FBI shuts down Megaupload.com

FBI shuts down Megaupload 24 hours after Swizz Beatz revealed as CEO

January 19, 2012 | Sean Ludwig
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Federal prosecuters have shut down popular file-sharing site Megaupload.com and charged its founders with a number of felonies, according to a statement by the Department of Justice and the FBI.
The DOJ indictment alleges that a vast criminal enterprise led by Kim Dotcom has caused more than $500 million in harm to copyright owners, while generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds. Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited, and has vigoursly defended Megaupload as a legitimate website and said previously that the site took down piracy violators in accordance with DMCA rules.
Megaupload was at one time the 13th most popular website on the Internet. Similar sites to Megaupload like MediaFire, YouSendIt and Rapidshare provide file-sharing services, so we wonder if the government intends to target them as well.
The government has also charged the following individuals in the indictment:
Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested today in Auckland, New Zealand.
Also coming out today is the surprising fact that musician and producer (and Alicia Keys’ husband) Swiss Beatz is actually the CEO of Megaupload. The New York Post “outed” Beatz yesterday, and said Beatz got his musician friends in hot water for making a music video promoting the service. Beatz was not named in the federal indictment.

One of my favorite sites to watch movies and tv shows...

Megaupload defendants’ property includes 15 Mercedes, a Lamborghini, a Maserati, and a Rolls

January 19, 2012 | Meghan Kelly
7 Comments


The Department of Justice has charged Megaupload with a “mega conspiracy” that, it alleges, netted the company’s executives a vast cache of money and luxury cars.
The indictment (see below for the full text in Scribd) refers to Megaupload’s offenses as the “Mega Conspiracy.” The company has been charged with five different counts concerning copyright infringement and money laundering. According to the indictment, Megaupload’s offenses include:

1. Running Megavideo.com, which streams copyright infringed television shows and movies
2. “Willfully reproduced and distributed” copyrighted content on its servers
3. Offering money as an incentive to upload infringing content between the dates of Septmeber 2005 and July 2011
4. Not terminating copyright offending accounts, as it states it can do in the Megaupload terms of service
5. “Made no significant effort to identify users” of the site, uploaders of copyrighted content, or the content itself

If found guilty, the defendants could spend up to 20 years in jail and might be liable for up to $175 million in fines.
“It’s really that inducement scenario that harkens back to the days of Napster,” said Owen Seitel of Idell & Sietel LLP, an entertainment and IP law firm. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the site totally shut down and never came back.”
By inducement, Seitel is referring to the action of offering financial compensation in exchange for uploading copyrighted content. On big sites like these, he explained, there is bound to be copyrighted material floating on the servers. But there are “safe harbors” that third-party content sites can take to protect themselves. One of these is complying with “notice and take down structures,” or flagging when copyrighted content comes into the system and then removing it. According to the indictment, Megaupload did not comply by flagging or removing content.
What’s really eye-opening about this indictment is the property that the Feds have seized from the defendants. It lists a number of bank accounts, PayPal accounts, 15 Mercedes-Benz vehicles, a Rolls-Royce with the license plate “GOD,” a rare Lamborghini and a Maserati. It seems the defendants had a number of vehicles with creative license plates including “HACKER,” “POLICE,” “STONED,” “GOOD,” “CEO,” and the ominous “GUILTY.” (See below for the full list.)
In addition, the indictment alleges the company or its associates spent a total of almost $8 million on yacht rentals in the Mediterranean from April to June 2011.
Seitel explained “indictments by their nature are overreaching” and that these allegations should be taken with a grain of salt.
Prior to being shut down by the DOJ, Megaupload released a statement calling the accusation of mass copyright-infringement “grotesquely overblown.” Indeed, a number of music celebrities have come out in support of Megaupload, prior to today’s events. The company’s new CEO, Swizz Beatz, is a musical artist himself and is married to singer Alicia Keys.
“It doesn’t surpise me to see celebrities on the side of the people when they’ve already been paid,” said Seitel, “It’s really not their content getting ripped off, it’s the studios’.”
In response to the indictment, hacker collective Anonymous took down the Department of Justice’s website, along with other music label sites. According to a tweet by @YourAnonNews, an impressive 5,635 Anonymous members contributed to the site attacks. It is rumored the group is planning to attack WhiteHouse.gov. The take down tactic being used is called LOIC, otherwise known as a low orbit ion cannon. LOIC is a public system that can be used to perform denial of service attacks.
The five different counts Megaupload faces include conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, criminal copyright infringement by distributing a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution on a computer network & aiding and abetting of criminal copyright infringement, and criminal copyright infringement by electronic means & aiding and abetting of criminal copyright infringement.
Here’s the full list of seized goods, not counting bank accounts:

• 2010 Maserati GranCabrio, VIN ZAMKM45B000051328, License Plate No. “M-FB 212” or “DH-GC 470”, registered to FINN BATATO;
• 2009 Mercedes-Benz E500 Coupe, VIN WDD20737225019582, License Plate No. “FEG690”;
• 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, VIN WDB2093422F165517, License Plate No. “GOOD”;
• 2004 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG 5.5L Kompressor, VIN WDB2093422F166073, License Plate No. “EVIL”;
• 2010 Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG L, VIN WDD2211792A324354, License Plate No. “CEO”;
• 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drop Head Coupe, VIN SCA2D68096UH07049; License Plate No. “GOD”;
• 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, VIN WDD2120772A103834, License Plate No. “STONED”;
• 2010 Mini Cooper S Coupe, VIN WMWZG32000TZ03651, License Plate No. “V”;
• 2010 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, VIN WDC1641772A608055, License Plate No. “GUILTY”;
• 2007 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG, VIN WDD2163792A025130, License Plate No. “KIMCOM”;
• 2009 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, VIN WDC1641772A542449, License Plate No. “MAFIA”;
• 2010 Toyota Vellfire, VIN 7AT0H65MX11041670, License Plate Nos. “WOW” or “7”;
• 2011 Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG, VIN WDB4632702X193395, License Plate Nos. “POLICE” or “GDS672”;
• 2011 Toyota Hilux, VIN MR0FZ29G001599926, License Plate No. “FSN455”;
• Harley Davidson Motorcycle, VIN 1HD1HPH3XBC803936, License Plate No. “36YED”;
• 2010 Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG, VIN WDD2163742A026653, License Plate No. “HACKER”;
• 2005 Mercedes-Benz A170, VIN WDD1690322J184595, License Plate No. “FUR252”;
• 2005 Mercedes-Benz ML500, VIN WDC1641752A026107, License Plate No. DFF816;
• Fiberglass sculpture, imported from the United Kingdom with Entry No. 83023712;
• 1957 Cadillac El Dorado, VIN 5770137596;
• 2010 Sea-Doo GTX Jet Ski, VIN YDV03103E010;
• 1959 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible, VIN 59F115669;
• Von Dutch Kustom Motor Bike, VIN 1H9S14955BB451257;
• 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, VIN WDB2094421T067269;
• 2010 Mini Cooper S Coupe, VIN WMWZG32000TZ03648 License Plate No. “T”;
• 1989 Lamborghini LM002, VIN ZA9LU45AXKLA12158, License Plate No. “FRP358”
• 2011 Mercedes-Benz ML63, VIN 4JGBB7HB0BA666219;
• Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV;
• Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV;
• Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV;
• Devon Works LLC, Tread #1 time piece;
• Artwork, In High Spirits, Olaf Mueller photos from The Cat Street Gallery;
• Sharp 108” LCD Display TV;
• Sharp 108” LCD Display TV;
• Sony PMW-F3K Camera S/N 0200231;
• Sony PMW-F3K Camera S/N 0200561;
• Artwork, Predator Statue;
• Artwork, Christian Colin;
• Artwork, Anonymous Hooded Sculpture;
• 2009 Mercedes-Benz ML350 CDI 4MATIC Off-Roader;
• Sharp LC-65XS1M 65” LCD TV;
• Sharp LC-65XS1M 65” LCD TV;
• TVLogic 56” LUM56W TV;
• Sixty (60) Dell R710 computer servers.

Check out the Megaupload indictment on Scribd, or read it in the embedded window below:

Before shutdown, Megaupload ate up more corporate bandwidth than Dropbox

By Jon Brodkin | Published about 15 hours ago

Before being shut down by the feds today, the file-sharing site Megaupload was extraordinarily popular with home Internet users—so much so that the file downloading habit was spilling over into the workplace in a significant way.
The shutdown of the site—and the arrests of four of Megaupload's leaders today in New Zealand—are bound to have major consequences in the file sharing market. Although Megaupload's presence in the corporate world may not have matched its overall share of Internet usage, its consumption of bandwidth was outpacing Dropbox and numerous other business-focused file-sharing services, according to a new study. BitTorrent is also quite popular in the workplace, and some people are even installing Tor clients on their work machines to conceal details of their Internet usage, the study found.
The data comes from security vendor Palo Alto Networks, which used its technology to monitor a week's worth of traffic traversing the Internet gateway at 1,636 businesses around the world, mostly at medium to large businesses with at least 2,500 users. The eighth version of the resulting report, published every six months, came out this week.
"The key point is that this is real network traffic, it's not a survey. It's not speculation on anyone's part," said Matt Keil, Palo Alto senior research analyst.
We spoke with Palo Alto prior to today's news that Megaupload.com was taken down by the FBI, with the Justice Department unsealing an indictment that charges seven people associated with the site with "widespread online copyright infringement." We were planning to report on the data anyway—and today's news makes it even more interesting.
Megaupload usage was found on the networks of 57 percent of the 1,636 organizations in the study. That's quite a bit less than the 76 percent of networks with Dropbox traffic, and equal to the 57 percent of networks that have Box.net traffic. However, in terms of bandwidth, Megaupload accounted for 20,405 gigabytes, compared to 17,573 for Dropbox and just 86 gigabytes for the business-focused Box.net. The Dropbox numbers, indicating lots of traffic but a smaller average file size, suggest a mix of personal and work usage. Another consumer-oriented service accounting for a chunk of traffic was Filesonic, which appeared on 52 percent of networks and consumed 4,058 gigabytes.
Overall, Palo Alto tracked 76,225 gigabytes worth of traffic being used up by some 65 browser-based file sharing applications (including Dropbox, even though the Dropbox service can be used outside the browser). Counting only Web-based file-sharing, then, Megaupload accounted for more than a quarter of corporate traffic.
However, Web-based file sharing is still just a small part of overall Internet usage in corporations. Looking at all types of applications and use cases, Palo Alto found 10.9 million gigabytes of consumption across the 1,636 companies. In fact, the BitTorrent peer-to-peer service alone accounted for much more traffic than all browser-based file-sharing applications combined, with 177,513 gigabytes of bandwidth consumed, or less than 2 percent of all corporate Internet traffic.
Proportionally, BitTorrent and Megaupload likely have a much greater share of the Internet as a whole than they do in corporate networks. One previous study by Envisional pegged BitTorrent as taking up 13.5 percent of peak bandwidth usage in the US and 28.4 percent in Europe, and also said downloads from cyberlocker sites such as Megaupload, Rapidshare and HotFile take up 7 percent of all Internet traffic.
Still, when Palo Alto reports back to customers on the usage of Web-based file sharing, the reaction is usually "I knew I had some of these applications on my network, but I didn't realize I had so many," Keil said.
Although Dropbox seems to straddle the line between personal and business use, in most cases there's usually a clear distinction between "tools that help me get my job done and tools that help us stay entertained," with business-focused services usually transferring smaller files, Keil said. Yousendit, for example, is mostly used for productivity and was found in 51 percent of networks, but accounted for just 423 gigabaytes.
Megaupload clocks in with big numbers because of the types of files being shared. "Of the top-20 file downloads found on December 5th, 2011, six of the files were software applications, eight were games or game demos, and six were movie trailers," the Palo Alto report states.
Interestingly, Tor client software for encrypting a user's traffic was found on 13 percent of corporate networks. Palo Alto didn't detail this usage in its report because of how low it was, accounting for 0.077 percent of bandwidth. Companies with a Tor presence might have it on just one or two machines. But certainly, it's something any IT security pro will want to locate and get rid of.
Tor "is not really that trivial of a tool to use," said Wade Williamson, Palo Alto senior security analyst. "Tor is kind of a pre-requisite tool if you're going to be a hacker. If I'm going to attack someone's network i'm definitely going to use Tor or something like it so people can't follow my footsteps and see where they come from." Palo Alto's research didn't determine what exactly people were using Tor to do. "It's hard to say if they're hackers," Wade said. "Someone could have heard this is the best way to anonymize yourself. We're not saying all these are hackers, but there is definitely a security issue there."
It turns out that Tor's presence has remained steady in the 13 to 14 percent range in all of Palo Alto's previous reports, the company said. Megaupload traffic also hasn't changed much recently. But it will, if the site stays shut down for long.

Anonymous attacks FBI website over Megaupload raids

American government and entertainment industry websites have been crippled after the “hacktivist” group Anonymous launched a series of cyber attacks in retaliation for the closure of Megaupload.com.

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Kim Dotcom, AKA Kim Schmitz, who faces up to 20 years imprisonment for running Megaupload.com









By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent

10:44AM GMT 20 Jan 2012

28 Comments


The filesharing website, which allowed users to freely exchange large video and audio files, was closed overnight and its operators were charged with criminal copyright infringement. They are accused of deliberately ignoring requests from film and music firms to remove pirated material, while making more than $175m from membership fees and advertising.

Anonymous supporters attacked the websites of the Department of Justice, the FBI and Universal Music Group, among others. The hacktivists used a technique called a Distributed Denial of Service to overload their targets with web traffic and effectively force them offline.

The Twitter account @AnonymousIRC, one the most prominent of dozens associated with the "leaderless" group, taunted authorities.

“We sincerely hope you like your own medicine!,” it said in a comment directed at the FBI.

The counter attack by Anonymous in response to the shutdown of Megaupload was impressive:
This is a very interesting display of protesting power in the Internet age and could have huge ramifications. Lawmakers and law enforcement may begin to think twice about attempting to rule the Internet.

For decades (nay- centuries now) various elected officials/government bureaucrats have foolishly portrayed government as being able to overpower individual free-market avenues, and it's extremely rare such bravado could actually be backed up.

Nowhere is this more foolishly proffered than when one or more government bureaucRats gravely advises the world that they can control one or more components of the WWW

Smart minded tech heads literally worldwide and numbering literally in the millions will always retain final control of where, when and how the WWW operates

barman said:

For decades (nay- centuries now) various elected officials/government bureaucrats have foolishly portrayed government as being able to overpower individual free-market avenues, and it's extremely rare such bravado could actually be backed up.

Nowhere is this more foolishly proffered than when one or more government bureaucRats gravely advises the world that they can control one or more components of the WWW

Smart minded tech heads literally worldwide and numbering literally in the millions will always retain final control of where, when and how the WWW operates

Click to expand...

:toast:

I would not be pissing off a group of hackers that have the ability to take down all government websites.

Kim Dotcom....what a name

Al Gore runs the internet from his basement.

maxdemo said:

Kim Dotcom....what a name

Click to expand...

That prick had many names in the past: Kim Schmitz, Kimvestor, Kimble (one of his best creations since he's been on the run for a long time) up to stuff like Kim Dotcom or Kim Tim Jim Vestor...at least that guy is creative and seems to be involved whenever there pops up a new way to defraud people or scam...

site will reopen at megaupload.whatever in a week tops

-murph

Murphy8276 said:

site will reopen at megaupload.whatever in a week tops

-murph

Click to expand...

I hope your right. I use Megaupload quite a bit for downloading big files like dvd's.