Dotcom sued over copyright infringement

Six major U.S. movie studios, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Disney Enterprises, Paramount Pictures, Universal City Studios Productions, Columbia Pictures Industries and Warner Bros. Entertainment, have sued Megaupload and its founder Kim Dotcom for allegedly encouraging and profiting from copyright infringement.





The suit charges that Dotcom and his website, Megaupload, encouraged its users to upload infringing copies of popular entertainment content, including from the Hollywood studios. For example, an “Uploader Rewards” program is alleged to have paid Megaupload users to upload popular unauthorized and unlicensed content to Megaupload’s servers.

There is also n indictment by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia in January 2012 which further pleads that Dotcom and two companies engaged in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement and money laundering, and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.

Steven Fabrizio, general counsel for the Motion Picture Association of America, said: “Megaupload wasn’t a cloud storage service at all; it was an unlawful hub for mass distribution.”

30 movies released by the six major studios were among the titles pirated. That included such as Ghostbusters and Forrest Gump.

The studios claim they are entitled to unspecified damages as well as the profits of Megaupload.