Megaupload and Megavideo Banned and Shutdown by the FBI – Detailed Review
MegaUpload and MegaVideo, are one of the world’s largest file-swapping sites (actually one of the world’s largest websites, period).
They are one of the biggest and famous video sharing and file sharing sites. Megavideo operates 18 online properties.
Mostly they are well known for hosting and streaming tv shows, movies, videos and files. Megavideo was walking a fine line between encouraging piracy , enabling it and profiting from it. That being said, Megavideo was very prompt in responding to piracy complaints and took down any offending file or media that was brought to their notice in matter of hours.
The two file sharing giants was shut down yesterday by the US Justice Department and ICE. According to a federal indictment , seven individuals and two companies involved in the website are have been engaging in “a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. Coming just one day after many sites around the globe shut down to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills that are being deliberated in the US Senate, the timing of the raid is interesting. 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.
The U.S. Department of Justice shut down the Hong Kong-based file-sharing service Megaupload on Thursday during an ongoing investigation into the company’s alleged copyright infringement. MegaUpload.com and MegaVideo.com is down , and reports from the Associated Press say that is because the federal government took it down .
The Department of Justice’s website has been intermittently down and up in the past hour, and we can only imagine hackers and government agents fighting for control like a scene out of a movie. Anonymous took down CBS.com in a rather unusual manner earlier today. The FBI and Justice Department on their own initiative shut down megaupload.com, the biggest of thousands of file-sharing sites online, and arrested four of its top officials.
FBI(USA) urged by the Hollywood media companies executed warrants against the company and shut down their websites, seized their servers, domain names and various other properties in USA and other countries on 19th January 2012. This is the reason you can not access Megavideo, Megaupload and their sister sites.
Two corporation Megavideo Limited and Vestor Limited was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on January 5 2012 and charged with racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and criminal copyright infringement. If convicted it can mean a jail time of 56 years and fine of up to $175 Million dollars.
Seven people have been indicted so far
1. Kim Dotcom – The majority owner of Megavideo was arrested in Auckland , New Zealand
*Megavideo office in New Zealand.
2. Finn Batato – Chief Marketing Officer and a citizen and resident of Germany
3. Julius Bencko – Graphic Designer and a citizen and resident of Slovakia
4. Sven Echternach – Head of Business and a citizen and resident of Germany
5. Mathias Ortmann – Chief Technical Officer, Co-founder and director and a citizen of Germany.
6. Andrus Nomm – Head of Development and Software programmer and a resident of Estonia
7. Bram van der Kolk – Oversees network and programming and citizen of Denmark.
Kim Dotcom, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk were arrested in New Zealand by New Zealand authorities executing arrest warrants requested by the FBI , USA.
Julius Bencko, Sven Echternach and Andrus Nomm have evaded arrest and are allegedly on the run. FBI executed more than 20 search warrants in USA and eight other countries and seized $50 Million in assets.
Shortlink:
Recent Comments