Down goes megaupload, behold MEGA
By Renhard
@Renhard (3471)
Jamaica
January 21, 2013 7:24am CST
For those who all know, megaupload was a file sharing site. It was shut down when fbi's swoop down on the owner's mansion in New Zealand. Just imagine the helicopters hovering over his mansion, I would be scared too; he hid in his safe room but they still found him. They claimed that his site was illegal along with some other stuff. Saying that he is promoting piracy and all. But the true fact of the matter is people have a right to share files, now if you have registered users pirating then too much blame shouldn't be done on the owner of the site but rather on the users. He provided a medium to share huge files, not to pirate. It is just as same as the post office, the government provided a way that we could communicate. If people use the post office to send drugs, then the government isn't the one to be blame but the person who misused the service.
So the owner Kim Dotcom has started a new site called MEGA. I think he tries to include more privacy in this site. The site is having a blast though. Had over 250 000 users registering in under an hour.
3 people like this
4 responses
@celticeagle (166761)
• Boise, Idaho
22 Jan 13
Obviously Kim D. had some believers or he wouldn't have so many users in an hour. I hope he is legit now and not going against what the government wants done.
@celticeagle (166761)
• Boise, Idaho
24 Jan 13
I personally would not want to be a part of something that has to be so secretive and all.
@Renhard (3471)
• Jamaica
22 Jan 13
Some people believe that he might be just mocking the government but Kim proclaimed that is not so. The legal suites say that they will not comment on his new site. But being that the only real difference in this site is that the files are more encrypted now so only person who can really see the files that are being sent are users that are actually sharing the file.
1 person likes this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
21 Jan 13
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, hosting websites have a safe harbor against being liable for the content their users upload. That's why the lawsuits against YouTube have never panned out. So this story really doesn't make any sense to me, and it sounds overly dramatic. Legally, (at least to the extent of my knowledge about copyright law, which admittedly is intermediate at best) Megaupload's owners could argue exemption from direct liability. But court battles are technically a bunch of judges and lawyers arguing over how to interpret the law. Has this come to court yet? The safe harbor part of the Digital Millennium will come out in the arguments if it hasn't.
Personally, speaking as an anti-piracy advocate, Megaupload was a complete wasteland of pirated material. It didn't seem like the owners were doing anything to prevent the piracy, it was running rampant. I'm glad it's been shut down, and I hope the owners will be more careful about their new site.
@Renhard (3471)
• Jamaica
22 Jan 13
Yes it has reached the court and the owner said that you know, that he shouldn't be liable for such things. Especially since any file that has be marked as pirated, he deletes the link thus he did even make an effort to remove piracy.
His new site now he made sure that it is impossible for him the owner to even see the files users uploaded. So in this case it is like he is a blind man, and a blind man shouldn't be held responsible.
1 person likes this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
26 Jan 13
The way the new site works sounds really shady to me though. Since he can't even police the site for piracy, it sounds like he's created the perfect piracy tool that he can make money off of and keep from being liable for. It sounds like an even worse pirated wasteland, as I'm sure if he can't police the material exchanged, copyright holders looking to protect their material won't be allowed to either.
@lampar (7584)
• United States
24 Jan 13
I agree with you, unfortunately for him, New Zealand authority want his head badly, they don't like his popular Megaupload website, claiming he violated digital copy-right act and making many product manufacturers like video makers, song writers, game owners , blah...etc... losing money from the buyers because of him. They are determined to harass him and his family until he shut down his Megaupload site coluntarily, stop providing a common file sharing forum for his members. 
@arunr175 (1678)
• India
23 Jan 13
Still there are other file sharing websites like 4shared.com that does have copyright materials shared to public.
This can be stopped by proper scanning of the uploaded files, not everything can be stopped but it can be tightened.
Kim Dotcom was also equally responsible for piracy in megaupload.
Still there will be people sharing copyright materials in mega and other file sharing websites ....
@Renhard (3471)
• Jamaica
23 Jan 13
Why did you say Kim was also equally responsible for piracy in megaupload; Have you ever come up on a file and it says the link has been deleted? that is most time the doing of KIm's to try remove piracy files. So that mean he did actually put out the effort to receive such files.
