(Image source: ghacks.net)

BY EVAN THOMAS

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

The U.S. government is calling it the Mega conspiracy: on Thursday the Department of Justice and the FBI shut down file-sharing site Megaupload and seized the company’s assets.

Al Jazeera reports authorities in New Zealand arrested four people connected to the site on suspicion of facilitating piracy on a global scale.

“Within New Zealand, we have seized in excess of $6 million worth of motor vehicles, and over $10 million in cash from several New Zealand finance companies.”

Ars Technica says this was only a matter of time.

“For years, the site has claimed to take down unauthorized content when notified by rightsholders. But the government asserts that Megaupload merely wanted the veneer of legitimacy, while its employees knew full well that the site’s main use was to distribute infringing content.”

The Justice Department alleges that Megaupload has done more than half a billion dollars of damage to U.S. copyright holders. If convicted, the seven members of the “Mega conspiracy” could spend as long as 50 years in prison.

The indictment is one of the largest copyright cases ever brought by the U.S., and came hard on the heels of hallmark Internet protest over piracy bills currently circulating in congress. When the FBI hit Megaupload, the Internet noticed.

Hours after Megaupload went offline, Anonymous hammered down the websites of the RIAA, MPAA, the Department of Justice and Universal Music with Distributed Denial of Service attacks.

Anonymous claimed credit for the attacks on Twitter, and asked the FBI--

“...you feel censored yet? We sincerely hope you like your own medicine!”

Net censorship has been a hot-button issue of late, says Molly Wood at CNET, but these latest attacks just evaporated any gains the Internet made this week in Washington.

“If the SOPA/PIPA protests were the Web’s moment of inspiring, non-violent, hand-holding civil disobedience, #OpMegaUpload feels like the unsettling wave of car-burning hooligans that sweep in and incite the riot portion of the play. “

And The Verge is reporting rumors that Anonymous has more in mind.

“...it would seem that organizations that are in very public support of MegaUpload’s demise are going to be best served to have their IT departments on high alert this afternoon.”

Some of the sites Anonymous targeted are now back online-- but Universal Music is still “under maintenance.”