Mega Site

[Demon_Skeith]

Indicted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom launched a new file-sharing website that promises users greater privacy and defies the U.S. prosecutors who accuse him of facilitating massive online piracy.

The colorful entrepreneur unveiled the "Mega" site ahead of a lavish gala and news conference at his New Zealand mansion on Sunday night, the anniversary of his arrest on racketeering charges related to his now-shuttered Megaupload file-sharing site. The site Dotcom started in 2005 was one of the most popular sites on the Web until U.S. prosecutors shut it down and accused him and several company officials of facilitating millions of illegal downloads.

In Dotcom's typical grandiose style, the launch party featured a tongue-in-cheek re-enactment of the dramatic raid on his home a year earlier, when New Zealand police swooped down in helicopters onto the mansion grounds and nabbed him in a safe room where he was hiding.

"Mega is going to be huge, and nothing will stop Mega — whoo!" a gleeful Dotcom bellowed from a giant stage set up in his yard, seconds before a helicopter roared overhead and faux police agents rappelled down the side of his mansion. Dotcom eventually ordered everyone to "stop this madness!" before breaking out into a dance alongside miniskirt-clad "guards" as music boomed.

Bravado aside, interest in the site was certainly high. Dotcom said half a million users registered for Mega in its first 14 hours.

U.S. authorities are trying to extradite the German-born Internet tycoon from New Zealand, where he is free on bail. Prosecutors say Dotcom made tens of millions of dollars while filmmakers and songwriters lost around $500 million in copyright revenue.

U.S. prosecutors declined to comment on the new site, referring only to a court document that cites several promises Dotcom made while seeking bail that he would not — and could not — start a Megaupload-style business until the criminal case was resolved.

"I can assure the Court that I have no intention and there is no risk of my reactivating the Megaupload.com website or establishing a similar Internet-based business during the period until the resolution of the extradition proceedings," Dotcom said in a Feb. 15, 2012, affidavit.

Dotcom argues that he can't be held responsible for copyright infringement committed by others and insists Megaupload complied with copyrights by removing links to pirated material when asked.

"Our company and assets were taken away from us without a hearing," Dotcom said. "The privacy of our users was intruded on, communications were taken offline and free speech was attacked. Let me be clear to those who use copyright law as a weapon to drown innovation and stifle competition: You will be left on the side of the road of history."

Mega, like Megaupload, allows users to store and share large files. It offers 50 gigabytes of free storage, much more than similar sites such as Dropbox and Google Drive, and features a drag-and-drop upload tool.

The key difference is an encryption and decryption feature for data transfers that Dotcom says will protect him from the legal drama that has entangled Megaupload and threatened to put him behind bars.

The decryption keys for uploaded files are held by the users, not Mega, which means the company can't see what's in the files being shared. Dotcom argues that Mega — which bills itself as "the privacy company" — therefore can't be held liable for content it cannot see.

"What he's trying to do is give himself a second-string argument: 'Even if I was wrong before, this one's all right because how can I control something if I don't know that it's there?'" said Sydney attorney Charles Alexander, who specializes in intellectual property law. "I can understand the argument; whether it would be successful or not is another matter."

To Dotcom, the concept is very simple.

"If someone sends something illegal in an envelope through your postal service," he says, "you don't shut down the post office."

The Motion Picture Association of America, which filed complaints about alleged copyright infringement by Megaupload, was not impressed.

"We are still reviewing how this new project will operate, but we do know that Kim Dotcom has built his career and his fortune on stealing creative works," the MPAA said in a statement. "We'll reserve final judgment until we have a chance to take a closer look, but given Kim Dotcom's history of damaging the consumer experience by pushing stolen, illegitimate content into the marketplace, count us as skeptical."

Still, as much as Dotcom's new venture might enrage prosecutors and entertainment executives, it shouldn't have any impact on the Megaupload case.

"All it might do is annoy them enough to say, 'We're going to redouble our efforts in prosecuting them'," said Alexander, the attorney. "But I don't think it makes any practical difference to the outcome."

Dotcom denied the new site was designed to provoke authorities, but got in plenty of digs at their expense, saying that their campaign to shutter Megaupload simply forced him to create a new and improved site.

"Sometimes good things come out of terrible events," Dotcom said. "For example, if it wasn't for a giant comet hitting earth, we would still be surrounded by angry dinosaurs — hungry, too. If it wasn't for that iceberg, we wouldn't have a great Titanic movie which makes me cry every time I see it. And if it wasn't for the raid, we wouldn't have Mega."

source

Can't believe he started another site.

 

[froggyboy604]

I read the new site would be like Dropbox, Google Drive, and other online storage sites, but with more privacy then other online services because you need a password or digital key to open the file when downloaded.

I'm not surprise he started another site since making File sharing sites is what Kim does, and he still have a lot of money, and want to earn more money from Mega.

 

[Jason]

If he didn't start some other person would start again. So there is no stopping of these people

 

[froggyboy604]

I agree there always will always be people making website based file sharing and storage sites like Mega since they don't require constant new articles or video to be publish everyday like news sites like Yahoo News and The Huffington Post which need to publish new and interesting articles for people to read. Finding good writers, and moderators can be hard.

Plus, online file storage sites don't require many new features every month since people use them to upload files to store and share with other people and don't do tasks on file sharing sites like friend other users, comment on posts, promote their content on the site, make tags and categories, and make templates for their profiles like social networks and blogs.

Bittorent is creating a file storage web service similar to DropBox and Mega.

Plus, sites like DropBox, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other big companies are making online file storage sites, so online file storage is now an more acceptable and big buisness vs the past when Bittorent, Napster, Limewire, Bearshare, etc were sued for letting people find and share legal and copyrighted files easily online with programs and online services.

 

[Corvus]

I read that this time the site has like 99% of free legal files.
I wonder how many 1% of illegal files we will find.
You stop 1 site and 2 new sites start.

 

[froggyboy604]

I read that since the files will be password protected on Mega which means you need a password to share the files, people can't easily scan and find files which are copyrighted without hacking the file like those password protected Zip files where you need a password to open files.

This means the music and movie industry will be less likely to sue and win for copyright claims since they can't prove what is in the file without hacking it, and Mega is not in the illegal file hosting buisness since all files are password protected, and no one, but the file sharer knows the password.

I think more people use DropBox, Google Drive, Windows Skydrive, etc to host copyrighted files which they don't own because Dropbox, Google Drive, and Windows SkyDrive is more popular and have more users, and some people might feel DropBox, Google and Microsoft will protect their privacy better because they are big companies.