U.S. Lays Out Case Against Megaupload, Kim Dotcom

Top executives at what was once one of the world’s most popular file-sharing sites called themselves “modern pirates” and acknowledged in Skype conversations they made money from users sharing unauthorized copies of movies and videos, according to documents released Friday by federal prosecutors.

In 191 pages of evidence, the U.S. Justice Department laid out its case against Megaupload Ltd., the company behind a “cyberlocker” site that allowed users to upload files and is considered by the entertainment industry and prosecutors to have been a leading conduit for pirated content. Long a target in Hollywood’s campaign against unauthorized online sharing of movies and entertainment, Megaupload was placed under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation starting in 2010 and was shut down after the January 2012 arrest of its founder, Kim Dotcom.

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