Megaupload shut down by US officials

**BrianBosworth** · 20.01.12, 09:50

The site is one of the world's most popular file-sharing services, but has now been closed following allegations that its founder and several other executives were charged with violating a number of piracy laws.

The allegations state that Megaupload has cost copyright holders a loss of over $500 million (£320m) in revenue from pirated films and other media.

It appears that its spinoff sites including Megavideo and Megapix have also been shut down for the time being.

A statement posted on the FBI's website read: "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."

The Justice Department explained that Kim Dotcom (formerly Kim Schmitz) and three others were arrested in New Zealand.

Megaupload had released a statement shortly before the shutdown, stating that the allegations were "grotesquely overblown".

Megaupload shut down by US officials - Tech News - Digital Spy

**yoco** · 20.01.12, 10:57

Where am I gonna download now???? I always had highest speed on MU!

**anon** · 20.01.12, 18:59

I've read about this yesterday. Any ideas as to whether they'll come back? MU shutting down forever would leave a huge hole on the Internet.

---------- Post added at 14:59 ---------- Previous post was at 14:34 ----------

You may have heard of a certain site hosted on IP 109.236.xx.xx that claims to be the new MU. It's a scam, don't visit it!

**yoco** · 20.01.12, 23:04

I read somewhere they have all backup files, and should put a new site soon. Hope it's real deal!

**anon** · 21.01.12, 01:51

I don't think the takedown will be permanent (wishful thinking). I was however impressed by how Megaupload was suddenly shut down out of the blue, if you know what I mean.

**Instab** · 21.01.12, 03:22

Originally Posted by anon

if you know what I mean.

thinking about a relation to the elections?

**anon** · 21.01.12, 03:30

Not really... I think a part of me thought this couldn't happen to a site their size. As if that made them invincible or something.

**shoulder** · 21.01.12, 13:49

Never used it much but it seems to have impacts on other OCH as well.
I've been told Uploaded.to for example "banned" US visitors.

**anon** · 21.01.12, 18:02

Originally Posted by shoulder

I've been told Uploaded.to for example "banned" US visitors.

It's true (accessing with my USA proxy says service isn't available in that country). That could be an effective measure... or not.

I can't believe there are some trackers hosted in that same country.

**shoulder** · 21.01.12, 18:12

Originally Posted by anon

That could be an effective measure... or not.

We'll see sooner or later.

If I remember correctly and US behaves like Russia, this is called the kino.to security enhancement.

On another note, would like to see all the LL users now.

**SealLion** · 22.01.12, 03:56

Maybe a change in top level domain might help to lift restrictions in accessing the site. Kind of like a company that uses it's brand name as it's internet address. Maybe......? Do you think that might help??

Users can always ping 'megaupload.com' and see what the IP address is and paste the IP into their URL bar.

**anon** · 22.01.12, 04:36

Originally Posted by SealLion

Users can always ping 'megaupload.com' and see what the IP address is and paste the IP into their URL bar.

Assuming someone is within the US, you'd need to obtain the real IP through other means, a ping would take you to the address of the "this site is blocked" page. The domain filtering is easy to bypass as you can use a DNS server from another country. The problem is that many of these "piracy" sites have servers within the States...

**classyboy** · 22.01.12, 20:23

It's sad, as I used it not infrequently. In fact, MU had sizeable number of medical ebooks and I most often used to get the ebooks I wanted by typing that ebook name along with 'megaupload' in Google.