The U.S. government closed Megaupload.com sharing site, accusing its founders and several employees of copyright infringement. Department of Justice announced charges and the arrest of four company executives in New Zealand, on Friday, in a tense moment while the debate on a law to impose censorship on the Internet is discussed in Congress. Motion picture and record companies want Congress to eliminate Internet piracy and theft of content, despite the opposition of major Internet companies like Google or Facebook, which consider the bills as the first step towards censorship. A Justice Department official denied any connection of this event with discussions of SOPA and PIPA bills in Congress.
New Zealand police entered the property in Auckland of the Megaupload founder, Kim Dotcom, also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, a German-Finnish computer programmer and businessman who legally changed his name from Kim Schmitz. About 70 policemen, some armed, have investigated 10 properties and arrested the site’s CMO, Finn Batato, aged 38, co-founder Mathias Ortmann, aged 40 – both Germans – and Dutchman Bram van der Kolk, aged 29. Police seized assets worth millions of dollars, including luxury cars like Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe. They also seized bank accounts of $8 million.
Internet site of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI have been victims of attacks on Friday, after federal agents arrested the leaders and closed Megaupload.com sharing site, according to CNN. In response to the FBI action, the Anonymous group announced that hackers will target, in the following attacks, the Internet sites of the Department of Justice and the FBI.
“We, Anonymous, are launching the biggest attack yet against the websites of government and of the music industry”, the group wrote on Twitter, stating that FBI should have expected retaliation from the hackers. A spokesman for the Justice Department said Internet servers “show a significant increase in activity, resulting in a degradation of service”. “The Department tries to maintain the site online while investigating the origin of activities, as they are considered malicious activities until we establish the exact point of their departure”, said the spokesman.
