US shuts down file-sharing site Megaupload

Jan 19, 2012, 23:27 GMT

San Francisco - US authorities on Thursday said they had shut down the file-sharing site Megauplaod for alleged copyright infringements, charging seven people, including the founder who goes by the name of Kim Dotcom.

In response to the arrests, the hacker collective known as Anonymous said it had taken down the Web sites of the Justice Department, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America. All three sites were inaccessible late Thursday afternoon.

Federal prosecutors said that the site's operators earned 175 million dollars, while costing copyright holders more than 500 million dollars in lost revenue. The site claims it serves legitimate users by allowing them to upload files that are too large to be transferred via email and which can be streamed or downloaded by others. The site allegedly paid users to upload popular movies and other content, and charged other users for accessing the content via fast download speeds.

'This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime,' said a statement posted on the website of the US Justice Department.

The announcement came a day after prominent websites such as Google and Wikipedia took part in an online blackout to protest a proposed US anti-piracy bill that they said would severely curtail net freedom.

Four of those arrested were taken into custody in New Zealand at the request of US authorities, the statement said. In addition to Dotcom, whose real name is Kim Schmitz, those charged included Megaupload's chief marketing officer Finn Batato, 38, of Germany, Svenn Echtenach and Mathias Ortmann, also from Germany, who were the site's head of business development and chief technical officer, respectively.

The other people charged were from Slovakia, Estonia and Holland. The seven people charged each face a maximum of 55 years in jail.