Megaupload cierra, acusados por el FBI

Un reporte de Associated Press anuncia que Megaupload cierra y sus trabajadores han sido acusados. No hay más información por el momento más alla de que el sitio no funciona. Actualizaremos constantemente con nueva información. Rodrigo Aguiar, uno de los fundadores de @BreakingNews, trabajando actualmente en CNN México comenta la misma información.

De acuerdo al Wall Street Journal, el FBI ha acusado a siete personas trabajando en Megaupload de piratería online, aparentemente cuatro de ellos han sido arrestados en Nueva Zelanda.

Parte del comunicado de prensa del Departamento de Justicia de los Estados Unidos, está en inglés, pero los tres puntos claves son:

Se ha acusado a dos empresas, Megaupload Limited y Vestor Limited.
Los cargos incluyen lavado de dinero y crimen organizado.
La pena máxima que afrontan las personas acusasdas es de hasta 20 años en prisión por crimen organizado, 5 años por conspirar en infringir copyright, 20 años por participar en prácticas de lavado de dinero y 5 más por cargos sustanciales en infringir copyright.
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.
De acuerdo a Carlos Sánchez Almeida, abogado experto en propiedad intelectual, El cierre de Megaupload podría suponer «incautación de documentación privada de millones de usuarios, violando su privacidad».

Por el momento no es claro si el no funcionamiento de Megaupload se debe a un “secuestro” por parte de las autoridades estadounidenses del dominio, de los DNS o de los servidores de la compañía, aunque nos inclinamos a la primera o segunda opción.

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