MegaUpload's closure boosts movie rentals and sales

MegaUpload's closure boosts movie rentals and sales

A new study shows that in the months following the takedown of Kim DotCom's cyberlocker, online movie revenue increased by 6 percent to 10 percent.

Here's something that will make the Motion Picture Association of America happy: movie sales and rentals increased after the feds shuttered cyberlocker MegaUpload last year.

A new study by Carnegie Mellon's Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics shows that after MegaUpload's closure online movie revenue increased by between 6 percent and 10 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal. The study researched two major movie studios and the results were measured in 12 different countries, including the U.S.

"We conclude that shutting down MegaUpload and Megavideo caused some customers to shift from cyberlocker-based piracy to purchasing or renting through legal digital channels," the study's researchers told the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. government conducted a major takedown of the cloud-storage service in January 2012, charging its founder Kim DotCom with racketeering, copyright infringement, money laundering, and more. Federal authorities claim that DotCom pocketed millions of dollars in illegal profits from illegal file sharing and downloading, which has reportedly cost the film industry more than $600 million in damages.

MegaUpload was one of the most popular video destinations on the Web, with reportedly 50 million users per day that shared and streamed files.