So Long, and Thanks for All the Pirated Movies

So Long, and Thanks for All the Pirated Movies

When I imagine the masters of overseas file-sharing websites, I picture a bunch of canny, untouchable Internet buccaneers—that's why they call it the Pirate Bay, right? That image took a hit yesterday with the shutdown of Megaupload.com, one of the world's largest file-hosting services, or "cyberlockers." The site, it turns out, was run out of Hong Kong and New Zealand, and American authorities worked with the Kiwi gendarmerie and other international police forces to knock its servers offline and arrest a half-dozen of its top operators. Among the arrestees was Megaupload's capo, a moon-faced computer hacker with a checkered past and a taste for women in bikinis who went by many names, including Kim Dotcom and Kim Tim Jim Vestor. (His real name is Kimble Schmitz.)  News reports say the 72-page indictment is full of delectable tales of the spoils its staffers reaped with their ill-gotten wages. (Dotcom was supposedly renting the largest house in New Zealand). It also contains evidence that Megaupload personnel frankly discussed the site's myriad copyrighted material, undercutting the defense that they didn't know what its users were doing.