RapidGator, one of the file-hosting sites that grew exponentially following the Megaupload shutdown last month, has been banned by PayPal. As a result, the Russian-based site says it will close the service in a month. According to PayPal, the RapidGator account was closed due to the “high risks” associated with processing payments to file-sharing services.

PayPal has frozen the cyberlocker’s funds for 6 months and new users can no longer make payments through PayPal. The ban probably means that “affiliates” can’t be paid through PayPal either.

The documents, obtained from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, were published online by the Center for Consumer Freedom, a non-profit organization that runs online campaigns targeting groups that antagonize food producers.

In a February 16 statement, the Center said PETA killed 1,911 cats and dogs last year, finding homes for only 24 pets.

“PETA hasn’t slowed down its slaughterhouse operation,” said Rick Berman, CCF’s executive director. “It appears PETA is more concerned with funding its media and advertising antics than finding suitable homes for these dogs and cats.”

Kovich also determined that PETA employees kill 84 percent of the animals in their custody within 24 hours of receiving them.

In 2005, two PETA employees described as “adorable” and “perfect” some of the dogs and cats they killed in the back of a PETA-owned van. The two were arrested after police witnessed them tossing the animals’ dead bodies into a North Carolina dumpster.

Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has threatened to pull out of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) over a film rating given to the documentary Bully.

The R rating means children under the age of 17 will not be able to watch the film, about bullying in US schools, without a parent present.

In a statement, MPAA appeal board chairman Joan Graves said the rating was not a comment on the film's subject matter but was imposed for "some language".

Several theories have been circulating, mainly focusing on the file-hoster trying to drive users to take up premium accounts. But according to RapidShare the reason is simple – to drive pirates away from their service.

“RapidShare has been faced with a severe increase in free user traffic and unfortunately also in the amount of abuse of our service ever since, suggesting that quite a few copyright infringers have chosen RapidShare as their new hoster of choice for their illegal activities,” the company explained.

Oracle has reaffirmed that it's in the Linux business to stay by extending the support lifecycle of its own-brand build to ten years, and tempting Red Hat users with a trial offer of its Ksplice patching system.

"With the innovative zero-downtime update capabilities delivered through Ksplice, and the extended support lifecycle for Oracle Linux, Oracle continues to set the industry standard for Linux in the enterprise," said Wim Coekaerts, Oracle vice president of Linux and virtualization engineering, in a canned statement.

The content industries, both film and music, have been taking a noticeably tougher line on pirates in recent months as they continue to lose profits because of those determined to get content free.

The site has already spawned political parties in Sweden and the UK and maintains a loyal fanbase who seem more than prepared to go the extra mile in order to carry on getting content for free.

Belgian music rights group SABAM has a serious headache looming. Following a complaint filed by an artist back in 2004, a judge began investigating the group’s finances. His findings mean that SABAM will now face court accused of falsifying accounts to cover up bribe payments, abuse of trust, copyright fraud and embezzlement.

Former SABAM President Jacques Leduc is one of the accused but former financial directors Marcel Raiglot and Jean Huysmans and current finance director Luc Van Oycke are being held accountable for corruption and forgery.

Katy Perry had a huge year. She went No.1 five times. She was the most played artist on the radio.

Here's what Katy Perry sold in the United States: 2 million albums and 24 million digital tracks. That's not a lot of albums. That is a LOT of songs. At a dollar a pop.

By my estimate, the record-shattering, chart-topping Katy Perry made her label around $8 million in U.S. music sales.

The government said the site, which generated millions in user fees and advertising, facilitated copyright infringement of movies "often before their theatrical release, music, television programs, electronic books, and business and entertainment software on a massive scale." The government said Megaupload's "estimated harm" to copyright holders was "well in excess of $500 million."

The superseding indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia also claims that Megaupload paid one of its registered users $3,400 between 2008 and 2009 for uploading 16,960 files that generated 34 million views. The files included motion pictures Ocean's Thirteen, Ratatouille and Evan Almighty, the government said.

As you recall, last month's SOPA/PIPA protests were followed the very next day by the US government shutting down Megaupload.

It creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty, where services with perfectly legitimate intent can be accused of criminal activities based on very questionable claims. Perhaps the most ridiculous is the catch-22 situation in which Megaupload got blamed for trying to hide the infringing activity on its site. If it had left it up, it would have been accused of facilitating or inducing infringement, but by making it hard to find, it's accused of conspiracy to hide the activity.