Social Media Site Megaupload Shut Down
So you may have heard that the social media site Megaupload shut down today. They are the first major victim of the anti-piracy bill, SOPA. Megaupload shut down just one day after the online SOPA protests in which many prominent webpages blacked out their pages for the day to boycott the new SOPA legislation. Well the FEDS wanted to make an example of Megaupload and show America that they are serious about stopping piracy.
Social Media Site Megaupload Shut Down | Justification
So just why was the social media site Megaupload shut down? Well the government claims that this was long overdue and that Megaupload has been violating copyright laws for years as reported by Time’s TechLand in their recent article on why the social media site Megaupload shut down:
An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy.
The websites founder, Kim Dotcom, was picked up by federal agents in New Zealand along with three other employees and are to appear in court soon to face copyright charges.
Social Media Site Megaupload Shut Down | Celebrity Support
The ironic part of this whole situation is that the site is being brought to court on charges of copyright infringement including pirating film and music, however surprisingly enough Megaupload has a ton of celebrity supporters.
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.
http://techland.time.com/2012/01/19/feds-shut-down-megaupload-com-file-sharing-website/
Megaupload’s CEO, Swizz Beatz, husband to Alicia Keys has not stepped forward with a statement as of yet. Whether or not Swizz Beatz will be prosecuted has yet to be determined.
Social Media Site Megaupload Shut Down | The Impact
Megaupload has stated that it is here to stay and that most of the internet traffic that it receives is legitimate. Many are angry over the shut down and are voicing out against it and other SOPA related incidents.
You see Megaupload isn’t like other Bittorrent sites, because they do charge for some of their services. For instance if you wanted to download a file at a faster speed then you can pay a nominal fee to do so. They also run paid ads on the site as well. When the social media site Megaupload shut down 150 million users were sorely disappointed and unable to share large files.
The site boasted 150 million registered users. A lawyer who represented the company in a lawsuit last year declined comment Thursday.
Megaupload is considered a “cyberlocker,” in which users can upload and transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, estimated that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.
http://techland.time.com/2012/01/19/feds-shut-down-megaupload-com-file-sharing-website/
Social Media Site Megaupload Shut Down | Anonymous Answers
Anonymous, the large network of hackers for social justice, are not going to take actions like this sitting down. After discovering that the social media site Megaupload shut down, Anonymous has claimed credit for shutting down the DOJ and the FBI websites, more to come tomorrow…
Image attribution: http://www.iconarchive.com/show/sleek-xp-software-icons-by-deleket/Megaupload-icon.html