Feb 19
The legal saga of Megaupload and its founder Kim Dotcom has been going on for a long time now. Earlier in the case, the warrant that was used to arrest … Continue reading
Dec 20
Department of Justice report details case against Kim Dotcom, former Megaupload leaders
Posted in: Today's ChiliKim Dotcom, the man behind Mega, the successor of the now-defunct Megaupload, has been the subject of a long-lived investigation, the details of which were revealed today in a 191-page … Continue reading
Oct 19
When Megaupload got taken down two years ago, it took a whole hell of a lot of data with it. And eventually it got obliterated
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Sep 04
Kim Dotcom has announced he is stepping down as director of the new file sharing service he launched called Mega. We’ve talked plenty about Kim Dotcom, the man who headed up Megaupload and found himself under serious legal assault by the United States over alleged copyright infringement. While Dotcom was fighting US authorities and trying […]
Jun 19
Petabytes of Megaupload data trapped on one hosting company’s server has been deleted without warning, outspoken founder Kim Dotcom has revealed, meaning a huge number of predominantly European users have likely seen the end of their content. Leaseweb, one of several server providers Megaupload paid to store files, wiped 690 servers Dotcom told TorrentFreak, giving
Jun 19
If you had your heart set on getting back some of the data you had stored on Megaupload, now would be a good time to stop hoping. According to Kim Dotcom, petabytes of user data have already been deleted off old Megaupload servers. Thousands of pirated movies cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
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May 31
It’s been quite the journey for Mega founder Kim Dotcom, but it seems like things are slowly coming to a conclusion. The High Court of New Zealand has ordered the FBI to return confiscated hard drives that were taken from Dotcom’s home when it was initially raided last year. They have also ordered the US government to destroy all copies that they might have archived.
Essentially, the FBI messed up pretty badly, and so did New Zealand authorities when they raided Dotcom’s mansion. It’s said that they seized all sorts of stuff that actually had nothing to do with the reason that Dotcom’s house was being raided, which is illegal, but the New Zealand police cloned the hard drives anyways and gave them to the FBI.
New Zealand authorities are now required to go through all of the illegally-seized evidence and determine what is actually relevant to the ongoing trial and return any evidence that isn’t pertinent to Dotcom. However, we’re not sure how all of that will be enforced, so as far as we know, there’s no way to tell if all irrelevant evidence will be returned.
This is another win for Kim Dotcom and his legal team, and essentially a mark in the loss column for the New Zealand government. Dotcom is best known for launching Megaupload, which is a file-sharing site that was eventually shut down by the government because it hosted copyrighted content.
After the shutdown of Megaupload, Dotcom launched a similar service called Mega, but claimed it was completely legal this time around, thinking that he wouldn’t have to deal with anymore legal scrutiny. However, his new file-sharing service is receiving criticism and anti-piracy advocates are wanting to shut down Mega for hosting copyrighted material yet again.
SOURCE: TorrentFreak
FBI ordered to return confiscated hard drives to Kim Dotcom is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
May 28
We knew it would end up getting criticism from the start, but Kim Dotcom’s recently-launched Mega website is getting the stink-eye from movie studios in Hollywood. While Dotcom claims that his new service is completely legal, studios like NBC Universal and Warner Bros. think the contrary, and have asked Google to take down the website from search results.
Both movie studios have sent DMCA takedown notices to Google, saying that their copyrighted content is hosted on Mega and they want it taken down. Of course, Google receives takedown notices all the time, so this kind of thing is nothing new, but the fact that Mega’s founder is confident of the service’s legality has him up in arms with movie studios.
NBC Universal and Warner Bros. have asked Google to de-list the Mega.co.nz homepage from Google, but the homepage itself actually doesn’t include any links to files, making it a bit of a strange request. However, this could simply mean that the studios want the homepage, as well as all subdirectories to be removed.
Dotcom is aware of the takedown notices sent from these two movie studios, and he doesn’t agree with them one bit, saying that “the constant abuse of takedown rules and the ignorance of DMCA obligations by the content industry are based on the confidence that the current US administration is protecting this kind of behavior.” He also says that a takedown notice for Mega would be “the ultimate takedown by the content industry.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Dotcom has been put through this kind of abuse. Before he launched Mega, he ran Megaupload, which was eventually shut down due to the service hosting copyrighted content. He even had his house raided by police and federal officials, before he eventually was able to get back on his feet and launch Mega, which many anti-piracy advocates suggest is just exactly like Megaupload with a different name.
VIA: TorrentFreak
SOURCE: Chilling Effects (1), (2)
Mega under Hollywood fire: Google tapped to block search results is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 08
What once was a haven for illegal downloading is now just an afterthought. After the shutdown of Megaupload last year, it seems users are starting to resort to legal downloading means, according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University. The study suggests that studios saw a boost in digital movie and music sales since the shutdown.
The 18-week study consisted of 12 countries, and revenues from digital sales and rentals for two movie studios were anywhere from 6% to 10% higher than they would have been if Megaupload hadn’t been shut down. Unsurprisingly, the countries that featured the most Megaupload users were the countries that experienced increased usage in legal downloads.
It’s interesting to note that most Megaupload users would think about just switching to a new service to illegally download copyrighted content, but with the movies and music easier to obtain legally, it seems a lot of users have decided to think twice after the Megaupload shutdown and have switched over the legal means.
Countries such as France, Spain, Mexico, and Belgium saw the most growth in legal downloads, while Canada, Australia, and Ireland saw the least impact. The study suggest that the number of users using legal means of obtaining digital content could rise if studios made their content more readily available.
Megaupload shutdown increased legal movie downloads, according to study is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 07
There are always two sides to a coin, and different viewpoints in a situation. For instance, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, and when it comes to a site like Megaupload, it is bound to split opinions on it right down the middle. According to The Wall Street Journal, they reported that movie sales actually jumped in a significant amount in the months that followed after Megaupload was ordered to shut down. This bit of information was taken off a new study that was conducted by Wellesley College assistant professor of economics Brett Danaher and Carnegie Mellon University professor Michael D. Smith.
Both researchers claimed that “shutting down Megaupload and Megavideo caused some customers to shift from cyberlocker-based piracy to purchasing or renting through legal digital channels,” which would provide ammunition for the anti-Megaupload camp, as it clearly contradicts previous studies that did suggest the suspension of Megaupload did not have a significant impact in lowering the instances of online piracy.
According to the researchers, “the shutdown of Megaupload caused weekly digital sales of movies from the two studios to grow by between 10,500 and 15,300 units from what would otherwise have been expected” while “rentals grew between 13,700 and 24,000 units a week.” Which side of the divide are you on?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Intel Ultrabook Prototype with Haswell Spoted at CeBIT, YouTube One Channel Available Across The Board,
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