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MegaUpload founders are arrested in New Zealand! Sam Leong is next!
- Thread starter RonRon
- Start date
Feds say 7 behind celeb-endorsed Megaupload.com ran massive, worldwide piracy ring
Published January 19, 2012| FoxNews.com
Kim Kardashian and other celebrities star in a promotional YouTube video for Megaupload. On Thurs., Jan 19, federal investigators charged 7 foreigners (not including Kardashian or the other endorsers) connected to the site with piracy.
McLEAN, Va. – Federal prosecutors have shut down one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, on charges of violating piracy laws -- a day after a 24-hour blackout of popular websites such as Wikipedia drew national attention to the issue.
"This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States," the Justice department said in a statement about the indictment.
</dt></dl>The indictment accuses seven individuals and two corporations -- Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited -- of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. It was unsealed on Thursday, and claims that at one point Megaupload was the 13th most popular website in the world.
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. Beatz declined to comment through a representative. The individuals in the criminal enterprise each faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on racketeering charges, five years for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years on money laundering charges and five years on related charges.
Megaupload was led by colorful Australian Kim Dotcom -- aka Kim Schmitz, or Kim Tim Jim Vestor. He is a a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany, who legally changed his last name to "Dotcom." The website's founder and "chief innovation officer" was once convicted of a felony but has repeatedly denied engaging in piracy, according to CNET.com -- and he made more than $42 million from the conspiracy in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.
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A promotional video for Megaupload.com added to YouTube in December 2011 features celebrity endorsements from Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and other popular musicians.
The indictment comes the day after a 24-hour "blackout" of Wikipedia, a protest doodle on the homepage of Google, and numerous other protests across the Internet against proposed anti-piracy legislation that many leading websites -- including Reddit, Google, Facebook, Amazon and others -- contend will make it challenging if not impossible for them to operate.A promotional video for Megaupload.com added to YouTube in December 2011 features celebrity endorsements from Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and other popular musicians.
The Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House are bills backed by the motion picture and recording industries intended to eliminate theft online once and for all. S. 968 and H.R. 3261 would require ISPs to block access to foreign websites that infringe on copyrights.
Online piracy from China and elsewhere is a massive problem for the media industry, one that costs as much as $250 billion per year and costs the industry 750,000 jobs, according to a 2008 statement by Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
But how exactly the bills would counter piracy has many up in arms.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The war has begun.
http://betanews.com/2012/01/19/anonymous-launches-sopa-strike-takes-down-justice-dept/
Anonymous launches SOPA strike, takes down Justice Dept.
By Joe WilcoxPublished 12 hours ago
10 Comments
inShare
3
"The Site is under maintenance. Please expect it to be back shortly". That's the message I found at Universal Music moments ago. The US Justice Department site isn't accessible at all. You can thank hacktavist group Anonymous, which claims responsibility for these and other SOPA blackouts today in response to the Feds shutting down Megaupload.
There's a certain irony to this evening's attacks. Yesterday, tens of thousands of sites supported a voluntary blackout protesting two bills snaking through Congress -- Stop Online Piracy (SOPA) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act). Anonymous' attacks, presumably denial-of-service, blacked out sites that either support the legislation or would be responsible for enforcing it. We've gone from voluntary blackout protests yesterday to involuntary ones today. As I write, Recording Industry Association of America is down, too.
About two hours ago the Anonymous @YourAnonNews account tweeted: "Megaupload was taken down w/out SOPA being law. Now imagine what will happen if it passes. The Internet as we know it will end. FIGHT BACK"; after tweeting: "The government takes down #Megaupload? 15 minutes later #Anonymous takes down government & record label sites. #ExpectUs".
Earlier, the Justice Department accused Megaupload.com of a conspiracy to traffic pirated movies, music, television programs, ebooks, and software -- for the last five years on massive, global scale and causing damages exceeding $500 million to copyright holders.
The Feds couldn't have struck at a worse time, considering the negative response to SOPA and PIPA. Either bill would give the government broad powers to take down websites, seize domains and compel search engines from indexing these properties. Little more than a request from copyright holders is necessary. It's essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation that would punish the many for the sins of the few, while disrupting the fundamental attributes that made the Internet so successful and empowered so many individuals or businesses to accomplish so much. (Review the bills: PIPA. SOPA.)
Wired UK's "SOPA 101" guide is one of the best primers posted in recent days, if those bills are too long (and wordy) for you. Google offers excellent recap, too. Appropriate for today's blackouts is yet another primer of links from the @YourAnonNews Tumblr.
@YourAnonNews tweeted around 7:20 pm ET: "You cannot censor the internet. You cannot subpoena a hashtag. You cannot arrest an idea. You CAN expect us #OpMegaupload".
Anonymous' assault continues as I write updates to the post. Warner Music is now down (7:35 pm ET).
About two hours ago, Anonymous tweeted: "Let's just say, for #SOPA supporters their #SOPAblackout is today. #Anonymous".
The group claims to have taken out other sites, including the US Copyright Office and Motion Pictures Association of America. But the sites are loading fine for me, which doesn't mean they weren't down earlier.
http://betanews.com/2012/01/19/anonymous-launches-sopa-strike-takes-down-justice-dept/
Anonymous launches SOPA strike, takes down Justice Dept.
By Joe WilcoxPublished 12 hours ago
10 Comments
inShare
3
"The Site is under maintenance. Please expect it to be back shortly". That's the message I found at Universal Music moments ago. The US Justice Department site isn't accessible at all. You can thank hacktavist group Anonymous, which claims responsibility for these and other SOPA blackouts today in response to the Feds shutting down Megaupload.
There's a certain irony to this evening's attacks. Yesterday, tens of thousands of sites supported a voluntary blackout protesting two bills snaking through Congress -- Stop Online Piracy (SOPA) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act). Anonymous' attacks, presumably denial-of-service, blacked out sites that either support the legislation or would be responsible for enforcing it. We've gone from voluntary blackout protests yesterday to involuntary ones today. As I write, Recording Industry Association of America is down, too.
About two hours ago the Anonymous @YourAnonNews account tweeted: "Megaupload was taken down w/out SOPA being law. Now imagine what will happen if it passes. The Internet as we know it will end. FIGHT BACK"; after tweeting: "The government takes down #Megaupload? 15 minutes later #Anonymous takes down government & record label sites. #ExpectUs".
Earlier, the Justice Department accused Megaupload.com of a conspiracy to traffic pirated movies, music, television programs, ebooks, and software -- for the last five years on massive, global scale and causing damages exceeding $500 million to copyright holders.
The Feds couldn't have struck at a worse time, considering the negative response to SOPA and PIPA. Either bill would give the government broad powers to take down websites, seize domains and compel search engines from indexing these properties. Little more than a request from copyright holders is necessary. It's essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation that would punish the many for the sins of the few, while disrupting the fundamental attributes that made the Internet so successful and empowered so many individuals or businesses to accomplish so much. (Review the bills: PIPA. SOPA.)
Wired UK's "SOPA 101" guide is one of the best primers posted in recent days, if those bills are too long (and wordy) for you. Google offers excellent recap, too. Appropriate for today's blackouts is yet another primer of links from the @YourAnonNews Tumblr.
@YourAnonNews tweeted around 7:20 pm ET: "You cannot censor the internet. You cannot subpoena a hashtag. You cannot arrest an idea. You CAN expect us #OpMegaupload".
Anonymous' assault continues as I write updates to the post. Warner Music is now down (7:35 pm ET).
About two hours ago, Anonymous tweeted: "Let's just say, for #SOPA supporters their #SOPAblackout is today. #Anonymous".
The group claims to have taken out other sites, including the US Copyright Office and Motion Pictures Association of America. But the sites are loading fine for me, which doesn't mean they weren't down earlier.
You often see this message in underground warez sites.
Fuck the RIAA !!!
Anonymous attacks FBI website over Megaupload raids
American government and entertainment industry websites have been crippled after the “hacktivist” group Anonymous launched a series of cyber attacks in retaliation for the closure of Megaupload.com.
Kim Dotcom, AKA Kim Schmitz, who faces up to 20 years imprisonment for running Megaupload.com
Megaupload.com employees (from left) Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Kim Dotcom appear at North Shore District Court in Auckland - Photo: AP Photo/Greg Bowker
Founder of Megaupload.com, Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom escorted by a policeman as he appears in an Auckland district court in New Zealand - Photo: AFP/Getty Images
By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent
10:44AM GMT 20 Jan 2012
The filesharing website, which allowed users to freely exchange large video and audio files, was closed overnight and its operators were charged with criminal copyright infringement. They are accused of deliberately ignoring requests from film and music firms to remove pirated material, while making more than $175m from membership fees and advertising.
Anonymous supporters attacked the websites of the Department of Justice, the FBI and Universal Music Group, among others. The hacktivists used a technique called a Distributed Denial of Service to overload their targets with web traffic and effectively force them offline.
The Twitter account @AnonymousIRC, one the most prominent of dozens associated with the "leaderless" group, taunted authorities.
“We sincerely hope you like your own medicine!,” it said in a comment directed at the FBI.
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The attacks on official websites were only briefly effective but Universal Music remains offline. Security experts warned that Anonymous was using a new tactic that meant people might unknowingly participate in its attacks.
"In the past, Anonymous has encouraged supporters to install a program called LOIC, which allows computers to join in an attack on a particular website, blasting it with unwanted traffic," said Graham Cluley of Sophos.
"This change in tactic from Anonymous, which allows attacks to be launched by simply clicking on a link, means that internet users need to be extremely careful when clicking on unknown URLs or they could unwittingly be joining this latest zombie army."
It marks a further escalation of the battle between copyright holders, who say the film and music industries are being badly damaged by digital piracy, and those who oppose regulation of the internet.
This week saw an unprecedented protest against stricter enforcement of copyright online by major web organisations including Wikipedia, which made its English version inaccessible for 24 hours. The blackout was designed to galvanise opposition to Sopa and Pipa, two pieces of legislation under consideration in Congress that would make it easier to cut off pirate websites.
The action against Megaupload.com is being touted as one the biggest copyright cases in US history, but a Department of Justice official said the timing of the arrests and unsealing of the case were not related to the battle on Capitol Hill. A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 web address associated with Megaupload.com be seized. Some 20 search warrants were executed in the United States and eight other countries and about $50 million in assets were also seized.
The website acted as a “cyber locker”, allowing users to upload large files for others to download for free. Dozens of similar services exist, but Megaupload.com was the biggest. Users could also pay at least $9.99 per month for a premium membership, to receive faster downloads. Megaupload.com boasted of accounting for four percent of all traffic on the internet and receiving 50 million visitors per day.
Megaupload.com even claimed support from popular artists including Will.I.am and Kanye West, who both appeared in a video promoting the website.
<iframe width="460" height="264" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pCkI5I8vsBg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
The two companies associated with Megaupload.com, as well as seven men who allegedly ran it, now, however, face charges of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and criminal copyright infringement.
Four of the men, including Kim Dotcom, the alleged leader of the enterprise, were arrested yesterday in Auckland, New Zealand. A flamboyant 37-year-old German, Dotcom is also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and has several previous convictions for computer crimes. All the men face up to 20 years imprisonment.
The case against them alleges they did not respond to complaints of infringement by copyright holders and “and deliberately misrepresented to copyright holders that they had removed infringing content”. “When notified by a rights holder that a file contained infringing content... the conspirators would disable only a single link to the file, deliberately and deceptively leaving the infringing content in place to make it seamlessly available to millions of users to access through any one of the many duplicate links,” the Department of Justice alleged.
It said the Metropolitan Police assisted in the investigation. A spokesman for the Met was not immediately able to say what help British authorities gave.
The indictment alleges that the criminal enterprise is led by Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz, and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand. Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites.
In addition, the following alleged members of the Mega conspiracy were charged in the indictment:
- Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the chief marketing officer;
- Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, who is the graphic designer;
- Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the head of business development;
- Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director;
- Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software division;
- Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure for the Mega conspiracy websites.
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