WE READ THE MEGAUPLOAD INDICTMENT PAPERS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO
In less than 24 hours, Megaupload has gone from the world’s largest broadcaster of pirated material to the most interesting criminal case in US digital law. Megaupload’s seizure came just a few hours after the news broke that its CEO was Swizz fucking Beatz, leaving the world’s head spinning as it struggles to figure out how the guy who left his lady for Alicia Keys and produced this DMX song was at the head of a piracy ring.
Almost immediately after Megaupload was shut down, Anonymous responded by crashing the websites of the FBI, MPAA, RIAA and Universal Music Group. A lot of people in “the media” have been talking about the case today, but no one seems to have taken the time to read through the leaked 72-page US government document regarding the indictment. What with Megaupload down, we had nothing better to do so we read the whole thing cover to cover. Here are the juicy details:
- Private emails between Megaupload employees make it very clear that they were were running an illegal operation but didn’t really care. In one exchange, an employee wrote, “We have a funny business… modern days pirates :)” to which another responded, “We’re not pirates, we’re just providing shipping services to pirates :)”
- Thanks to their rewards program for loyal uploaders, they paid out 55k to a user who had 5,845 files of Vietnamese content, at least 10 DVD rips, some porn and (what looked like) an Italian TV series.
- Megaupload spent $2.4 million on yacht rentals in June 2011 alone.
Read more juicy details here
