U.S. shuts down file-sharing website Megaupload.com
 

Click Here For The Article

"An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500-million (U.S.) 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."

I saw that this morning. I never actually heard of Megaupload.com before so I'm not sure how important this is but it's good to hear.

Only another few thousand more to go.

I really do wonder how biz would be if all the illegal tube sites were shut down.

It was massive. Tons and tons of nulled scripts and hacked software.

Megaupload shut down
 

Wonder how many more they have in their sites? |whisper|

You are a bit late posting.
http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ad.php?t=63404

But it is very good news. :)

42 million - lets say the gummit is lying and applying drugwar math - so, still maybe 4 million. relatively serious money. and maybe it was actually 42 mil.

well, I ain't gonna shed any tears for megaupload.

wonder who's next?

never heard of megaupload? next you'll say you never heard of 4chan.

Had to Google that one too. I guess I live a rather sheltered geeky life. |huh

omg i was totally kidding - it never occured to me that you actually might not know 4chan - rofl.

4chan is way more infamous than megaupload - the birthplace of anonymous, home of the scriptkiddies, day zero for memes of all kinds, arguably the most powerful board on the net.

one does not want to piss off 4chan.

Boxxy would not be amused. |lol|

Sorry Cleo!

I posted under business and Art posted under chit chat, so feel free to combine or remove this thread!

*********

@Bill

I think I saw a number where RS was making several hundred million a year in profits, so MU could easily be doing quite a bit with their millions of fee paying users!

Not a problem, kind of fits both, it's exiting news. Thought of merging them, maybe still will if having two threads of the same topic becomes pragmatic.

the /b/ tards welcome you. They are a friendly bunch.

Anonymous attacks DOJ, FBI, U.S. Copyright Office, Warner Music Group
and Universal Music after Feds shut down MegaUpload

CNN story here




.

Love her!

I've never heard of 4chan, lol. Megaupload I have of course.

We need to start a group of the uninformed.

Oh, you wanna join my club? You can only be invited by a member! Maybe you didn't know it existed. |loony|

Not a terrible article on megaupload, with a photo of kim dotcom, real name Kim Schmitz. Article originally from fast company?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46076072...mall_business/


In the Wild, Wild West-era of digital media, there is no cowboy quite like Kim Dotcom. Part Sean Parker, part Kevin Mitnick, with a whiff of Notorious B.I.G., Dotcom embodies the wildest age of piracy having made a fortune on the edges of Internet freedom.

Dotcom, the megamind behind Megaupload, was arrested yesterday in New Zealand, his panic-room door busted down by officials, who found the hacker clinging to a sawed-off shotgun.

Dotcom faces up to 55 years in prison if extradited to the U.S. and convicted on charges of racketeering, copyright infringement, and money laundering. The hacker-turned-multimillionaire businessman has been accused of costing the entertainment industry $500 million through pirated content uploaded to his popular file-sharing site, which boasted 180 million registered users and celebrity endorsements from Kanye West to Kim Kardashian.

Before Megaupload was shut down by federal prosecutors, a statement was reportedly posted on the site calling the charges "grotesquely overblown."

Dotcom has long been a controversial and flamboyant figure. Pictures of the Megaupload founder online show him with yachts, private jets and Playboy bunnies in exotic locations such as Monaco, Cuba, and Brazil. According to court filings, prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of $175 million, dozens of bank accounts, as well as sports cars including Mercedes-Benzes, Rolls-Royces, and Lamborghinis (with vanity plates such as "God" and "CEO").
Long before SOPA, Dotcom saw a potential market in taking advantage of the system--and ran wild with the opportunity. How wild? Here's a look inside Dotcom's life of excess--a lifestyle afforded to a guy who's both tech savvy and unencumbered by business ethics, and who has a taste for shotguns, black Benzes, and wraparound shades.

- In 1994, 20 cops raided Dotcom's home, in what appeared to be a sting operation set up by MCI. The police confiscated $80,000 in computer equipment, arresting Dotcom and charging him with selling stolen credit cards. Dotcom claimed to be working undercover for MCI, and that he was only trying to help make the company's systems more secure.

- In 1998, Dotcom wore black sunglasses to his trial in Germany, and boasted that he loved "feeling like a spy." He was convicted of fraud and other hacking charges, including embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was sentenced to two years of probation, and fined 20,000 marks. The judge at the time said the court viewed his actions as "youthful foolishness."

.
- In 2001, Kim Dotcom (then known as Kim Schmitz) purchased a mountain of shares in a nearly bankrupt company called LetsBuyIt.com. He revealed to the public that he'd invest $100 million in the company. Share prices rocketed 300%, earning him $1.5 million in profit--but also landed him an insider trading conviction in Germany.

Here's something you never, ever, want to see on your sites...

http://usdoj.s3-website-us-east-1.am...com/banner.jpg

It seems to have got some attention! |whisper|

Some of the other sites like FileSonic have disabled their file sharing, or blocked USA IPs!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16679174

Hopefully all these file lockers go down too.

The amount of our content on these sites.... it's ridiculous.

Hopefully this equates to more sales :)

Perhaps over time, but I don't see it making an immediate impact. People drawing from these file sharing sites aren't so much interested in the porn itself, as the fact that it's free. But I've felt this is the biggest culprit in free content, more so than tubes, though they certainly aren't helping matters much.

We'll soon know, sales returning? Keeping my fingers crossed...

An interesting twist in the MegaUpload story:

Is this the real reason why MegaUpload was Shut Down?

I read about it here first.

Interesting Read. It Does Make You Wonder

|cheers|

What makes me wonder is when a guy is making THAT much money..... at what point do you say to yourself I better get out while I can?

Of course there was something to the timing, think back over the last couple of years with respect to the decline of your own sales, people and associates that you've seen leave the business, programs and companies that have closed up shop. Corruption is always allowed to continue, until someones pockets get to fat, or kick-backs weren't going in the right direction. Whatever the reason, it certainly wasn't because gov had sympathy for us porn peddlers because we couldn't sell product due to the free giveaways all over the internet. This is more of a shake down of a fat cat in the guise of piracy and corruption...