The site was shut down Thursday, and Dotcom and three Megaupload
employees were arrested in New Zealand on U.S. accusations that they
facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other
content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost
revenue.
New Zealand Police also seized guns, artwork, more than $8 million in
cash and luxury cars valued at nearly $5 million after serving 10 search
warrants at several businesses and homes around the city of Auckland.
News of the shutdown seemed to bring retaliation from hackers who claimed credit for attacking the
Justice Department's
website. Federal officials confirmed it was down for hours Thursday
evening and that the disruption was being "treated as a malicious act."
On
Friday, New Zealand's Fairfax Media reported that the four defendants
stood together in an Auckland courtroom in the first step of extradition
proceedings that could last a year or more.
Dotcom's
lawyer raised objections to a media request to take photographs and
video, but then Dotcom spoke out from the dock, saying he didn't mind
photos or video "because we have nothing to hide." The judge granted the
media access, and ruled that the four would remain in custody until a
second hearing Monday.
Dotcom, Megaupload's
former CEO and current chief innovation officer, is a resident of Hong
Kong and New Zealand and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany who had
his name legally changed. The 37-year-old was previously known as Kim
Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor.
Two other
German citizens and one Dutch citizen also were arrested and three other
defendants — another German, a Slovakian and an Estonian — remain at
large.
The
Electronic Frontier Foundation,
which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a
statement that the arrests set "a terrifying precedent. If the United
States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim,
what is next?"
The indictment was unsealed one
day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in
protest of two congressional proposals intended to make it easier for
authorities to go after sites with pirated material, especially those
with overseas headquarters and servers.
Before
Megaupload was taken down, the company posted a statement saying
allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were
"grotesquely overblown."
"The fact is that the
vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here
to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our
popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good
ideas. Please get in touch," the statement said.
Several sister sites were also shut down, including one dedicated to sharing pornography files.
The
$8 million in cash seized had been invested in various New Zealand
financial institutions, and has been placed in a trust pending the
outcome of the cases.
Police spokesman Grant
Ogilvie said the seized cars include a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead
Coupe worth more than $400,000. Two short-barreled shotguns and a number
of valuable artworks were also confiscated, he added.
According
to the indictment, Megaupload was estimated at one point to be the 13th
most frequently visited website on the Internet. Current estimates by
companies that monitor Web traffic place it in the top 100.
Megaupload
is considered a "cyberlocker," in which users can upload and transfer
files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly
legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America, which
has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, estimated that the vast
majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of
copyright laws.
The website allowed users to
download some content for free, but made money by charging subscriptions
to people who wanted access to faster download speeds or extra content.
The website also sold advertising.
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 company listed
Swizz Beatz,
a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO. He was not named in
the indictment and declined to comment through a representative.
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.
For
instance, users received cash bonuses if they uploaded content popular
enough to generate massive numbers of downloads, according to the
indictment. Such content was almost always copyright protected, the
indictment said.
The Justice Department said
it was illegal for anyone to download pirated content, but their
investigation focused on the leaders of the company, not end users who
may have downloaded a few movies for personal viewing.
A
lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined to
comment Thursday. Efforts to reach an attorney representing Dotcom were
unsuccessful.
Although Megaupload is based in
Hong Kong, the size of its operation in the southern Chinese city was
unclear. The administrative contact listed in its domain registration,
Bonnie Lam, did not respond immediately for a request for comment sent
to a fax number and email address listed.
The indictment was returned in the
Eastern District of Virginia,
which claimed jurisdiction in part because some of the alleged pirated
materials were hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Virginia.
Prosecutors there have pursued multiple piracy investigations.
The
Justice Department also was investigating the "significant increase in
activity" that disrupted its website. It said in a statement that it was
working to "investigate the origins of this activity, which is being
treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause."
The
site appeared to be working again late Thursday. A spokesman for the
Motion Picture Association of America said in an emailed statement that
the group's site also had been hacked, but it too appeared to be working
later in the evening.
"The motion picture and
television industry has always been a strong supporter of free speech,"
the spokesman said. "We strongly condemn any attempts to silence any
groups or individuals."
Matthew Barakat reported from McLean, Virginia.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Hanya kurang sehari selepas protes terhadap SOPA, kini kelihatan laman
MegaUpload, yang menyediakan ruangan storan percuma, serta kebolehan untuk memuat-turun secara percuma telah
ditutup
oleh pihak kerajaan disana, disebabkan pelanggaran hakcipta. Percubaan
mengakses laman tersebut adalah gagal buat masa ini, sekaligus
memberikan idea, ia telah ditutup daripada akses semua seluruh dunia.
Seperti semua sedia maklum, MegaUpload merupakan salah satu platform
popular yang digunakan untuk pemuat-turun untuk berkongsi fail-fail
seperti filem dan muzik. Ia dilaporkan, secara kasar, lebih daripada $1
billion kerugian terpaksa ditanggung disebabkan MegaUpload, dan ia telah
menjana lebih daripada $175 juta.
MegaUpload menggunakan salah satu sistem ganjaran, dimana ia membayar
kepada pemuat-naik media atau fail yang popular dimuat-turun oleh para
pengguna seluruh dunia. Pada masa yang sama, MegaUpload juga
diperkatakan tidak mematikan akaun pengguna yang mempunyai kandungan
berhak-cipta, sebaliknya sekiranya dilaporkan, ia hanya sekadar membuang
pautan untuk fail yang dilaporkan sahaja.
Mungkin dengan perkara ini, beberapa laman perkongsian popular lain turut akan berjaga-jaga dan mencari langkah mengatasinya.