(CN) - The government took down Megaupload, one of the largest online file-hosting services, and accused seven people with running a $500 million worldwide piracy ring that trafficked in copyrighted movies, books and music, the Justice Department announced.
     Megaupload was said to account for four percent of all the internet's traffic, with 50 million daily visitors. Authorities say the site stole half a billion dollars from copyright holders and made more than $175 million through advertisements and premium memberships.
     Seven Megaupload employees were indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 5 and charged with racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.
     Megaupload encouraged users to upload popular copyrighted movies, music and TV shows in an attempt to drive up web traffic, often offering financial incentives to Internet users who used linking sites, according to the indictment.
     The founder of Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, is a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and is alleged to be the leader of the "criminal enterprise."
     The others named in the indictment are Finn Batato, Sven Echternach and Mathias Ortmann from Germany, Julius Bencko from Slovakia, Andrus Nomm from Estonia, and Bram van der Kolk from the Netherlands.
     After the Justice Department announced the indictments on Thursday, the hacker group Anonymous attacked the Justice Department and FBI websites, making them unable to be accessed for several hours.