 |
| Megaupload.com was shut down by FBI on Thursday. |
A day after a 24-hour blackout of popular Websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and BoingBoing, which were protesting a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills(SOPA/PIPA) making their way through Congress, FBI stepped in and shut down one of the world's largest file-sharing sites Megaupload.com, also charged four people connected to it in New Zealand and seized Millions in cash from the authorities. However three of the higher authorities are on the run and thought not to be in New Zealand.
 |
| Kim Dotcom former CEO of Megaupload.com was Captured by FBI |
Online piracy by the two companies - Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd - made more than $ 175 million in criminal proceeds and caused more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners
 |
| Banner on Megaupload.com after taken down by FBI. |
However, after megaupload was shuttered by FBI, Anonymous - a group of hackers retaliated by taking down DOJ and many White House websites. Fbi.gov was also taken down but was recovered lately. The hacking group released a document on file-sharing site Pastebin.com listing the websites they planned to attack along with the names of US Democratic Party leaders and MPAA employees and their families.
The details included property values, work and home phone numbers and addresses as well as the names, ages and schools of the member's children.
|
| A screen shot of the dossier of MPAA and US Democratic Party members and their families compiled and published by Anonymous. | |
The document posted on postbin.com also said 'We Anonymous are launching our largest attack ever on government and music industry sites. Lulz. 'The FBI didn't think they would get away with this did they? They should have expected us.'"Megaupload was taken down w/out SOPA being law. Now imagine what will happen if it passes. The Internet as we know it will end. FIGHT BACK," wrote @YourAnonNews on Twitter in a reference to the ongoing battle in Congress over the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
This attack is thought to be the largest ever with 5000+ people involved in bringing down the government and entertainment industry websites.
Megaupload was unique not only because of the size and amount of contents, but also because of the high level of support from celebrities, musicians and other content producers that are the most common victims of copyright infringement and piracy.
For many users, the shutdown had nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with the fact that their backups and data were now gone.
If convicted each individual could be jailed for up to 20 years on the charges of five counts of racketeering, copyright infringement and conspiracy.
