The US Department of Justice today coordinated the shutdown of Megaupload and the arrest of several of its founders. In response, the web hacking group called Anonymous has taken to the digital streets and started taking down various related websites including the US Department of Justice and the MPAA.
Megaupload, for me and for my friends, has always been the go-to destination for watching HBO or other TV programs that can’t be easily found on Hulu, Netflix, or iTunes. It’s common knowledge: Megaupload is for watching copyrighted TV and Movies for free.
So why is everyone surprised? And why does everyone appear pissed off?
The fact of the matter is the the US DOJ and FBI are right about Megaupload, and regardless of whether or not it can be proved conclusively that media companies are suffering a financial loss because of Megaupload’s existence (I doubt it can be proved conclusively), the act of running a business offering someone else’s product without an agreement to do so is certainly wrong, and because I think the DOJ has done their research, I think it’s probably illegal too.