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

[tickler]

One of the world's most popular file-sharing sites was shuttered Thursday, and its founder and several company officials were accused of facilitating millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content.

An indictment accused Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue.

Megaupload is based in Hong Kong, but some of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Virginia, which gave federal authorities jurisdiction, the indictment said.

The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, 37, and three other employees were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Three other defendants are at large.

The five-count indictment, which alleges copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering, described a site designed specifically to reward users who uploaded pirated content for sharing, and turned a blind eye to requests from copyright holders to remove copyright-protected files.

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 site in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...1fc307d67b674d

Wonder how many more they have in their sites?

[Cleo]

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

But it is very good news.

[Bill]

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?

[tickler]

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!

[Cleo]

Originally Posted by tickler

Sorry Cleo!

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

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.