According to the 191-page summary of evidence released by the U.S. Justice Department, Megaupload.com did not only violate copyright laws but rewarded individuals for uploading copyright-infringing materials and committed acts to discredit its competitors.
The court document was released to the public following the order of Judge Liam O'Grady in Virginia to encourage affected parties to come forward.
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, who is currently based in New Zealand, is trying to get extradition petitions filed by the U.S. law enforcement agencies dismissed. The FBI started its investigation of the group March 2010 and was able to point Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Julius Bencko, Sven Echternach, Andrus Nomm, MegaUpload Limited, and Vestor Limited as the conspirators and defendants of the case.
"...these conspirators formed a number of businesses, which operate and administer several Internet websites that reproduce and distribute infringing copies of copyrighted works, including motion pictures, television programs, musical recordings, electronic books, images, video games, and other computer software," the document stated.
The Megaupload website, which operated as a sort of online locker for users, was part of the conspiracy that cost owners of copyright over $500 million.
The documents also state that Dotcom found a way to fool copyright holders by introducing to them a fake tool that was allegedly could remove content from its websites.
"The Abuse Tool allowed copyright holders to enter specific URL links to copyright-infringing content of which they were aware, and they were told by the Mega Conspiracy that the Mega Conspiracy's systems would then remove, or disable access to, the offending material. The Mega Conspiracy's Abuse Tool did not actually function as the copyright owners were led to believe," the summary of evidence read.
Megaupload also introduced an "Uploader Rewards" program that encouraged users to upload files in exchange of cash, based on the number of downloads of their files. This helped spread the word across the Internet about the availability of files since premium members posted URLs on linking sites, the servers of which were all controlled by the conspirators.
The conspirators also tried to discredit its competitors, the document stated, offering as example the content of one email they sent to PayPal:
"Our legal team in the US is currently preparing to sue some of our competitors and expose their criminal activity. We like to give you a heads up and advice you not to work with sites that are known to pay uploaders for pirated content. They are damaging the image and the existence of the file hosting industry."
Dotcom has not appeared in the U.S. courts as he is currently fighting the extradition request. Three other defendants are also in New Zealand while another is in the Netherlands. Bencko and Echternach are considered fugitives by U.S. authorities.
