Feds Kill Megaupload

The day after what was widely regarded as a moderately successful internet protest against SOPA and PIPA and other bad things, the powers that be decided to have the FBI remind everyone of who is really still in charge. It's as if they were saying: "SOPA? We don't need no stinkin' SOPA!"

The Associated Press reports:

One of the world's most popular file-sharing sites was shut down Thursday, and its founder and several company officials were accused of facilitating millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content.

A federal indictment accused Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to make it easier for authorities to go after sites with pirated material, especially those with overseas headquarters and servers.

[. . . .]

Megaupload is based in Hong Kong, but some of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va., which gave federal authorities jurisdiction, the indictment said.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that, "This kind of application of international criminal procedures to Internet policy issues sets a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?"

Before Megaupload 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...." the statement said.

[. . . .]

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.

Megaupload recently claimed to have 1 billion total users, 50 million per day. It remains to be seen whether the feds have the appetite to start going after individuals users.

Lifehacker has responded today by publishing an article titled, "Five Great Alternatives to MegaUpload."

The work goes on.