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Megaupload file-sharing site shut down !! - Printable Version

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Megaupload file-sharing site shut down !! - yakwetu - 01-20-2012

Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site's founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

In response, the hackers group Anonymous has targeted the FBI and US Department of Justice websites.

The news came a day after anti-piracy law protests, but investigators said they were ordered two weeks ago.

The US Justice Department said that Megaupload's two co-founders Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and Mathias Ortmann were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand along with two other employees of the business at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large.

"This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime," said a statement posted on its website.

The FBI website was intermittently unavailable on Thursday evening due to what officials said was being "treated as a malicious act".

The hackers' group Anonymous said it was carrying out the attacks.

The Motion Picture Association of America's website also suffered disruption.
Third-party sites

The charges included, conspiracies to commit racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering.

A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 domain names associated with the Hong Kong-based firm be seized.

The Justice Department said that more than 20 search warrants had been executed in nine countries, and that approximately $50m (£32m) in assets had been seized.

It claimed that the accused had pursued a business model designed to promote the uploading of copyrighted works.

"The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content and publicised their links to users throughout the world," a statement said.

"By actively supporting the use of third-party linking sites to publicise infringing content, the conspirators did not need to publicise such content on the Megaupload site.

"Instead, the indictment alleges that the conspirators manipulated the perception of content available on their servers by not providing a public search function on the Megaupload site and by not including popular infringing content on the publicly available lists of top content downloaded by its users."

Before it was shut down the site posted a statement saying the allegations against it were "grotesquely overblown".

"The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay," it added.

"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."
Blackouts

The announcement came a day after thousands of websites took part in a "blackout" to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).

The US Chamber of Commerce has defended the proposed laws saying that enforcement agencies "lack the tools" to effectively apply existing intellectual property laws to the digital world.

Industry watchers suggest this latest move may feed into the wider debate.

"Neither of the bills are close to being passed - they need further revision. But it appears that officials are able to use existing tools to go after a business alleged to be inducing piracy," said Gartner's media distribution expert Mike McGuire.

"It begs the question that if you can find and arrest people who are suspected to be involved in piracy using existing laws, then why introduce further regulations which are US-only and potentially damaging?"


RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - marion33 - 01-22-2012

Problem now appeared with filesonic, you won`t download form this service. It is left 4shared (from China). U.S. feels fear against China :):). But seriously what will happen with rapidshare and other popular service... and p2p like emule torrent are safe for us??


RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - hp_logger - 01-23-2012

Filesonic also is not allowing filesharing anymore unless you are the uploaderand that you are just going to retrieve your file.


RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - Dell_Brett - 01-23-2012

You´re right!

I fear that this situation will spread to most file storage sites, a domino effect! Everyone is afraid.

I think we should make a massive and collective effort, along with moderators and active members to add in our HD's the greatest possible amount of source files, as back-up and possible future use.

Dell Brett




RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - mybest - 01-23-2012

(01-22-2012, 10:59 PM)marion33 Wrote: It is left 4shared (from China). U.S. feels fear against China :):).

I think no. 4shared will shut down too in short time
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We will lost 4shared in 1 February.. :(


RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - Dell_Brett - 01-24-2012

More News (today 23, jan, 2012):

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RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - marion33 - 01-24-2012

Dear Civilea brothers and sister,

I am afraid the end of today internet is close...
I hope it will leave p2p like emule, torrents...
How will we share ebooks between ourself ??
Did you hear about undergroud nternet web like tor, [/quote]tora??


RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - joker™ - 01-24-2012

what is about another sites uploading such as: mediafire & ifile & hotfile !!!

Can also be closed?


RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - lisine - 01-25-2012

Sad days are here, friends
* MegaUpload - Closed.
* FileServe - Closing, does not sell premium.
* FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S.
* UploadStation - Locked in the U.S.
* FileSonic - The news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation).
* VideoBB - Closed! would disappear soon.
* Uploaded - Banned U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.
* FilePost - Deleting all material (so will leave executables, pdfs, txts)
* Videoz - closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.
* 4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.
* MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors pro FBI
* Org torrent - could vanish with everything within 30 days "he is under criminal investigation"
* Network Share mIRC - awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate Torrent everything.
* Koshiki - operating 100% Japan will not join the SOPA / PIPA.
* Shienko Box - 100% working china / korea will not join the SOPA / PIPA
* ShareX BR - group UOL / BOL / iG say they will join the SOPA / PIPA

Japan, China and Korea have a say NO to the FBI and that even if laws are passed in the USA will not have any value within the sovereignty of their countries!

P/S: mediafire has start deleting copyright protected files. Only left is the personal files.


RE: Megaupload file-sharing site shut down - BennyP - 01-26-2012

I think is time to begin searching an alternative. If until now only a few users asked for other links (no free access from some countries) today almost all our links are dead or in the way.

Finding new material will be hard but at least for existing in everyone member collection must be a way to reupload in a safe place for our users use. I suppose in this case we must forget big files but for a minimum sharing we need a storing place. Every day can change the number and this is some information i found today about alternatives.


Megaupload is no longer of this world. Here are 13 alternative sites that can satisfy your file-sharing or cloud storage desires.

File-sharing giant Megaupload is dead, following an international criminal sting spearheaded by the US Department of Justice. Prior to its closure, the site boasted 50 million users a day, and accounted for four percent of all Internet traffic, according to the DoJ. That means a lot of you out there are looking for a new way to store and share your files. Here, a quick list of 13 sites that will fill the gaping hole in your life left by Megaupload’s abrupt departure. Just don’t blame us if the feds seize one of these next.


• RapidShare: The most like Megaupload of the bunch, RapidShare lets users upload files of unlimited size, and share them via an emailable, tweetable, Facebookable link. There is also no storage limit, but files are automatically deleted after a certain period of time. Users who want to utilize RapidShare as a cloud storage service can upgrade to RapidPro for about $39 (29.9 Euro — RapidShare is based in Switzerland) for 150 days, or about $130 for two years.

• MediaFire: A stripped-down version of RapidShare, MediaFire also lets users upload any type of file, with a max upload size of 2GB for free users. There is no storage limit, but also like RapidShare, your files will be deleted after certain period of time. Users can upgrade to a Pro account for $9 a month, which also ups max file size to 4GB. Files are shared via a link.

• Dropbox: A popular, robust cloud storage service, Dropbox gives users 2GB of storage for free, and lets users share files with anyone via their public folder, or other Dropbox users through email invitation. Users can upgrade to 50GB for $10 a month, or 100GB for $20 a month.

• Box: Like Dropbox, Box is primarily a cloud storage service, as opposed to a straight file-sharing service. Users get 5GB for free, and can share via a direct link to a file, or can invite users to view the contents of an entire folder by email. Free users can only upload files 25MB or smaller. Paid users can up their upload limit to 1GB-per-file for $10 a month, which also expands storage to 25GB, or $20 for 50GB.

• YouSendIt: One of the original file-sharing services, YouSendIt offers 2GB of free storage, with a per-file upload limit of 50MB. (Free users also have to deal with ads.) Files can then be shared via email, but only five per month for free users. Up your storage to 5GB for $10 a month (or $50 per year), and you also get a maximum file size of 2GB, and 10 shares. Unlimited storage and unlimited shares (but the same max file size) is also available for $15 a month, or $150 a year.

• Minus: One of the easiest options available, Minus lets users who sign up for an account simply drag and drop any file (up to 2GB) to upload, and gives users up to 50GB of free storage. Uploaded files can be shared via an automatically-generated link. It’s that simple.

• Amazon Cloud Drive: Like a no-frills version of Dropbox or Box, Amazon’s Cloud Drive gives 5GB of storage space for free, and can be upgraded to 20GB, up to 1,000GB, for about $1 a gigabyte, per year. (Making it by far one of the least expensive options.) Max file size is 2GB. The biggest downside: No files sharing allowed (unless you give someone your Amazon password, of course).

• Microsoft SkyDrive: Completely free, SkyDrive gives users 25GB of free storage, and the ability to share files with others via email. Unfortunately, users can only upload files up to 50GB. Also, you have to have a Hotmail (or other MSN) address. Lame!

• SugarSync: Nearly identical to Dropbox and Box (for most intents and purposes), SugarSync gives away 5GB of storage for free, and offers paid plans that range from $5 per month (30GB) to $25 per month (250GB). Free accounts are limited to 25GB file uploads, or 1GB, if you are a paid user. Files can be shared via link, or by inviting users to join a folder.

• Oron: Super stripped-down, Oron lets free users upload files up to 400MB, up to five files at a time. Uploaded files, which can be shared via link, are only kept for a short period of time, and upload speed is slow, for free users who don’t create an account. Registered users can get upload files up to 1GB in size, and have 250GB of storage. Premium accounts (which cost 10 Euros to 75 Euros, depending on how long you want the account) allow file uploads up to 2GB, with unlimited storage and much faster upload speeds.

• Deposit Files: Similar to Oron, but max upload size jumps to 2GB for all users. Files are also not deleted, like they are with other services. Gold members get a number of perks, including faster download speeds. Prices for Gold accounts range from $12 for one month, to $75 for a year. No sign-up necessary for free users. Files are shared through a link.

• FilePost: Remember all the stuff we just said about Deposit Files? File Post is that, but with a max upload size of 5GB for paid users. Everything else is basically the same.

• WUpload: WUpload sells itself as a “100 percent safe and anonymous” file-sharing site, that gives free users a maximum upload size of 2GB. But free comes at a price: no simultaneous downloads, and a mandatory delay before download can begin. Free users storage space is also limited to 750GB. Premium users can erase all the negatives, and up their max file upload to 10GB for $9 for 30 days, up to $90 for two years.