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发帖数: 815 | 1 ..U.S. shuts Megaupload.com, hackers retaliate
By Jeremy Pelofsky and Jim Finkle | Reuters – 1 hr 12 mins ago....Email
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13 photos - 15 hrs ago...See latest photos »....(Reuters) - The U.S.
government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging
its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the
latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.
The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four
company executives in New Zealand on Friday as debate over online piracy
reaches fever pitch in Washington where lawmakers are trying to craft
tougher legislation.
The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet
piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and
Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead
to censorship.
A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests was not related
to the battle in Congress.
New Zealand police on Friday raided a mansion in Auckland and arrested
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, 37, a German
national with New Zealand residency.
About 70 police, some armed, raided 10 properties and also arrested the
website's chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, 38, chief technical officer
and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, 40, both also from Germany, and Dutch
national Bram van der Kolk, 29, who is also a New Zealand resident.
New Zealand police seized millions of dollars worth of assets, which
included luxury cars such as a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, from the
group, dubbed the "Mega Conspiracy" by prosecutors. They also seized more
than NZ$10 million ($8 million) from financial institutions.
"The FBI contacted New Zealand Police in early 2011 with a request to assist
with their investigation into the Mega Conspiracy," said Detective
Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organised & Financial Crime Agency New
Zealand.
"All the accused have been indicted in the United States. We will continue
to work with the U.S. authorities to assist with the extradition proceedings
," Wormald said in a statement.
The men appeared briefly in an Auckland court on Friday and were remanded in
custody until Monday for a bail hearing.
"We have nothing to hide," Kim Dotcom said from the dock after his lawyer
opposed media cameras in the court, reported New Zealand media.
HACKERS RETALIATE
Vocal critics of the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and Protect IP
Act (PIPA), quickly showed their opposition to the shutdown of Megaupload.
com, with hackers attacking the public websites of the Justice Department,
the world's largest music company Universal Music, and the two big trade
groups that represent the music and film industries.
"The government takes down Megaupload? 15 minutes later Anonymous takes down
government & record label sites," a member of Anonymous said via Twitter.
Representatives with the Justice Department and Recording Industry
Association of America declined comment on the attacks. Officials with
Universal Music could not immediately be reached.
Motion Picture Association of America spokesman Howard Gantman said his
group was working with law enforcement to identify the attackers.
The Mega Conspiracy group was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more
than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175
million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising, according to the
indictment unsealed on Thursday.
"In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides fast reproduction and
distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its servers
located around the world," the indictment said.
U.S. Justice Department officials said that the estimate of $500 million in
economic harm to copyright holders was on the low end and likely
significantly more.
The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to
commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and
conspiracy to commit racketeering.
RACKETEERING, MONEY LAUNDERING
If convicted, the maximum penalties are 20 years for conspiracy to commit
racketeering and to commit money laundering and five years for each count of
copyright infringement and five years for conspiracy to commit copyright
infringement.
The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered
in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom. A lawyer
who has previously worked with Megaupload was not immediately available for
comment.
Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and
50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was
estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet.
Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a
link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and
pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others
to publish the links, the indictment said.
Users could purchase memberships to the site to obtain faster upload and
download services, the primary source of revenue. Material that was not
regularly downloaded was deleted and financial incentives were offered for
popular content, according to the charges.
The web page with the link to the copyrighted material would include
advertisements, another source of revenue.
If copyright holders complained about a specific link to the website,
prosecutors said that Megaupload.com would remove that link but scores of
others existed to the same material, according to prosecutors.
Other material found uploaded included child pornography and terrorism
propaganda videos, according to the indictment. The U.S. government's
investigation began in March 2010. | g*******a
发帖数: 31586 | | s********y
发帖数: 4047 | 3 re！
【在 g*******a 的大作中提到】
: WTF我最喜欢的网站之一
| a*o
发帖数: 25262 | 4 There will be more like this since Chris Dodd is now:
Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America | g*******a
发帖数: 31586 | 5
您在那里都干了毛？
【在 s********y 的大作中提到】
: re！
| H***g
发帖数: 1953 | 6 奶奶的，就这样没了。
【在 g*******a 的大作中提到】
: WTF我最喜欢的网站之一
| m*****5
发帖数: 23482 | 7 SO WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD BOOKS? | s********y
发帖数: 4047 | 8 download所有hbo的show 哈哈
【在 g*******a 的大作中提到】
:
: 您在那里都干了毛？
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