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Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Kim Dotcom Announces Successor to MegaUpload but Loses Domain Name

Shea Huffman |
November 9, 2012 | 6:35 a.m. PST

Staff Reporter

 

Mega, the upcoming cloud storage and file-sharing service from MegaUpload creater Kim Dotcom promises better privacy through encryption of user's files. (Neon Tommy/Screenshot by Shea Huffman)
Mega, the upcoming cloud storage and file-sharing service from MegaUpload creater Kim Dotcom promises better privacy through encryption of user's files. (Neon Tommy/Screenshot by Shea Huffman)
Kim Dotcom, founder of the shuttered file-sharing website MegaUpload, announced last week a new cloud storage service called Mega that seeks to give users more control and privacy, and also shift some of the legal responsibility onto them as well.  The successor to MegaUpload, set to launch in January 2013, is already fielding criticism and challenges, though, from those who view it as just another service that encourages piracy.

From Wired:

What Mega and Megaupload do have in common is that they are both one-click, subscriber-based cloud platforms that allow customers to upload, store, access, and share large files. Dotcom, and his Mega partner Mathias Ortmann say the difference is that now those files will first be one-click-encrypted right in a client’s browser, using the so-called Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm. The user is then provided with a second unique key for that file’s decryption.

It will be up to users, and third-party app developers, to control access to any given uploaded file, be it a song, movie, videogame, book, or simple text document. Internet libertarians will surely embrace this new capability.

Because of Mega’s encryption of its user’s files, it would be impossible for the site owners to view the content stored on their servers, thus providing them with what they see as a “safe harbor” from liability over copyrighted content.

Copyright infringement was widespread on MegaUpload before it was shut down by the U.S. government in January, though the site also hosted large amounts of legitimate content.  Dotcom and three partners are still waiting in New Zealand for a court to rule on possible extradition to the U.S. on conspiracy, racketeering, money laundering, and copyright infringement charges.

Mega is also promising to give copyright holders “direct delete access” of pirated content, so long as they don’t hold the site liable.

Dotcom and his partners a betting their encryption measures will protect the site from any more government takedown attempts.

“And according to the U.N. Charter for Human Rights, privacy is a basic human right,” said Doctom to Wired, “You have the right to protect your private information and communication against spying.”

Despite this, Mega is already facing challenges, as its planned me.ga domain name is being blocked by Gabon, the African nation who owns the .ga domain and who want nothing to do with the site.  “Gabon cannot serve as a platform or screen for committing acts aimed at violating copyrights, nor be used by unscrupulous people,” said Communication Minister Blaise Louembe.

The domain has also reportedly been registered already to a group of hackers called "Omega" who jumped on the URL's availability because they see Dotcom’s business ethics as not much better than the media corporations they also dislike.  The group says they plan to sell the domain to Universal.  “Kim Dotcom is not better nor worse than Universal. He himself is an industry, only here to pollute,” said Omega to TorrentFreak.

Dotcom said in a statement that an alternate domain name was ready to be used.  He also largely blamed the U.S. for pressuring the government of Gabon to deny Mega the original URL.

Mega is still set to release January 19, 2013.

You can reach Staff Reporter Shea Huffman here or follow him on Twitter.



 

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