Several major movie studios have filed suit against the defunct website Megaupload and founder Kim Dotcom on Monday.
The studios involved in the lawsuit are Universal City Studios Productions, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Disney Enterprises, 20th Century Fox Film and Columbia Pictures Industries, reports The New York Times.
The lawsuit asks for damages and statutory awards at the maximum $150,000 for each of the 30 movies cited in the lawsuit, which include Avatar and Cars 2, that were at one time allegedly available for illegal download through the website.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Motion Picture Assn. of America senior exec vp and global general counsel Steven Fabrizio said, "When Megaupload.com was shut down in 2012 by U.S. law enforcement, it was by all estimates the largest and most active infringing website targeting creative content in the world."
He estimated that copyright owners just in the U.S. lost about $500 million because of Megaupload and Dotcom.
The website was shuttered two years ago and Dotcom is currently trying to avoid extradition to New Zealand, where he is accused of criminal copyright infringement and racketeering.