American authorities have moved to shut down Megaupload sparking a furious response from the online community.
It’s been a historic week for the world wide web. The United States congress had previously debated implementing the anti-piracy bill SOPA, provoking widespread anger.
A ‘blackout’ on Wednesday (January 18th) saw Wikipedia and Google take action, helping to force President Obama into a U-turn. Last night (January 19th) though American authorities pushed forward, shutting down the file-sharing website Megaupload. (via BBC)
One of the most popular file-sharing hubs on the web, Megaupload was taken offline in an action by the US Department of Justice. In all, seven people have been arrested with three more suspects still at large.
In a statement the US Department of Justice said:
“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”.
The full indictment claims that Megaupload was “costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue” from illegally downloaded films, music and other digital content.
In a strange twist, Pitchfork reports that the CEO of Megaupload is Swizz Beats. When the team behind Megaupload were arrested authorities discovered an enormous amount of loot – the full list is fairly entertaining and can be found HERE.
The move by the US Department of Justice has provoked enormous anger online. The ‘hacktivist’ collective Anonymous are claiming responsibility for a series of attacks on websites for the US Department of Justice, the FBI, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Motion Picture Association of America.
