On January 19, 2012, the United States Department of Justice ordered the closing down of the Megaupload.com Internet site, as well as several other affiliated sites (18 domain names in total), one of the largest file sharing network systems. The network was operated by an entity based in Hong-Kong. According to the American authorities, the network's leaders illegally generated 175 million dollars of profit over a period of five years. The network is thought to have derived its revenues from two main sources, that is through its users' subscriptions and advertising on its sites. Also, the network's activities caused more than 500 million dollars of losses to the entertainment industry by making it possible to download works protected by copyright, more particularly films, music, television shows, electronic books and business and entertainment software. Still according to the United States Department of Justice, the Megaupload.com site, in only a few years, pulled itself up to rank among the 100 most visited websites in the world, generating by itself traffic equal to 4% of worldwide Internet traffic. The network's defence lawyers stated, however, that Megaupload's only mission was to offer storage of online content. Charges of rackeetering, conspiracy and copyright infringement were laid against seven individuals and two companies with regard to this case.
How did the American legal system get 18 domain names deactivated, although they were operated by a foreign entity using several servers across the world? Management of the virtual domain rests mainly with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN"), a private non-profit corporation, based in California, that is responsible for the Internet names and addresses systems, including the domain names system (DNS). As the organization in charge of allocating .com, domain names, ICANN delegated the management of .com domain names (which represent approximately 95 million Internet sites) to the corporationVeriSign. Thus, in the Megaupload matter, instead of attacking the various servers scattered all over the world, the American legal system enjoined VeriSign to intervene directly with respect to the 18 domain names that were the subject of the intervention. Therefore, servers are still operational, but it is from now on impossible to get to them, for lack of a valid address. It remains to be seen whether the closing down of this network will have a deterrent effect on illegal downloading.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.