1. Kim Dotcom Mega

.Legitimate file-sharing sites could face prosecution, say experts, as the shockwaves from the shutting down of Megaupload.com fan out.Last Thursday the founder of the site, Kim Dotcom, was arrested and charged with internet piracy and money laundering.Now other established file-sharing sites such as Amazon, Dropbox, MediaFire, YouSendIt, Rapidshare, Box.net and FileSonic could find themselves under the spotlight of the law, with the latter already cancelling its file-sharing services.SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO. ShareMeanwhile Mike Masnick, editor of the Techdirt blog, said: ‘There's a real worry that the Megaupload case creates chilling effects for lots of legitimate services who do things like de-duplification, or have legitimate backup services. If you're running Amazon S3 or Dropbox, do you now suddenly change how you do business, just to avoid the possibility of being accused of racketeering and criminal copyright infringement? That's worrisome.’Last Thursday police swooped on convicted fraudster Kim Dotcom’s £16million home outside Auckland by helicopter, with officers having to cut their way in to arrest him after he retreated into a fortified safe room.Dotcom, 37 – nicknamed Dr Evil – has Finnish and German citizenship.

He and six of his employees face charges by U.S. Prosecutors in what they say is one of the biggest criminal copyright theft cases ever brought. Impact: This graph shows how the shutdown of Megaupload caused a noticeable drop in global internet trafficMegaUpload, which the U.S. Government shut down on Thursday, is a Hong Kong-based ‘cyberlocker’ service that allows users to download pirated films, TV shows, music and e-books with just a few clicks.It is accused of costing copyright owners £322million in lost earnings and of making £113million by selling advertising and premium subscriptions.A neighbour of Dotcom's told the New Zealand Herald she heard a helicopter circling the property at about 6.30am.' I thought it was his private helicopter, which is parked up behind the trees, and I thought he was going out for breakfast, as he sometimes does,' said the neighbour, whose name was not given.' I thought 'this is going on a bit long' and it was a bit annoying at that time of the morning and so I got up and realised it was a police helicopter.' It was there for about an hour and then my friend texted me that a lot of cops had arrived.'

Police said that in total officers served 10 search warrants at businesses and homes related to Dotcom around the city of Auckland.Police spokesman Grant Ogilvie confirmed that the seized cars included a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe worth more than $400,000 as well as several Mercedes.Two short-barreled shotguns and a number of valuable artworks were also confiscated, he added.Along with the assets, Police seized more than $8million invested in New Zealand financial institutions, which has now been placed in a trust pending the outcome of the cases. Confiscated: Others cars including a collection of Mercedes vehicles were removed from the Schmitz's homeAlthough music stars such as Kanye West and Alicia Keys have supported MegaUpload, film and record companies say the seven-year-old file-sharing site is making a fortune off their work without paying them a penny.Hollywood film companies have been the main victims of piracy. The seven accused MegaUpload executives – including two other Germans and a Dutchman also seized in New Zealand – are each charged with five counts of racketeering, copyright infringement and conspiracy, and could be jailed for up to 20 years. The 'Distributed Denial of Service' attacks rely on thousands of PCs sending information to sites at once to crash them.Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at computer security company Sophos, said: 'In the past, Anonymous has encouraged supporters to install a program called LOIC, which allows computers to join in an attack on a particular website, blasting it with unwanted traffic.' This change in tactic from Anonymous, which allows attacks to be launched by simply clicking on a link, means that internet users need to be extremely careful when clicking on unknown URLs or they could unwittingly be joining this latest zombie army.' 'Don't forget, denial-of-service-attacks are illegal,' Mr Cluley continued.' If you participate in such an attack, you could find yourself receiving a lengthy jail sentence.'

Kim Dotcom Mega

I'm not sure if participants in this instance would get away with claiming that they innocently clicked on links by mistake, so make sure you always trust the links you click on, even if they're shared by a friend on social networking sites.' Internet hackers from the group Anonymous hit back by attacking the websites of the U.S. Justice Department, the FBI and music companies such as Universal.They used a technique called ‘distributed denial of service’ that in effect shuts down sites by overloading them with web traffic.Detective Inspector Grant Wormald said that after police arrived at Dotcom’s home in two helicopters early yesterday, he ‘activated a number of electronic locking mechanisms.

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 MPAA, which has campaigned for a crackdown on piracy, alleged that the vast majority of content being shared on Megaupload was in violation of copyright laws.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.

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Several sister sites were also shut down, including one dedicated to sharing pornography files. Taken down: The Megaupload.com homepage boasted the endorsement of a string of high-profile celebritiesNews of the indictment came just one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest at two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy.The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act - bills designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. As the indictment was issued against Megaupload on Thursday all four remaining contenders seeking the Republican presidential nomination condemned proposed new anti-piracy lawsCritics say the proposed legislation is too aggressive and earlier this week several major web services, including Wikipedia and Craigslist, blacked out their sites in protestMitt Romney said the law is 'far too intrusive' and too broad. He warned that if the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) becomes law, it could stop job creation and hurt the economy.Newt Gingrich said the law pre-emptively censors the Internet on behalf of corporations.He said that patents and copyrights already exist to protect creators' rights and that, if someone is stealing, then the owners should sue under existing laws.Rick Santorum said he doesn't like the law but added that the Internet is not somewhere 'where anyone can do anything they want.'