Everything You Need to Know About MegaUpload’s Shutdown

A few days ago the FBI stormed into MegaUploads’s headquarters and arrested 7 of the companies top executives. They seized millions of dollars in goods as seen in the Indictment, as well as all of the company's servers. The picture below is what you will see if you try to access MegaUpload right now, the first time many of us have seen a legit image pertaining to something like this.

With SOPA/PIPA recently being disbanded (for now), many people felt more secure with the governments influence on the Internet. Many of us have forgotten that the government still is capable of shutting down websites on command. Whether it be for Copyright Infringement, Money Laundering, Racketeering, or all of the above in MegaUpload’s case. But was MU’s shutdown really for these reasons? Many believe it was the government's last push to regain control of the interwebs in retaliation to SOPA/PIPA’s closure - something like saying ‘We don’t need a bill to enforce the law.’ Although the Internet won the fight against Internet cencorship, we lost one of our largest means to free information. In-fact, MegaUpload was an estimated 4% of all Internet usage - that’s a lot of files.

Now, the hacker community is up in arms. With the belief of a free flow of information as their guns and the hacking expertise as their bullet; Anonymous has gone on a hacking spree against many of the SOPA supporters and government agencies including the FBI. These attacks don’t bring the sites down for long, but they get the point across. In-fact Anonymous released a statement about the attacks.

Many websites are scared that they will fall in the footsteps of MegaUpload. We all wonder if this was just to assert authority, or will the government crackdown? File-sharing company FileSonic recently locked down their file sharing feature in fear. Let’s just hope DropBox isn’t next.

Little is known about what will happen with MegaUpload. It may be back one day, but chances are it won't. I do know however that it will go down in history books as a defining case. If MegaUpload is reborn, the files stored on the servers may be back, but chances are slim. Also if there are any files you legally stored on there, they probably won't returned - instead they'll sit forever in the FBI's basement as a trophy. We do know that this is the first of many casualties in SOPA's wake - oh yeah and MegaUpload’s CEO is still ranked #1 in COD MW3. Just thought ya’ should know.