illegal content. By "copyright scum" I mean RIAA, MPAA and other nazi commie mafia organizations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agent17 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 F**king copyright scum they'll get what they deserved. I'm sure site like this will reappear soon under other name. That's like saying youtube deserves to be shut down because the users upload illegal content. By "copyright scum" I mean RIAA, MPAA and other nazi commie mafia organizations. Ah of course. Sad that I've seen these organizations take down youtube videos for virtually no reason, I recently had a video taken down which contained NO copyrighted content, any music I had was made by my friends with their consent. Apparently anything digital is automatically owned by these organizations, which gives them the right to tear down anything they deem fit without due process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cidamelo Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 This is so sad!!! I am scared about this censure of web!! I liked Megaupload, it was fast!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxmonster Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Oh my, how could this happen? So many files are lost now... A lot were just solely hosted there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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