Site is still overloaded. Massive demand. Incredible. I am so happy. Thank you for using #Mega.Kim Dotcom • Speaking on his return to the world of online file storage, exactly one year following a raid by U.S. authorities halted his previous enterprise, MegaUpload, on allegations of widespread piracy. Dotcom, to his end, denies that his new Mega.co.nz is a sort of revenge against the authorities that tried to stymie him last time: “This is not some kind of finger to the U.S. government or to Hollywood. Legally, there’s just nothing there that could be used to shut us down. This site is just as legitimate and has the right to exist as Dropbox, Boxnet and other competitors.” SOURCE
» It ain’t easy being rich: Oh wait, clearly, it is. In addition to the $5 million unfrozen by the New Zealand court, Dotcom has also been given permission to sell nine luxury vehicles; most notably, a custom modified 2009 Mercedes E500 and 2008 Rolls Royce Coupe. All of this, of course, is separate from a court ruling earlier this month which also granted Mr. Dotcom with a monthly stipend of $48,300 for living expenses, medical expenses, and legal fees. Our hearts go out to Kim Dotcom. Sounds like he’s really suffering.
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You have to give it up to Kim Dotcom: Despite the fact that his house was dramatically raided and his reputation took a major hit, he’s not giving up his mega-entrepreneur dreams. In fact, he still plans to launch the service Megabox, which will give artists a way to sell directly to their fans, later this year. Not bad brah.
Video of Kim Dotcom raid revealed: Months after the raid of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom’s mansion in New Zealand, the raid continues to be under scrutiny. For the first time, New Zealand’s 3NEWS has revealed video showing what happened that day. A must-watch, especially considering this is a raid over a file-sharing network.
We have met the enemy, and he is (the) U.S.Auckland, N.Z. District Judge David Harvey • Speaking at a conference on copyright earlier this month. The fact that Harvey said this is somewhat problematic, as he’s the judge overseeing the MegaUpload case. Hence, he’s decided to step down from the case, with the court’s chief judge, Jan-Marie Doogue, saying that Harvey’s statements “could reflect on his impartiality and that the appropriate response is for him to step down from the case.” Pretty much.
Not enough information: Chief Justice Helen Winkelman ruled that the 70 search warrants used to raid the home of, and confiscate property from, Megaupload.com founder Kim Dotcom were too vague to be valid. In the decision, Winkelman also ruled that the FBI broke the law when it took confiscated items outside of New Zealand’s borders. As a result, New Zealand’s Attorney General has been ordered to formally request the the return of any/all confiscated items. So, do you think Dotcom will end up coming out of this ordeal unscathed? (Photo via CBS Tech Talk) source
![Kim DotCom adds Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to list of supporters
In an emailed interview with CNET, Steve “Woz” Wozniak confirmed that he’s a supporter of MegaUpload CEO Kim Dotcom. Wozniak blasted federal prosecutors, telling CNET it is “unfair that the United States will allow [DotCom] living expenses out of his frozen assets but not give him any legal fees.” Woz is no fan piracy, and told the site in no uncertain terms that he believes it’s wrong, “So is driving over the speed limit,” he said, adding, “But don’t let that halt the progress of the digital age.” (Photo from and hat tip to Gizmodo) source
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In an emailed interview with CNET, Steve “Woz” Wozniak confirmed that he’s a supporter of MegaUpload CEO Kim Dotcom. Wozniak blasted federal prosecutors, telling CNET it is “unfair that the United States will allow [DotCom] living expenses out of his frozen assets but not give him any legal fees.” Woz is no fan piracy, and told the site in no uncertain terms that he believes it’s wrong, “So is driving over the speed limit,” he said, adding, “But don’t let that halt the progress of the digital age.” (Photo from and hat tip to Gizmodo) source
The premise of the Government’s forfeiture request is that Megaupload never earned a single penny that was not criminal under U.S. law — whether, say, from a non-infringing use of its service, or from use that occurred wholly outside the United States and beyond reach of U.S. law, or even from an infringing use within the United States as to which Defendants nonetheless qualify for a statutory safe harbor or lacked requisite criminal intent.A legal motion by the founders of Megaupload • Asking for the dismissal of the case and a return of the millions of dollars seized from them, on the premise that the government did not do their due diligence, assuming that every transaction was criminal in nature (despite “substantial non-infringing uses”), and ignoring the fact that they had no jurisdiction anyway. Among the arguments in the lengthy motion: “Megaupload was a non-U.S. company whose activities mostly occurred overseas and whose users were mostly located overseas.” Will be fascinating to see what happens as a result of this motion.
It turns out that the US judge handling the case has serious doubts whether it will ever go to trial due to a procedural error.
“I frankly don’t know that we are ever going to have a trial in this matter,” Judge O’Grady said as reported by the NZ Herald.
Judge O’Grady informed the FBI that Megaupload was never served with criminal charges, which is a requirement to start the trial. The origin of this problem is not merely a matter of oversight. Megaupload’s lawyer Ira Rothken says that unlike people, companies can’t be served outside US jurisdiction.
“My understanding as to why they haven’t done that is because they can’t. We don’t believe Megaupload can be served in a criminal matter because it is not located within the jurisdiction of the United States,” Rothken says.
Megaupload’s lawyer adds that he doesn’t understand why the US authorities weren’t aware of this problem before. As a result Judge O’Grady noted that Megaupload is “kind of hanging out there.”
Kim Dotcom in purgatory? Say it ain’t so!
» Thanks to a paperwork mix-up, authorities in New Zealand may have been acting illegally when they seized approximately $200 million worth of assets during the raid and arrest of MegaUpload-founder Kim Dotcom. Although police did catch their mistake and apply for new paperwork prior to executing the raid, a judge has ruled the initial paperwork invalid. She’s granted a temporary legitimacy to the second order, but is expected to rule soon on whether or not Dotcom will have his assets returned to him.
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Find it interesting that Kim Dotcom — and by extension, MegaUpload — got a front page centerpiece on USA Today this morning. Reading the story, it’s relatively fair, but seems not to give much play to the fact that people actually used the service for legal reasons, too. (cover via Newseum)
» But only if you used Megaupload to store them. Megaupload wasn’t just a place to share pirated movies; it also served as webspace for people to store their personal documents, pictures, hard drive backups, and the like. But Megaupload didn’t actually own the servers on which its data was stored—they outsourced that two other companies. Now that Megaupload’s been shut down, its assets have been frozen, and so it can’t keep paying the storage centers their fee. So, according to a letter from the US Attorney’s Office, the two data centers could start deleting the data as soon as this Thursday. That would be a shame for many, many people (although it should have been clear from the outset that Megaupload wasn’t the wisest place to back up one’s data). An attorney for Megaupload says he’s “cautiously optimistic” that they’ll be able to keep the data from being erased.
To give you an idea of how lavishly Kim Dotcom spent his money: Here are the 2011 New Years’ fireworks the MegaUpload founder funded in Auckland, New Zealand. He spent $500,000 in U.S. money on this display. And this isn’t even the whole thing! It’s like three and a half minutes — the full thing is like 10 minutes long! Ars Technica has an amazing piece explaining the guy’s long history, from criminal association to lavish spending to great success … to criminal association. Great read.
so sad.
At the very least they could put up the MegaUpload music video (which we don’t recommend you watch because it’s a gratingly-catchy ditty that will be stuck in your skull for weeks). In related news, a couple similar sites, including Filesonic, have shut down, but MediaFire says it won’t because it has a business model that doesn’t favor piracy. (Context here.)
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