WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Megaupload.com site was shut down and the Justice Department on Thursday charged seven individuals and two corporates with running an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works. The conspirators allegedly earned more than $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and selling premium memberships, the Justice Department said. On Wednesday, several Web sites voluntarily shut down to protest anti-piracy legislation making its way through Congress.

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The site is one of the world's most popular file-sharing services, but has now been closed following allegations that its founder and several other executives were charged with violating a number of piracy laws.

The allegations state that Megaupload has cost copyright holders a loss of over $500 million (£320m) in revenue from pirated films and other media.

It appears that its spinoff sites including Megavideo and Megapix have also been shut down for the time being.

A statement posted on the FBI's website read: "This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime."

The Justice Department explained that Kim Dotcom (formerly Kim Schmitz) and three others were arrested in New Zealand.

Megaupload had released a statement shortly before the shutdown, stating that the allegations were "grotesquely overblown".

The statement read: "The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch."

The website allows users to upload and transfer files that are too large for email, and is similar to several other sites including Rapidshare and FileServe.

The Motion Picture Association of America recently alleged that the vast majority of files used on Megaupload are in violation of copyright laws.

The move comes one day after many websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA).