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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> [First they came for those
with HIV, and I said nothing... then they came for me...]<br>
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<h1 class="detail-title">U.S. shuts down file-sharing website
Megaupload</h1>
<span class="author">AP</span>
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<p class="body"> One of the world’s largest file-sharing sites
was shut down on Thursday, and its founder and several company
executives were charged with violating piracy laws, federal
prosecutors said. </p>
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<p class="body"> An indictment accuses <a
href="http://Megaupload.com">Megaupload.com</a> of costing
copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from
pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed
one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut
down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to
thwart online piracy. </p>
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<p class="body"> The Justice Department said in a statement said
that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three
others were arrested on Thursday in New Zealand at the request
of U.S. officials. Two other defendants are at large. </p>
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<p class="body"> Megaupload was unique not only because of its
massive size and the volume of downloaded content, but also
because it had high-profile support from celebrities,
musicians and other content producers who are most often the
victims of copyright infringement and piracy. Before the
website was taken down, it contained endorsements from Kim
Kardashian, Alicia Keys and Kanye West, among others. </p>
<p class="body"> Before the site was taken down, it posted a
statement saying allegations that it facilitated massive
breaches of copyright laws were “grotesquely overblown.” </p>
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<p class="body"> “The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s
Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If
the content industry would like to take advantage of our
popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have
some good ideas. Please get in touch,” the statement said. </p>
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<p class="body"> A lawyer who represented the company in a
lawsuit last year declined comment on Thursday. Megaupload is
considered a “cyberlocker,” in which users can upload and
transfer files that are too large to send by email. Such sites
can have perfectly legitimate uses. But the Motion Picture
Association of America, which has campaigned for a crackdown
on piracy, estimated that the vast majority of content being
shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws. </p>
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<p class="body"> The website allowed users to download films, TV
shows, games, music and other content for free, but made money
by charging subscriptions to people who wanted access to
faster download speeds or extra content. The website also sold
advertising. The indictment was returned in the Eastern
District of Virginia, which claimed jurisdiction in part
because some of the alleged pirated materials were hosted on
leased servers in Ashburn, Virginia. </p>
<div id="articleKeywords">
<p>Keywords: <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article2815112.ece#">Megaupload</a>, <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article2815112.ece#">anti-piracy
laws</a>, <a
href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article2815112.ece#">Internet
censorship</a></p>
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