(AFP) Posted Thursday January 19, 2012– 2:00pm
Megaupload.com,
one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down and
seven people charged with copyright infringement and other crimes, US
authorities announced Thursday.
The founder of the Hong Kong-based
Megaupload was among four people arrested in connection with what the
Justice Department and FBI described as "among the largest criminal
copyright cases ever brought by the United States."
In a
statement, the Justice Department and FBI said the seven were
"responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of
copyrighted works, through Megaupload.com and other related sites."
They
generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and caused "more
than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners," the statement
said, by offering pirated copies of movies, TV programs and other
content.
The announcement of the indictment came one day after
Wikipedia, Google and other websites staged a protest against
congressional legislation intended to crack down on online piracy.
Megaupload
Ltd and another company, Vestor Ltd, were indicted by a grand jury in
Virginia and charged with racketeering conspiracy, various copyright
infringement counts and conspiring to commit money laundering.
Among
those indicted was the founder of Megaupload and sole shareholder of
Vestor, Kim Dotcom, 37, a resident of Hong Kong and New Zealand who is
also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor.
The others
charged are Finn Batato, 38, of Germany, Julius Bencko, 35, of Slovakia,
Sven Echternach, 39, of Germany, Mathias Ortmann, 40, of Germany,
Andrus Nomm, 32, of Estonia, and Bram van der Kolk, 29, of the
Netherlands.
The Justice Department and FBI said Dotcom, Batato,
Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested on Thursday in Auckland, New
Zealand, by local authorities on the basis of arrest warrants requested
by the United States.
Bencko, Echternach and Nomm remain at large.
The
Justice Department and FBI said $50 million in assets was seized during
the operation along with 18 domain names. Attempts to connect to Megaupload.com were unsuccessful on Thursday.
Conspiracy
to commit racketeering and conspiracy to commit money laundering each
carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison while five years in prison
is the maximum punishment for the copyright infringement charges.
Copyright © 2012 AFP
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