The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives on Thursday as debate in Washington reaches a fever pitch over online piracy. Lawmakers are trying to craft legislation that balances cracking down on violators while avoiding censorship of the Internet.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft. Major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

Along with the 37-year old Mr. Dotcom, who also used the Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor name, police arrested chief marketing officer Finn Batato, 38 years old; chief technical officer, director and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, 40 years old, both from Germany; and Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, 29 years old.

The search warrants this morning netted millions of dollars worth of assets including 21 luxury vehicles such as the handmade Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe and a number of pieces of artwork. New Zealand police estimate the values of the cars alone totaled around 6 million New Zealand dollars (US$4.8 million).

The New Zealand police have also seized from New Zealand financial institutions over NZ$10 million.

All I gotta say is...Sopa 1   Us 0