Friday, January 20, 2012

U.S. shuts Megaupload.com, hackers hit back...

The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives in New Zealand on Friday as debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where lawmakers are trying to craft tougher legislation.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

(...)

Vocal critics of the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and Protect IP Act (PIPA), quickly showed their opposition to the shutdown of Megaupload.com, with hackers attacking the public websites of the Justice Department, the world's largest music company Universal Music, and the two big trade groups that represent the music and film industries.

 'The government takes down Megaupload? 15 minutes later Anonymous takes down government & record label sites,' a member of Anonymous said via Twitter. Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Feds close in on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom...
  2. Wikipedia begins blackout in protest against US anti-piracy laws...
  3. Movie fans turn to piracy when the online cupboard is bare...
  4. New York youth faces 5 years prison for streaming sports events...
  5. FBI arrests 16 in 'Anonymous' hacker crackdown...
  6. Don't mess around with Anonymous, the new face of cyber-war...
  7. German hackers are building a DIY programme to put internet into Space! 

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