Leading file-sharing website, Megaupload, has been shut down by US federal prosecutors.
Megaupload
On the back of the internet’s anti-SOPA protests and blackouts, Megaupload, whose CEO is super-producer and Mr Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, has been shut down for copyright violations.
According to the New York Times, the FBI raided the offices and charged seven people with “running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy”.
The site facilitates users uploading large files and providing a link to share them online. Legally, it could be used to transfer work projects to others around the world, but anecdotally it was often used to uploaded copyrighted media.
The grand jury indictment accuses the company of “causing $500 million in damages to copyright owners and of making $175 million through selling ads and premium subscriptions”.
Twenty search warrants were issued, four of the seven accused were arrested, and $50 million worth of assets were seized. The charges could result in up to 20 years of prison sentences.
Megaupload’s lawyers Ira P. Rothken, said “Megaupload believes the government is wrong on the facts, wrong on the law.”
In December last year, Swizz Beatz drafted Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, will.i.am and his wife Alicia Keys to appear on ‘The Mega Song’ promoting the company, which resulted in a copyright dispute from Universal Music.
