Translation attempt of this article: http://tecnologia.univision.com/noticias/noticias/article/2012-01-19/el-fbi-cerro-el-sitio-de-descargas-megaupload


"Anonymous" hacked FBI site in retaliation to the shutdown of Megaupload

The FBI shut down the famous filesharing site Megaupload.com today and accused the founders of the site and 5 other people of operating an "international business of organized crime." In response to this legal action, the group of hackers "Anonymous" claimed what was called "the biggest attack in their history" against websites that have denounced the computer pirates.

According to the Department of Justice of the United States, Megaupload Limited, through their parent company Vestor Limited, generated more than 175 million dollars in criminal profit and caused more than a half billion dollars in damages to the rights of third party authors.

In the shutdown, they arrested 6 people that had been accused of online pirating, amoung them the founders of the site, Kim 'DotCom' and Finn Batato.

The CEO of Megaupload, Swizz Beatz, a rapper and the husband of singer Alicia Keys, did not appear among the accused.

Dotcom, Batato and two other peope were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand by local authorities in the name of the United States. Three other people are now fugitives.

Megaupload.com is a content accomadation site that permits its users to upload content so that others can download it.

According to the accusation, for more then 5 years "they have operated a site that reproduces and distributes illegal copies of protected work such as computer programs, movies, and music."

The Department of Justice accuses the arrested of organized crime, conspiracy to commit a violation of author's rights, and money laundering. If they are sentenced, they could face up to 55 years in prison.

Anonymous fights back

"Hacktivists" enfuriated by the SOPA legislation and the arrest of the owners of Megapload fought back, closing the websites of the U.S. Department of Justice, the recording company Universal Music, and the Motion Picture Association of America, in addition to the FBI for a brief period.

Anonymous is calling it "The biggest attack with 5,635 confirmed people using #LOIC to shut down sites!" which they boasted to everyone via Twitter.

The attacks on the sites were made with the now-known method Distributed denial-of-service (DDOS), which basically overloads an internet page with thousands of visits until it blocks it.

Some site that would be attacked by Anonymous in retaliation include The White House, the FBI, BMI, Copyright.com, Viacom, Anti-piracy.be/nl, Vivendi.fr, Hadopi.fr and ChrisDodd.com, the site of the ex-senator that headed the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Did the shutdown of Megaupload affect you?