One of the world's biggest file-sharing websites, Megaupload, had been
shut down and Seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 19, 2012 and Unavailable as of January 22, 2012.". Its German-born but New Zealand-based founder, Kim
Dotcom (37), was arrested along with three others in Auckland.
He is charged with violating piracy laws.
Megaupload, Megavideo, MegaLive and MegaPorn were all made in to offline. Megaupload was once the 13th most popular website in the world.
Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.
The site's founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.
Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more
than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in
responding to complaints about pirated material.
In response, the hackers group Anonymous has targeted the FBI and US Department of Justice websites.
The news came a day after anti-piracy law protests, but investigators said they were ordered two weeks ago.The feds say Megaupload violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
in a ‘mega’ way, refusing to fully comply with DMCA takedown notices.
Prosecutors accuse
Megaupload’s owners of generating more than $175 million in criminal
proceeds and more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright
owners. The authorities seized 18 domain names related to Megaupload and
$50 million in assets.
New Zealand police arrested
four of the alleged Megaupload employees in New Zealand on Thursday at
the request of U.S. officials. Three of the alleged employees remain at
large.
According to the indictment,
the employees selectively complied with requests from copyright owners
to remove infringing content. They would often remove a single link to
an infringing video while leaving the actual video in place, according
to court documents.