Megaupload has been charged with piracy

ResurrectionRaddy wrote:I think it's good what they're doing. You wouldn't walk into HMV and steal a DVD would you? Just buy DVD's and CD's you peasants.

Novi, The Creator wrote:

GK01 wrote:Jesus Ahly this wasn't SOPA this investigation was going on way before the SOPA Bill was even created. Yes SOPA would make it much more easier for the government to do this to sites around the world, but this wasn't SOPA or PIPA and anyone trying to make the connection are idiots

Jordi wrote:Apparently SOPA has been withdrawn!

dena wrote:i don't even like megaupload, fuck that 72 minute shit, cuevana for the win.

ahlycotc wrote:

El_indian wrote:those internet war speeches are so gay

In December of 2011, just weeks before the takedown, Digital Music News reported on something new that the creators of #Megaupload were about to unroll. Something that would rock the music industry to its core. (http://goo.gl/A7wUZ)

I present to you... MegaBox. MegaBox was going to be an alternative music store that was entirely cloud-based and offered artists a better money-making opportunity than they would get with any record label.

"UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings," MegaUpload founder Kim 'Dotcom' Schmitz told Torrentfreak

Not only did they plan on allowing artists to keep 90% of their earnings on songs that they sold, they wanted to pay them for songs they let users download for free.

"We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free," Dotcom outlined. "Yes that's right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works."

Lus Suarez wrote:

ilJuventino wrote:

El_indian wrote:those internet war speeches are so gay

100% Agreed. People shouldn't be bastardizing quotes from great films, either.

Kim Dotcom, the internet mogul charged with earning more than £100m in illegal profits through file-sharing site Megaupload.com, sent an extraordinary email to his worried neighbours in an affluent New Zealand suburb in which he joked about having criminal links, laundering money and taking cocaine.

The 38-year-old German sent the note, seen exclusively by the Guardian, after neighbours of his leased NZ$30m (£15.6m) property in Coatesville, near Auckland, were piqued by seeing his fleet of cars speeding round the neighbourhood bearings licence plates such as HACKER, MAFIA, GUILTY and GOD.

They researched his past, which includes a criminal conviction for insider dealing, and sent their concerns to the owner of the mansion, who in turn sent them to Dotcom.

That prompted a remarkable reply-all from the multimilionaire, who is currently being held in a New Zealand jail awaiting the outcome of an application for bail after police arrested him on Saturday having cut him out of a locked panic room in his mansion.

"Dear Neighborhood-watch," began the email dated 21 April 2010. "As you all know I recently moved into the Neighborhood and I am a former hacker. Well I was just hacking into a local mail server and guess what I found.

"First of all let me assure you that having a criminal Neighbor like me comes with benefits.

"1. Our newly opened local money laundering facility can help you with your tax fraud optimization.

2. Our network of international insiders can provide you with valuable stock tips.

3. My close personal relations with other (far worse) criminals can help you whenever you have to deal with a nasty Neighbor."

It continued: "In all seriousness: My wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and 'We come in peace'.

"Fifteen years ago I was a hacker and 10 years ago I was convicted for insider trading. Hardly the kind of crimes you need to start a witch hunt for. Since then I have been a good boy, my criminal records have been cleared, and I created a successful Internet company that employs 100+ people.

"All the media has to report are old news. Why? Because I have chosen to avoid the media. Just look what the media did to this Neighborhood. Scary.

"Now you can make a choice: 1: Call Interpol, the CIA, and the Queen of England and try to get me on the next plane out of New Zealand. 2: Sit back, relax and give me a chance to do good for New Zealand and possibly the Neighborhood.

"If you feel like it come over for coffee sometimes. And don't forget to bring the cocaine (joke). All the best, Kim."

However jocular the intention, Dotcom's email "scared the hell out of everybody", said France Komoroske, a retired lawyer who lives a mile along the street from Dotcom's estate.

When asked if he was serious about hacking their email accounts, he replied: "Do you really think I hacked your emails? Nonsense. One of my agents has infiltrated your family :-)"

Komoroske and a neighbour researched the new arrival's chequered past, the basis of which, she said, made a mockery of the decision to award him residency in New Zealand.

"New Zealand doesn't seem to care about moral character if you've got enough bucks," she said.

Dotcom has lived a well-documented lavish lifestyle and in 2010, the FBI estimates, he earned around $115,000 a day from his empire. In the past he has videoed his adventures with a large entourage on Mediterranean yachts, in Monaco nightclubs and on the beach at St Tropez, in which he almost always appears wearing a black suit and polo neck sweater over his 6ft 6in, 20 stone frame.

On 19 January Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, was charged in a US court with racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering and the FBI claims he and a group of co-conspirators caused $500m of harm to copyright holders.

The US authorities are seeking his extradition. Dotcom denied the charges at a court hearing on Monday and his lawyer, Paul Davison, said his business did not reproduce or copy material as alleged and said that copyright holders had been given access to the site to identify improper posting of material.