Showing posts with label megaupload. Show all posts
Showing posts with label megaupload. Show all posts

Friday, 9 November 2012

Megaupload Successor Shut Down Before Debut

Gabon minister suspends Me.ga domain, with upcoming cloud storage site branded as cyber crime.

Despite the U.S. government warning Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom not to launch the file-sharing's site successor in the form of 'Mega', he recently announced its release date, with the holding page for the website apparently receiving millions of hits soon after.

In order to avoid the possibility of the U.S. seizing the domain as it did with Megaupload.com, Dotcom purchased the Gabon-based domain .ga. However, Blaise Louembe, Gabon's communications minister, won't allow the domain to go live.

Louembe has said www.me.ga will be suspended and stressed the miniature West African nation "cannot serve as a platform or screen for committing acts aimed at violating copyrights, nor be used by unscrupulous people."

Ira Rothken, the attorney overseeing Megaupload's defense (Dotcom faces extradition to the United States), confirmed that the new site will not be available at Me.ga, but the service is still scheduled for a release.

"The [new] site is not even functional yet," Rothken told CNET. "MegaUpload and Kim are innocent and presumed innocent. It sounds like a lack of net neutrality in Gabon...We're just going to use a different domain."

Mega is promised to be raid-proof through an "Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm". Dotcom stressed the website is not "a giant middle finger to Hollywood and the DoJ" -- its rules will allow copyright holders to send the DMCA a takedown notice to delete copyright-infringing content.
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Friday, 20 January 2012

Retaliation in Megaupload shutdown by hacker group Anonymous

It was only a matter of time before there was retaliation in the shutting down of on-line site Megaupload, but many including myself are surprised at how quick the internet community has acted.  After the file-sahring website was closed down, there was almost an immediate response from hacker group Anonymous, a group who states that it fights for the freedom of information on the net.

Here's the story -


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.

US authorities shut down Megaupload.com over copyright infringement
The homepage of the website Megaupload.com Photo: AP
By , Technology Correspondent
10:44AM GMT 20 Jan 2012
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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 attacks on official websites were only briefly effective but Universal Music remains offline.
Security experts warned that Anonymous was using a new tactic that meant people might unknowingly participate in its attacks.
"In the past, Anonymous has encouraged supporters to install a program called LOIC, which allows computers to join in an attack on a particular website, blasting it with unwanted traffic," said Graham Cluley of Sophos.
"This change in tactic from Anonymous, which allows attacks to be launched by simply clicking on a link, means that internet users need to be extremely careful when clicking on unknown URLs or they could unwittingly be joining this latest zombie army."
It marks a further escalation of the battle between copyright holders, who say the film and music industries are being badly damaged by digital piracy, and those who oppose regulation of the internet.
This week saw an unprecedented protest against stricter enforcement of copyright online by major web organisations including Wikipedia, which made its English version inaccessible for 24 hours. The blackout was designed to galvanise opposition to Sopa and Pipa, two pieces of legislation under consideration in Congress that would make it easier to cut off pirate websites.
The action against Megaupload.com is being touted as one the biggest copyright cases in US history, but a Department of Justice official said the timing of the arrests and unsealing of the case were not related to the battle on Capitol Hill.
A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 web address associated with Megaupload.com be seized. Some 20 search warrants were executed in the United States and eight other countries and about $50 million in assets were also seized.
The website acted as a “cyber locker”, allowing users to upload large files for others to download for free. Dozens of similar services exist, but Megaupload.com was the biggest.
Users could also pay at least $9.99 per month for a premium membership, to receive faster downloads. Megaupload.com boasted of accounting for four percent of all traffic on the internet and receiving 50 million visitors per day.
Megaupload.com even claimed support from popular artists including Will.I.am and Kanye West, who both appeared in a video promoting the website.
The two companies associated with Megaupload.com, as well as seven men who allegedly ran it, now, however, face charges of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and criminal copyright infringement.
Four of the men, including Kim Dotcom, the alleged leader of the enterprise, were arrested yesterday in Auckland, New Zealand. A flamboyant 37-year-old German, Dotcom is also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and has several previous convictions for computer crimes. All the men face up to 20 years imprisonment.
The case against them alleges they did not respond to complaints of infringement by copyright holders and “and deliberately misrepresented to copyright holders that they had removed infringing content”.
“When notified by a rights holder that a file contained infringing content... the conspirators would disable only a single link to the file, deliberately and deceptively leaving the infringing content in place to make it seamlessly available to millions of users to access through any one of the many duplicate links,” the Department of Justice alleged.
It said the Metropolitan Police assisted in the investigation. A spokesman for the Met was not immediately able to say what help British authorities gave.

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US authorities shut down Megaupload.com over copyright infringement


US authorities shut down Megaupload.com over copyright infringement

A major internet content hosting website, Megaupload.com, its founders and several employees have been charged by US authorities for a massive copyright infringement scheme, the latest skirmish in a battle against piracy of movies and music.

US authorities shut down Megaupload.com over copyright infringement
The homepage of the website Megaupload.com Photo: AP
6:21AM GMT 20 Jan 2012
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The indictment and arrests of four company executives comes as debate in Washington reaches a fever pitch over online piracy as lawyers try to craft legislation cracking down on it while trying to avoid censoring the internet.
The group, dubbed by prosecutors as "Mega Conspiracy," was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175 million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.
"In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides fast reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its servers located around the world," the indictment said.
US Justice Department officials said that the estimate of $500 million in economic harm to copyright holders was on the low end and likely significantly more.
A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 domain names associated with the group be seized. Further, some 20 search warrants were executed in the United States and eight other countries and about $50 million in assets and targeted sites were also seized.
The founders of the company – Kim Dotcom, who is also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and Mathias Ortmann – were charged. The company's chief marketing and sales officer, Finn Batato, head of development Sven Echternach and other company officials were also charged.
Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and another individual charged were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, by local authorities on Thursday and will face extradition hearings, the US Justice Department said. Echternach and two others charged remain at large.
The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.
If convicted, the maximum penalties are 20 years for conspiracy to commit racketeering and to commit money laundering and five years for each count of copyright infringement and five years for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.
The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom. A lawyer who has previously worked with Megaupload was not immediately available for comment.
The charges emerge as the US Congress is struggling over legislation sought by the movie and music industries to crack down on internet piracy and theft of content. Major internet sites like Google and Facebook complained that such legislation as it was drafted would lead to censorship.
A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests and unsealing of the case were not related to the battle in Congress. Hours after announcing the indictment and arrests, the Justice Department's website was inaccessible.
Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the internet.
Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others to publish the links, the indictment said.
Users could purchase memberships to the site to obtain faster upload and download services, the primary source of revenue. Material that was not regularly downloaded was deleted and financial incentives were offered for popular content, according to the charges.
The web page with the link to the copyrighted material would include advertisements, another source of revenue.
If copyright holders complained about a specific link to the website, prosecutors said that Megaupload.com would remove that link but scores of others existed to the same material, according to prosecutors.
Other material found uploaded included child pornography and terrorism propaganda videos, according to the indictment. The US government's investigation began in March 2010.


To see the article with comments, go here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/9026766/US-authorities-shut-down-Megaupload.com-over-copyright-infringement.html
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