My blog about theater in Poland.

The U.S. government said that it seized $50 million in assets and that much of the $175 million the site has earned since 2005 was due to copyright infringement. As Ars Technica notes, even the site’s graphic designer reportedly earned $1 million last year, and between them, the seven indicted people (including the creatively named Kim Dotcom) owned 15 Mercedes-Benzes, a Maserati, a Rolls-Royce and a Lamborghini. The blog TechCrunch has posted photos of seized assets, including the cars and a large house in New Zealand, in case you’re interested.

Publicly, at least, the site frowned on illegal uploads. It featured a tool to report \”abuse,\” gave copyright holders the ability with hunt for illegal content and registered with all the U.S. government under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law aimed at fighting piracy.

The site’s owners have denied any wrongdoing regarding copyright violation, and their lawyer has mentioned the site was wrongly closed down before its owners were enabled to address the charges against them.

But the Justice Department states the anti-theft efforts were a facade — that Megaupload’s employees knew they were allowing piracy and made the website difficult for outsiders with look for illegal material.

In an unofficial sampling of CNN Tech readers on Twitter, countless immediately acknowledged using the site with watch TV shows or movies. But others cited more legitimate uses, with some saying they’ve lost legitimate content, and money, after the government crackdown.

Seng Ung of Boston mentioned he newly paid approximately $260 for a life membership so he could store older files from childhood and university. He didn’t lose them, but today he’s gotten nothing in return for his payment, he mentioned.

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