MEGAUPLOAD cerrado por el FBI.

El popular sitio de descargas, MEGAUPOLAD, acaba de ser cerrado por el FBI, acusando a sus fundadores y a alguno de sus trabajadores de fomentar la pirateria.

Los fiscales acusan a la compañía de causar un daño a la industria, tan sólo en EEUU, de 500 millones de dólares por la descarga de todo tipo de contenido: películas, musica, programas informáticos, etc.
Cuatro de los detenidos lo han sido en Nueva Zelanda, dónde se han desplazado agentes federales, y han requisado numerosa documentación.
Lo más importante del comunicado de prensa del departamento de justicia de los Estados Unidos es lo siguiente:
- Se acusa a dos empresas, Megaupload Limited y Vestor Limited.
- Se les acusa de Lavado de dinero y crimen organizado.
- Las personas acusadas podrían ser condenadas con hasta 20 años de prisión por crimen organizado, otros 20 años por participar en el lavado de dinero negro y 5 años por violar el copyright de las obras pirateadas.
Comunicado de prensa del Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos (en inglés):

WASHINGTON - Seven individuals and two corporations have been charged in the United States with running an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works, through Megaupload.com and other related sites, generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and causing more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI announced today.

This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime.

The individuals and two corporations - Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited - were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 5, 2012, and charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. The individuals each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering, five years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five years in prison on each of the substantive charges of criminal copyright infringement.

The indictment alleges that the criminal enterprise is led by Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand. Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites.
In addition, the following alleged members of the Mega conspiracy were charged in the indictment:

• Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the chief marketing officer;
• Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, who is the graphic designer;
• Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the head of business development;
• Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director;
• Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software division;
• Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure for the Mega conspiracy websites.

Comunicado completo