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FEDS SHUT DOWN MEGAUPLOAD FOR BOOTLEG MUSIC APNewsBreak: Feds shut down file-sharing websitePhoto: AP  Photo by AP January 19, 2012 — McLEAN, Virginia (AP) — One of the world's largest file-sharing sites was shut down Thursday, and its founder and several company executives were charged with violating piracy laws, federal prosecutors said.
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 said that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three other executives 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.
The Hong Kong-based company listed Swizz Beatz, a musician who married Keys in 2010, as its CEO. He was not named in the indictment and declined to comment through a representative. Before the site was taken down, it posted a statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive breaches of copyright laws were "grotesquely overblown."
"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," the statement said.
The site boasted 150 million registered users. A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined comment Thursday. Megaupload is considered a "cyberlocker," in which users can upload and transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, estimated that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.
The website allowed users to download films, TV shows, games, music and other content for free, but made money by charging subscriptions to people who wanted access to faster download speeds or extra content. The website also sold advertising.
The indictment was returned in the Eastern District of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction in part because some of the alleged pirated materials were hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Virginia. Dotcom, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual citizen of Finland and Germany, made more than $42 million from the conspiracy in 2010 alone, according to the indictment.
Dotcom is founder, former CEO and current chief innovation officer of Megaupload.
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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HELL NO FUCK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERS
what about Mediafire??
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Not yet...but it is on the chopping block. "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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hell I guess this weekend I'll download like 200 albums before the sites disappear... | |
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[Edited 1/19/12 14:08pm] MJ L.O.V.E: https://www.facebook.com/...689&type=2 / YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/us...nderSilent | |
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RIP Megaupload. 
aw shoot..i best get to my sites QUICK i will never dance | |
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Its pretty much going down folks, get ready for a huge change in what you do, sure its still going to find a way, but really who is gonna spend 10 hours of dead links looking for a crappy rihanna song? Filestube which is a filter to these sites is getting busted, Rapidshare which does what Mega does and MediaFire are gonna get served and probably be down very soon. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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I rarely use these sites, and when I do it's nothing officially released I grab. The torrent sites are probably next. Looks like it's back to old fashioned mail trading eventually | |
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All I can say is damn! | |
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You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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Eh, there'll always be alternatives.
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one or two things will happen because now corporate america is involved with govt, and they are policing not because they are gonna turn it into an economic opportunity. What some mentioned seems almost like it will happen, deals are gonna be struck between labels, companies whatever and these sites to have charges that go to the corporations and labels themselves to get a certain amount of downloads. i know people will always find a way around the loop, but its going to get really tough to find what you are looking for because sites will see that its really not worth the risk anymore. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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This is worse than when my dog died! | |
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Maybe I'm a tad bit naive, but it kinda reminds me of the Napster situation. Music industry was up in arms about it, and it was taken down to shut the record labels up, megaupload and all of these popular downloading/uploading sites will take the shaft for the same thing. Another desparate measure to save the industry perhaps? I don't think they GET IT though, the minute they start to capitalize on this thing, a new alternative or even a newer meduim will be born. | |
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Anonymous says it attacks DOJ site after feds shut down piracy hub Megaupload@CNNMoneyTech January 19, 2012: 6:13 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In one of the U.S. government's largest anti-piracy crackdowns ever, federal agents on Thursday arrested the leaders of and shut down Megaupload.com, a popular hub for illegal file sharing.
Hours later, Megaupload's fans turned the table on the feds. "Hacktivist" collective Anonymous said it set its sights on the U.S. Department of Justice and apparently knocked the agency's website offline.
"We are having website problems, but we're not sure what it's from," a DOJ spokeswoman told CNNMoney.
The DOJ website glitches came soon after various Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous took aim at the agency.
Anonymous's favorite weapon for these attacks is what's called a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, which directs a flood of traffic to a website and temporarily crashes it by overwhelming its servers. It doesn't actually involve any hacking or security breaches.
"One thing is certain: EXPECT US! #Megaupload" read one tweet from AnonOps that went out mid-afternoon.
One hour later, the same account tweeted a victory message: "Tango down!
http://universalmusic.com & http://www.justice.gov// #Megaupload" Universal Music's website also went down Thursday afternoon. The music company had been locked in a legal battle with Megaupload over a YouTube video that featured many of Universal Music's signed artists promoting Megaupload's site.
The websites of the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America also went down Thursday afternoon. On Twitter, AnonOps took credit for the crashes. The Anonymous attack came soon after the DOJ announced the indictment of seven individuals connected to Megaupload for allegedly operating an "international organized criminal enterprise responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of copyrighted works."
Authorities said the operation had generated more than $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and the sale of premium memberships.
According to the indictment, Megaupload, which launched in 2005, was once the 13th most visited website on the Internet, serving as a hub for distribution of copyrighted television shows, images, computer software and video games.
AND THE BACKLASH HAS BEGUN!!!
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato
https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0 | |
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Nah i hear what u are saying but this is much much bigger, these are the holding of files sites, napster was basically all up where everyone could see them, Megaupload, Fileserve, MediaFire, Rapishare etc...are all hosts, thats 100times more severe, because now the "hosts" are dropping. This in reality has nothing to do with saving the industry, thats a done deal for other reasons and downloading is the least of its worries, its like Prince said a few years back, "the reason this still isnt an issue is because all industries and govt hasnt been affected" but now the economy is way down and going down more, jobs lost, and other industries are being affected that are far greater than the music industry, music itself is irrelevant in this fight and always has been. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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I know the feds have been going after this site and others like it for some time now, but the timing of this information about the bust is interesting to say the least. You have a bunch of internet sites protesting SOPA and PIPA, trying to kill the two bills in Coingress that would basically allow the government to shut down websites at the request of corporate entertainment entities for copyright infringement without any grounds for doing so other than the alleged victim claiming that their work has been pirated. As the laws are written now, there is no way the sites being shut down have the power to fight back or defend themselves against such piracy allegations. The bills were basically being fast tracked through Congress until the big internet giants like Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, and others rose up in protest. Now some of the same senators who co-sponsored this legislation have publicly come out against these bills, and so has President Obama. Now I'm sure the RIAA, MPAA, and TV networks will use this news to justify passing SOPA and PIPA.
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Feds Shut Down Swizz Beat...s Indicted
No wonder Alicia Keys is hanging on tightly to music producer Squid Beaks: he’s worth untold millions! According to the NY Post, Swizz is one of the owners (along with a German guy) of the world’s largest file sharing site, Megaupload.com. Unfortunately, Megaupload.com was shut down today — and its employees were arrested and indicted by the feds for moving mass quantities of illegal music and movie files online. Ironically, Swizz Beatz is exactly the type of shady individual that the anti-piracy SOPA bill is targeting. This means Mr. Beaks himself could be in handcuffs very soon!
 will ALWAYS think of  like a "ACT OF GOD"! N another realm. mean of all people who might of been aliens or angels.if found out that wasn't of this earth, would not have been that surprised. R.I.P. | |
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" />SWIZZ BEATZ UNMASKED AS C... FROM FEDS
Music producer Swizz Beatz, who is married to musician Alicia Keys, is on the run from federal prosecutors, according to the Associated Press. Beatz, real name Kasseem Dean, 33, is listed as the CEO on the website of the Hong Kong-based file sharing website, Megaupload.com, which was shut down by feds today.
Yesterday, Swizz Beatz was unmasked as the CEO/owner of the world’s largest file sharing website by the NY Post, which alleged that Beatz got some of his celebrity friends to appear in a star-studded promotional vehicle for Megaupload.com. High powered celebrities such as Sean “Diddy” Combs, Kanye West, Floyd Mayweather, Serena Williams and others are seen happily promoting the illegal service in the video.
But after the video appeared on YouTube last month, Universal Music Group, issued a DMCA “take-down notice” to YouTube, saying the artists’ performances were unauthorized. Megaupload reps countersued Universal claiming to have “legally binding agreements with the performers that appear in the video…”
will ALWAYS think of like a "ACT OF GOD"! N another realm. mean of all people who might of been aliens or angels.if found out that wasn't of this earth, would not have been that surprised. R.I.P. | |
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the thing is that people have to look at every side of this, because i think when Google had the protest people on things like Facebook andTwitter were posting like they knew what they were talking about. One point is that sites liike these are just the hosts, but a federal shut down is big, this is not Prince serving them with a lawsuit if they play 1999 on youtube, basically a large part of the population wants this stuff for free, that much is true, and they hide behind the argument that i dont wanna pay for a shitty Rihanna album so i will download it for free because i can, now the "because i can" is going to go away, well at least not so easy to find and people are pissed? You had to know that something like this was gonna come, of course these things will still pop up, but if this shit goes down further and things get passed and it starts hitting YouTube and facebook when posting links to videos and songs, shit is gonna get ugly. Me i dont really care, i have stuff that i downloaded and honestly its rare that i liked it so much that i care about it, shit i like and artists i like or movies actors etc.. i still buy their stuff, so i dont really have a dog in this fight, though i am a creative artist in terms of theatre, film etc...so i wouldnt want megaupload hosting my work for free rather than someone paying for it to be honest. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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Damn who knew Swizz's dough was that deep? | |
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BklynBabe said: Damn who knew Swizz's dough was that deep? It's going to get ugly, I mean think about it, the money from accounts that mega upload sells has been going to him. The product mostly is copy written, which adds up to someone is going to owe some $$$ to buy his way out. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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Your post makes no sense at all. Speak English to us. | |
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So the guy they arrested calls himself Kim "Dotcom"? Prince, in you I found a kindred spirit...Rest In Paradise. | |
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The revolution has begun. | |
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Ohh purple joy oh purple bliss oh purple rapture! REAL MUSIC by REAL MUSICIANS - Prince "I kind of wish there was a reason for Prince to make the site crash more" ~~ Ben |
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