US shuts down popular file sharing website Megaupload.com
Jan 24 2012
Source: REUTERS

WASHINGTON: In one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the US, FBI has shut down a popular file sharing website - Megaupload.com -- and charged seven individuals and two corporations for massive worldwide online piracy of copyrighted works. 
The action, initiated by the FBI yesterday one the site that is popular with Hollywood celebrities and has been endorsed by music stars such as Kanye West, prompted hackers to disable the FBI and Justice Department's websites. 
Online piracy by the two companies - Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd - generated more than $ 175 million in criminal proceeds and caused more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners, the US Justice Department and FBI announced today. 
This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the US and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime. 
The individuals -- three of whom are citizens of Germany and one each from Slovakia, Estonia, and Dutch -- and two corporations were indicted by a grand jury in US District court, and charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. 
The individuals each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit racketeering, five years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and five years in prison on each of the substantive charges of criminal copyright infringement. 
The indictment alleges that the "criminal enterprise" is led by Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand. 
Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites. 
According to the indictment, for more than five years the conspiracy has operated websites that unlawfully reproduce and distribute infringing copies of copyrighted works, including movies - often before their theatrical release - music, television programs, electronic books, and business and entertainment software on a massive scale. 
The conspirators' content hosting site, Megaupload.com, is advertised as having more than one billion visits to the site, more than 150 million registered users, 50 million daily visitors and accounting for four percent of the total traffic on the internet, the FBI said in a statement. 
"The estimated harm caused by the conspiracy's criminal conduct to copyright holders is well in excess of $ 500 million. 
"The conspirators allegedly earned more than $ 175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and selling premium memberships," it said. 
The indictment states that the conspirators conducted their illegal operation using a business model expressly designed to promote uploading of the most popular copyrighted works for many millions of users to download. 
It alleges that the site was structured to discourage the vast majority of its users from using Megaupload for long-term or personal storage by automatically deleting content that was not regularly downloaded.

Global IT spending forecast cut to 3.7%: Gartner
Jan 24, 2012
Source: ET News

HELSINKI: Global spending on information technology will grow more slowly than expected this year due to weaker economies and floods in Thailand, research firm Gartner said on Thursday. Gartner cut its forecast for 2012 worldwide IT spending growth to 3.7 percent from its earlier estimate of 4.6 percent growth. In 2011, worldwide IT spending totalled $3.7 trillion, up 6.9 percent from 2010. "Faltering global economic growth, the euro zone crisis and the impact of Thailand's floods on hard-disk drive (HDD) production have all taken their toll on the outlook for IT spending," Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement.

Facebook launches tool to report suicidal behavior
Jan 24, 2012
SOURCE: PTI

Facebook launched a new suicide prevention tool on Tuesday, giving users a direct link to an online chat with counselors who can help, the company said. Friends are able to report suicidal behavior by clicking a report option next to any piece of content on the site and choosing suicidal content under the harmful behavior option, Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens said. Facebook will then email the user in distress a direct link for a private online chat with a crisis representative from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline as well as the group's phone number. The new tool gives people who may not be comfortable picking up the phone a direct avenue to seek help. 
"This was a natural progression from something we've been working on for a long time," Wolens said. Users also have the ability to report suicidal behavior by going to the site's Help Center or search for suicide reporting forms. They can also use reporting links around the site. Worried friends who reported the behavior will also receive a message to say it is being addressed, Wolens said. Facebook, the most popular Web-based social networking site, has more than 800 million active users worldwide. The Palo Alto, California-based company was co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. The new suicide reporting tool will be made available to people who use Facebook in the United States and Canada. Wolens said that all reporting on the site is done anonymously and so a distressed user will not know who reported the suicidal content. Nearly 100 Americans die by suicide every day, according to the Surgeon General of the United States. In the past year, more than 8 million Americans 18 or older had thought seriously about suicide, according to a blog post by the Surgeon General accompanying the release of the new Facebook tool.