CEO Chris Dodd calls the site — shuttered today by the Justice Department — “the largest and most active criminally operated website targeting creative content in the world.” Here’s the MPAA statement:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today announced one of the largest criminal copyright cases in U.S. history. Seven individuals responsible for operating Megaupload.com and their associated companies, Megaupload Limited and Vestor Limited, have been charged in the United States with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. The following is a comment from Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc.(MPAA):

“By all estimates, Megaupload.com is the largest and most active criminally operated website targeting creative content in the world. This criminal case, more than two years in development, shows that law enforcement can take strong action to protect American intellectual property stolen through sites housed in the United States. Similar tools are needed to go after foreign-based websites that threaten the livelihoods of the 2.2 million hardworking Americans whose jobs depend on the motion picture and television industry, and the millions of others who produce creative content in this country.

We applaud the U.S. Justice Department, the FBI and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Agency at the Department of Homeland Security for leading this investigation.

Infringing content on megaupload.com and its affiliates is available in 20 languages, targeting a broad global audience. The site generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and cost U.S. copyright owners more than half a billion dollars.”