Pirates plan to sue FBI over Megaupload takedown

USERS of the file-sharing website Megaupload who lost data when the US authorities closed it down last week are being encouraged to sue the FBI.

Although Megaupload stands accused of facilitating piracy by encouraging users to upload copyrighted content, a large amount of the data being shared on the site before it was shut down actually belonged to users.

There are many legitimate uses for file-sharing websites. For example, researchers might need to share data with another group of scientists in another country. Such users are currently in limbo and have no way of knowing when or if they will get their files back.

Now, TorrentFreak reports that an international group of activists have said they intend to bring a complaint against the US authorities and have asked those affected by the closure of Megaupload to submit their stories.

The legal action is being coordinated by a collection of Pirate Parties - political groupings that want to reform copyright law. In certain countries, these parties have had officials elected to parliament.

In a statement, the Pirates of Catalonia, Pirate Parties International and the Pirate Party of the UK accuse the FBI of causing "incalculable damage" far in excess of the $500m the entertainment companies claim to have lost as a result of Megaupload's activities.

The FBI, they say, has "impeded access to millions of archives of both private individuals and organisations, potentially causing huge personal, economic and image damages to a vast number of people".

Whether anybody would have been foolish enough to keep their critical data in only one place on the internet with no back-up is open to debate. But the Pirates of Catalonia believe the US has fallen foul of Spanish law by "misappropriating personal data".

It is unclear whether the Pirates have a case in any other countries. They say only that they are investigating "potential breaches of law" to bring complaints against the US in "as many countries as possible". ·