Four record labels sued (http://bit.ly/OPu9jG) Megaupload for encouraging...

Four record labels sued (http://bit.ly/OPu9jG) Megaupload for encouraging and profiting from “massive copyright infringement of sound recordings” Thursday, said RIAA in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/R9yjVC). The Justice Department shut down Megaupload.com, Megaupload’s primary file-hosting website, and indicted its operators, including founder Kim “Dotcom” Schmitz, in 2012. The new lawsuit -- filed in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. -- is a civil action seeking damages for Megaupload’s “$175 million in illicit profits from copyright infringement,” which caused “more than a half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners,” said the suit. “A federal indictment is appropriate, but so is holding Megaupload and its operators accountable for the blatant harm caused to the music community,” said RIAA in the release. Six major movie studios sued Megaupload for copyright infringement earlier last week (CD April 8 p19). Megaupload didn’t comment.