MegaUpload Founder Arrested: International Criminal Enterprise?

By Rob Scott
January 20, 2012

Following the shutdown of file-sharing service MegaUpload.com, founder Kim Dotcom (aka Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor) and three executives have been arrested in New Zealand by request of the U.S. government.
MegaUpload was charged with: 1) engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, 2) conspiring to commit copyright infringement, 3) conspiring to commit money laundering and 4) two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the service is an “international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy.”
“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,” indicates the DOJ press release.
“The complaint alleges that MegaUpload, founder Kim Dotcom, and his team are responsible for $175 million in ‘criminal proceeds’ and ‘more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners,'” reports The Verge.
“While SOPA has been tabled for the moment, the MegaUpload case should prove to be a flashpoint for the issue in the months to come: both an example of how large the claimed piracy problem has become and how the U.S. can already enforce its laws with broad international support.”

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