Megaupload Faces New Charges in US Case

February 22, 2012 by Yonah
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Legal P2P News & Issues

Megaupload's founder, Kim Dotcom

In addition to a new series of criminal copyright infringement counts, the infamous case against file-sharing site Megaupload has also received wire fraud counts by US prosecutors, BBC reports.

New details have been brought to the attention of the press, as officials filed an ample superceding indictment against the company and its founder Kim Dotcom.

Prosecutors are claiming that the damages presumably caused by the Megaupload team round up to a total figure of $500m (£320m). The company has defended itself by stating that it was diligent in dealing with pirated material.

The Department of Justice has built its entire case on the far-fetched premise that Megaupload has deliberately pursued the repeated distribution of copyrighted works.

The company has been accused of reproducing materials from other Internet venues, including YouTube, and making them available on its websites.
As concerns the new wire fraud charges, in an attempt to substantiate their allegations the plaintiffs clinged to communications between Megaupload and copyright holders.

Justice Department officials claim the emails at issue reveal that the defendants were untruthful about the status of specific infringing content that copyright holders requested to be removed.

The document also points to one account holder that uploaded over 16,000 files to Megaupload sites, generating over 34 million page views over a six years’ time span.

Although the user highlighted in the investigation received multiple requests for removal, records indicate no deletions of any files he had uploaded.

User ‘VV’ reportedly collected $3,400 through a Megaupload rewards program over the course of two years.

The indictment also alleges that the website had less registered users as officially declared, and that of the 66 million registered accounts, only 5.4 million had ever used the service for the uploading of files.

Earlier this month, a court’s decision denied Mr. Dotcom’s right to bail in New Zealand. The founder of Megaupload has denied the charges and stated that he would oppose any extradition application by the US.

Tags: copyright infringement, file-sharing, legal, MegaUpload, US