Neither SOPA nor PIPA have been voted on or signed yet, but the feds have gone and pulled a fast one showing the might of a potentially terrible future if these laws were to be enacted. The scary thing is this was done with power already available to the United States Government.
Just earlier today, MegaUpload was attacked on all sides and brought to its knees. On January 5, 2012, corporations MegaUpload Unlimited and Vestor Limited were inducted by a grand jury in Virginia and charged with “engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.” [TorrentFreak] Not only that but the Department of Justice is claiming that caused $500 million in revenue loss to entertainment industries and rounded up $175 million in “criminal proceeds.” Datacenters within the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands were raided An excess of 20 search warrants were also executed to round up involved persons within the United States and 8 other countries.
One of them happens to be the founder of MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom
A puzzling thing is that Kim claimed not long ago that
“Mega has nothing to fear. Our business is legitimate and protected by the DMCA and similar laws around the world. We work with the best lawyers and play by the rules.”
“We take our legal obligations seriously. Mega’s war chest is full and we have strong supporters backing us.”
Well where is your DMCA now, Dotcom?
But you’ll never ghuess who isn’t in jail and happens to be the CEO of MegaUpload
Yep that’s right! Swizz Beats is the apparent CEO. Where is he now? We honestly don’t know. What we do know is that he isn’t in jail with all those involved with the whole ordeal.
Gizmodo has also shared some interesting developments:
Update: The WSJ says seven Megaupload employees are under arrest, with four already locked down—four of them in New Zealand! No word if one of them is Swizzy himself.
Update 2: As of 13 hours ago on Twitter, Mr. Beatz did not seem to give a [expletive] about anything.
Update 3: The AP reports the following statement from Megaupload: “The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch.”
Well, not really, no.
Update 4: The Department of Justice has issued a gleeful statement regarding the takedown, coordinated with police around the world, calling it “among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States,” and listed the individual charged with “racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.”
Update 5: The Next Web shares the the full 72 page indictment. That’s a lot of indictment.
To get their take on the ordeal head here.
If this is just a peek, then the Internet better brace itself. Note how this happened the day after the anti-SOPA blackout, the largest online protest in history.
UPDATE: Apparently there’s a new MegaUpload website in the works. if your interested, here it is http://109.236.83.66/. Also worthy of a note Lamar Smith Kills SOPA Once and For All…Kind Of
McAkins Online 