20th January - Yesterday, US Justice Department shut down popular file-sharing website MegaUpload.com under charges for hosting illegal content such as pirated movies and music leading to an estimated loss of 500 million USD to the producers of these materials, following the postponement of the SOPA/PIPA bill in congress the day before.
[SOPA/PIPA are two new pieces of legislation to regulate content on the internet and may probably put wikipedia and wikileaks out of business for good. It is a draconian law that aims to curb the sharing of information and materials on the internet. For more information, see http://www.forbes.com/sites/derekbroes/2012/01/20/why-should-you-fear-sopa-and-pipa/]
According to Channel News Asia, the US authorities have seized more than 350 domain names since 18 months ago. Although websites such as NinjaVideo and others have been seized for piracy, the FBI and the US Justice Dept believes that MegaUpload took the entire issue to whole different level, earning 175 mil USD from hosting illegal content.
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| The notice on the MegaUpload website |
If no petition is forthcoming from MegaUpload the domain name will in the space of certain time come to belong to the US government . However, in order to pacify groups who feel threatened by these drastic actions against freedom of speech on the internet, the US authorities "they would delay consideration of the bills which Google, Wikipedia and other Web giants have denounced as a threat to Internet freedom".
Anime News network has more on the story: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-01-19/megaupload-site-shut-down-partly-due-to-fruits-basket-anime
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