MegaUpload Website Closed Down By FBI Raids

In what authorities have called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. have seized the Web site MegaUpload (http://www.megaupload.com/) and charged seven people connected with it with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.

From left: Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Kim Dotcom appeared in court in Auckland, New Zealand

Megaupload, one of the most popular so-called locker services on the Internet, allowed users to transfer large files like movies and music anonymously. Media companies have long accused it of abetting copyright infringement on a vast scale. In a grand jury indictment, Megaupload is accused of causing $500 million in damages to copyright owners and of making $175 million by selling ads and premium subscriptions.

The arrests were greeted almost immediately with digital Molotov cocktails. The hacker collective that calls itself Anonymous attacked the Web sites of the United States Justice Department and several major entertainment companies and trade groups in retaliation for the seizure of Megaupload.