Following a wildly successful protest against SOPA and PIPA internet censorship legislation on Wednesday, the Department of Justice “conducted a major action” on Thursday and shuttered MegaUpload, a popular file-sharing site accused of trading in copyrighted movies and televisions shows.

Following action by a grand jury, the feds arrested four people and executed more than 20 search warrants in the United States and eight foreign countries. They seized 18 domain names and around $10 million in assets, including a number of servers.

The grand jury indictment accuses Megaupload of causing $500 million in damages to copyright owners and of making $175 million through selling ads and premium subscriptions, according to theNew York Times.

The conspicuously timed raid “on Megaupload Thursday proved that the feds don’t need SOPA or its sister legislation, PIPA, in order to pose a blow to the Web,” writes the AnonOps Communicationsblog.

As if to underscore the government’s determination to close down domains with or without legislation, the DOJ and the FBI released a statement Thursday characterizing the charges as “among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime.”

The technology site Gigaom has posted details of the indictment against Megaupload.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lXau4TDt7M

Fifteen minutes after Megaupload disappeared from the internet, the hacker group Anonymous launched denial of service attack on websites run by Universal Music, the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Copyright Office, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America.

“Megaupload was taken down w/out SOPA being law. Now imagine what will happen if it passes. The Internet as we know it will end. FIGHT BACK,” Anonymous said in a tweet.

The Twitter account under the name @YourAnonNews identifies itself as the hacker collective and states: “We are Anonymous, We are legion, We never forgive, We never forget, Expect us.”

1. Hacker group Anonymous performs ‘vigilante’ attack on online child porn hub
2. Police arrest five over Anonymous WikiLeaks attacks
3. Denmark Police Propose Ban On Anonymous Internet Use
4. Rand Paul Vows To Block Internet Censorship Bills
5. Feds Ignore Due Process, First Amendment, Shut Down Thousands of Blogs
6. ‘Anonymous threat’ plot to undermine Wall Street protest?
7. Will the Justice Department Be Authorized to Shut Down Internet Sites?
8. Pentagon probes ‘Anonymous’ hacker threat
9. Anonymous Running Attacks on Anti-Wikileaks Sites with Low Orbit Ion Cannon
10. ‘Leaked’ FBI document calls Anonymous a national security threat
11. ‘Anonymous’ to Release Docs Proving Bank of America Fraud
12. Issa: Piracy bill would give Holder ‘broad new powers to police the Internet’

Source: Infowars. Written by Kurt Nimmo.

Android: We’ve discussed several ways you can stay on top of the fight against SOPA, and ways you can get around it, but Boycott SOPA is an Android app that turns your smartphone into a powerful tool to speak with your dollars, and avoid financially supporting companies that support the bill.

Once installed, use Boycott SOPA to scan the barcodes of books, CDs, magazines, DVDs, and other media to see if the producer or publisher is a member of the RIAA, MPAA, the BSA, or another organization that’s publicly supported SOPA. As Extremetech explains, It’s no surprise that most media will trigger a positive, considering how many media companies are part of the RIAA and MPAA, but the app does give consumers a way to check if their money is going to the companies that support this bill before they spend it.

Much like the No SOPA Chrome add-on, Boycott SOPA is designed to warn you if you’re about to support a company or product that in turn supports the bill. The developers behind the app promise that the list of supporting organizations—currently about 800 brands and companies—will be regularly updated as positions change, and invites users to help curate the list on their web site. The Android app is completely free, and available now in the Android Market.

Source: Lifehacker.