FBI shuts top file-sharing site

Four of the seven people,including the sites founder,Kim Dotcom born Kim Schmitz,were arrested Friday in New Zealand; three others are at large. Each of the seven people who the indictment said were members of a criminal group it called Mega Conspiracy is charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy. The charges could result in more than 20 years in prison.

About 20 search warrants were executed Friday in the US and eight other countries. About 50 million in assets were seized,as well as a number of servers and 18 domain names.

The police arrived at Dotcom Mansion in Auckland Friday in two helicopters. Dotcom,a 37-year-old with dual Finnish and German citizenship,retreated into a safe room,and the police had to cut their way in.

Dotcom and three others, Finn Batato,Mathias Ortmann,and Bram van der Kolk,appeared in court Friday and were denied bail. The hacker collective Anonymous attacked websites of the US Justice Department and several major entertainment companies and trade groups in retaliation for the seizure of Megaupload. The case against Megaupload comes a day after online protests against anti-piracy bills in the US Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act,or SOPA and the Protect Intellectual Property Act,or PIPA.