Megaupload.com Gets Hit by Mega Piracy Indictment; Hackers Attack Feds

Although the sites they operate advertised that they provide personal storage for users' content, the indictment claims they actually trafficked in hosting television shows and movies -- often offering them to users before their official release.


"Members of the Mega Conspiracy are aware of the way that their sites are actually used by others; have themselves used the systems to upload, as well as reproduce and distribute, infringing copies of copyrighted content; and are aware that they have financially benefited directly from the infringement of copyrighted works that they are in a position to control," the indictment reads.


Kasseem Dean, best known as music producer "Swizz Beatz" and as the husband of Alicia Keys, is not named in the indictment, even though he reportedly serves as Megaupload's chief executive officer.


Megaupload and its sister sites accept online advertising and generate more than $175 million annually, according to a U.S. Justice Department indictment.


The copyright violations are on the order of $500 million in damages, according to the indictment.


The owners and operators of the sites are charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy. In an announcement, the Justice Department said it ranks "among the largest criminal copyright cases."


It also comes as two bills that would give the Justice Department broader authority to crack down on internet piracy have been hobbled by protests from companies such as Google and Twitter. Tech companies claim the legislation would violate the First Amendment.


An hour after the indictment was announced, the Justice Department's website, www.justice.gov, came under cyberattack. Anonymous, the hacktivist computer group, claimed responsibility.


Asked about the claims by Anonymous, a Justice Department spokeswoman said, "The Department of Justice Web server hosting justice.gov is currently experiencing a significant increase in activity, resulting in a degradation in service. The department is working to ensure the website is available while we investigate the origins of this activity, which is being treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause of the disruption."


The Justice website appeared to be back online this evening, but with limited graphics and pictures.


The FBI's website also appeared briefly to be inaccessible, but later came back online.


The attacks appeared to be distributed-denial-of-service attacks, rather than hacks in which data was compromised or lost. Distributed-denial-of-service attacks flood Internet sites and computer networks with requests for information and commands, making the networks and websites unavailable to computer users.


Members of Anonymous were sending around a link that appeared to help contribute to the attack, with some computer users sending requests to FBI.gov and justice.gov when they clicked the link.