Loki was shut down by a court order from a Dallas federal court. The MPAA was given Loki's computers and user logs, and is threatening to sue individual users on the evidence of that information. A cynical thread at Slyck reaches the conclusion that Loki owner Deward Webber used the money from his user-contributed legal defense fund (about $40,000) to buy his way out of trouble, paying a settlement to the MPAA and turning in his users. In fact, very little seems to be known about the inner workings of this deal. I'm interested in the court order and its basis; Napster was shut down in similar fashion (actually much less harshly; Napster shut itself down rather than comply with a court order specifying how it must operate) after lengthy arguments and judicial proceedings. The Loki court order seems far more precipitous. At any rate: Loki is gone; Webber is gone; the money is gone. The IP addresses of Loki users are in the hands of the MPAA.