MegaUpload Gone

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369

19 January 2012 Last updated at 16:47 E

Megaupload file-sharing site shut down
Megaupload image Megaupload charged users a fee to upload large files anonymously
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Megaupload, one of the internet’s largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

The site’s founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

The news came a day after anti-piracy law protests, but investigators said they were ordered two weeks ago.

The US Justice Department said that Megaupload’s two co-founders Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and Mathias Ortmann were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand along with two other employees of the business at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large.

“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime,” said a statement posted on its website.
Third-party sites

The charges included copyright infringement, conspiracies to commit racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering.

A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 domain names associated with the Hong Kong-based firm be seized.

The Justice Department said that more than 20 search warrants had been executed in nine countries, and that approximately $50m in assets had been seized.

It claimed that the accused had pursued a business model designed to promote the uploading of copyrighted works.

“The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content and publicised their links to users throughout the world,” a statement said.

“By actively supporting the use of third-party linking sites to publicise infringing content, the conspirators did not need to publicise such content on the Megaupload site.

“Instead, the indictment alleges that the conspirators manipulated the perception of content available on their servers by not providing a public search function on the Megaupload site and by not including popular infringing content on the publicly available lists of top content downloaded by its users.”

Before it was shut down the site posted a statement saying the allegations against it were “grotesquely overblown”.

“The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay,” it added.

“If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch.”
Blackouts

The announcement came a day after thousands of websites took part in a “blackout” to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).

The US Chamber of Commerce has defended the proposed laws saying that enforcement agencies “lack the tools” to effectively apply existing intellectual property laws to the digital world.

Industry watchers suggest this latest move may feed into the wider debate.

“Neither of the bills are close to being passed – they need further revision. But it appears that officials are able to use existing tools to go after a business alleged to be inducing piracy,” said Gartner’s media distribution expert Mike McGuire.

“It begs the question that if you can find and arrest people who are suspected to be involved in piracy using existing laws, then why introduce further regulations which are US-only and potentially damaging.”

Here’s an interesting read:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars?comments=1#comments-bar

I mainly used it for bootlegs sucks.There are plenty of other sites though.I just hate the US government telling other countries how to behave.It’s just one site there had to be more reason to why they went after this.There are many others just like it,that are still around today that they have to know about.There has to me more to this story and the people involved with megaupload.

http://mega.co.nz/

Mega goes live: Megaupload reborn with focus on file safety
Chris Davies, Jan 19th 2013

Kim Dotcom’s Mega cloud storage service has launched, cocking a snook at federal investigators who shut down Megaupload last year, and offering huge quantities of anonymous, encrypted storage for the web generation. The new site offers 50GB of free capacity to each user, though will have various tiers of paid service over that as the product roadmap progresses. Key to the value proposition, Mega insists, is that individual users control the encryption system.

“The new Mega encrypts your data transparently in your browser, on the fly” the company says of its file security system. “You hold the keys to what you store in the cloud, not us.”

As for those who find 50GB isn’t enough for their needs, Mega expects to offer three “Pro” tiers initially. €9.99 ($13) gets you 500GB, €19.99 ($27) gets you 2TB, and €29.99 ($40) gets you 4TB. Bandwidth for each package comes in at 1TB, 4TB, and 8TB per month, respectively.

You’ll also need to be running Chrome for the best experience since, as Mega explains, currently none of the other common browsers support all elements of the feature-set the cloud system requires. “ If you are planning on using MEGA frequently, there is currently no alternative to using the most advanced browser currently in existence” Mega concludes, “Google Chrome.”

Mega’s roadmap for the future is certainly ambitious. The company plans to release an API, as well as local apps for desktop and mobile use, plus an instant-messaging service for Mega users to communicate with each other.

http://mega.co.nz/

ron: “You hold the keys to what you store in the cloud, not us.”

Wasn’t this their position last time? What makes this time around different?

unchainedheart:
what about google chrome,is it good?.i mean worth the change?

Depends on how custom your current browser is. If you’re using Firefox with a lot of extensions or plug ins, you’ll want to see if similar options are available for Chrome.

But if you’ve never customized your browser, Chrome is a good option (and allows much customization too).

guitard: I don’t think the old service had a bandwidth limit for paying customers. Speaking of whom . . . I had just renewed my account before the site went down – so I was out over $100.I’d like to know if I get that back as a credit? (yeah I know . . . fat chance . . .)

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If they come back up you may show a credit??? If they would of been “smart” send emails to its users to reactivate your accounts??? maybe in 2013 we get less shafted…lol