Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.
The site's founder and others 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.
Investigators denied a link to recent protests against proposed piracy laws, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On Wednesday, thousands of websites took part in a "blackout" to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).
Megaupload is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005
lol noob!!!!shame, I like these sights because they can be extremely useful for all types of applications, but thieves will end up ruining everyone's fun in the end.
Is it possible to run some type of effective filtering system to protect stolen content shared between these services? ....I expect the response will be: "lol, noob!"
are the feds going after all of the file storage sites?
Good, I hated waiting 60 seconds to download something.
Good, I hated waiting 60 seconds to download something.
are the feds going after all of the file storage sites? it's not like megaupload isn't one of dozens.
The IP address of Megaupload.com is 174.140.154.23
The IP address 174.140.154.23 is assigned to Germany
Good, I hated waiting 60 seconds to download something.
um... im pretty sure a huge portion of megaupload was completely legit files too. i know i used their site for legal reasons all the time.
might as well shut down google for linking to a bunch of megaupload file pages too. this is what i thought net neutrality was about...
and lastly, i know this is beating an old drum, but i would have to imagine 90% of the illegal content shared on megaupload would have NEVER been paid for by anyone anyway. most people i know who pirate either cant afford the real thing or simply dont think the real thing is worth buying. and this isnt clothes were talking about, this is entertainment that is not a necessity.
i would imagine if megaupload pays for good lawyers they dont get charged with any crimes. they will probably still get shut down via a deal between them and the feds, but there are way too many discrepancies in these types of cases to really go after people criminally. the pirate bay anyone?
Just a guess. Kim Schmitz is from Germany but lives in Hong Kong.
Crazy, wasn't Megaupload pretty good about complying with DMCA take down notices and removing infringing content when it was brought to their attention? It's not their fault if users upload infringing content, DMCA safe harbor is supposed to protect services like this who make a good faith effort to comply with take down notices and remove copyrighted material that is hosted without permission.
Wonder who's next, Mediafire? Dropbox? It's not like pirates are going to disappear, they'll just move to a different service.