Twenty four hours after Internet advocates held a GLOBAL online protest objecting to proposed anti-piracy legislation, which they claim is censorship at its worst and overreach at best, one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, MegaUpload.com, was shuttered by the FBI and arrest warrants served in New Zealand! [Draconian information control necessarily follows totalitarian Indefinite Detention law in the face of widespread, SUSTAINED, social paralysis/INACTION. As occurred in Nazi Germany, the best thing the civilised and educated German MASSES could do to stop Fascism's swift rise, was sit with their thumbs up their arses!]
The Associated Press reports:
An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy.
The Justice Department said in a statement that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Two other defendants are at large.
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.
Greg Sandoval at CNET adds:
According to the Justice Department, the indictment alleges that Megaupload is led by Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz, a German with a colorful history who was once convicted of a felony but he has repeatedly denied engaging in piracy.
DotCom and three others were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand by New Zealand police, "who executed provisional arrest warrants requested by the United States, Justice Department."
Along with Dotcom, Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand was also arrested. Authorities say that Dotcom founded Megaupload and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites.
"This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States," the Justice department said in a statement. The arrests "directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime."
But, as the BBC reports, MegaUpload disputes how its services have been depicted and challenges media outlets who have discredited their model:
Before it was shut down the site posted a statement saying: "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."
Copyright applies.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/19-4
by staff report via reed 2012-01-20 10:05:38
The official website for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation is the latest victim in a massive online attack against both the government and entertainment industry.
The Bureau’s official website, FBI.gov, went down Thursday evening after hacktivists participating in campaigns waged by the loose knit collective Anonymous attacked a series of sites in retaliation for a raid earlier in the day against the Megaupload service.
Following a federal raid that not only shut down the file sharing service Megaupload but also led to more than 20 warrants being served and at least seven arrests internationally, hacktivists took to the Web to respond. The result was an attack on the sites of several entertainment industry and government sites that crippled many of them. The websites for the US Department of Justice and Universal Music Group were among the first to go, with the sites for US Copyright Office, Warner Music, BMI, and RIAA following suit shortly after. At around 7:40 PM ET, FBI.gov finally went down.
Ongoing attacks have also been waged against WhiteHouse.gov, the official site for the Executive Branch of the United States.
“It was in retaliation for Megaupload,” Barrett Brown confirms to RT. A frequent collaborator with Anonymous, he is mastermind a separate campaign aimed at attacking Congressman that support the SOPA and PIPA legislations.
“We can expect a great deal of havoc of the sort we saw today. We’re going to see it in a stepped up fashion,” adds Brown.
Copyright applies.
Beware and be AWARE; Anonymous is a growing tsunami of opposition against criminal forces that have turned our democracies/governments against the people.
The Anonymous ARMY is overwhelming and increases in size and scope, DAILY; it is a direct consequence of the criminal actions of ruling elites and their puppet governments.
Be advised that every undemocratic, unpopular action forced onto the PEOPLE will earn the wrath of those that are capable of an EFFECTIVE, retaliatory RESPONSE. Fascists beware, your oppressive actions create massive opposite, un-equal, REACTIONS. Know that time/VICTORY favours the PEOPLE. Anonymous forms the vanguard of attack and offers effective RESISTANCE against the forces attempting to enslave the entire world.
Megaupload Op: Anonymous downs FBI, DoJ, music sites in biggest attack ever
http://rt.com/usa/news/crippled-fbi-megaupload-anonymous-239/