It's probably as legal as Megaupload used to be.

 

Although nice of them to go into bed with Google's logging browser

250,000 registrations in first 2 hours apparently :o

and then this

 

Kim Dotcom ‏@KimDotcom

Look at this @MPAA. Lets talk! pic.twitter.com/9oM2C152

 

 

Kim Dotcom launches Mega.co.nz

 

Internet millionaire Kim Dotcom says his new and improved file storage site could not have been made without the "fresh start" he got after New Zealand and United States authorities raided his Auckland home and shut down Megaupload.

 

Mega opened for business today, exactly a year after Dotcom’s arrest on copyright piracy and racketeering charges. He tweeted this morning that the site had achieved 250,000 registrations and the servers were overloading but still functional.

 

At a launch party tonight, fake police abseiled from the walls of his $30 million Coatesville mansion and a helicopter with ‘‘FBI’’ painted on it flew overhead in a mock re-creation of a dramatic police raid on the estate last year.

 

"When you use Mega you say no to those who want to spy on you. And you say yes to internet freedom and your right to privacy," Dotcom said, speaking from a large stage at the party.

 

While some people had nothing to hide, most people wanted to keep their data secret from governments and corporations, he said.

 

In a media briefing this afternoon, Dotcom said his new site, which encrypts users files "on the fly" as they are uploaded to its cloud storage network, would not have been developed if he had not been arrested.

 

"It wouldn't have even been possible to do this. No one else who is currently in business in the file storage arena can just update their site and be like us, you have to start from scratch

 

"From that perspective this fresh start for Mega is a good thing."

 

Dotcom said it was his goal to list the company on the New Zealand stock exchange.

 

While Dotcom’s arrest meant Megaupload was shutdown and many of his assets frozen, it has not precluded him from renewing work on products which push the boundaries of file-sharing and content ownership rights.

 

He said he was worried the closure of Megaupload might scare people off his newest venture but the amount of traffic to the site had surpassed his expectations.

 

He was keen to stay in New Zealand if extradition proceedings lodged by the United States government did not succeed, but said that would depend on whether the New Zealand government was willing to leave him in peace.

 

"My biggest fear is if we succeed [in fighting extradition] will there be an end - will that be enough [for them] to say, 'OK we made a mistake, leave this guy alone' or will the people in government and the senior people in law enforcement take this defeat and be bitter about it and try and find something else [on me]."

 

He also said the single fibre cable carrying internet traffic in and out of New Zealand was choking business development in the country and he wanted to work with the backers of failed company Pacific Fibre to break the Southern Cross cable's monopoly.

 

"At the moment there's a giant wall shielding New Zealand saying, 'Go away, internet businesses don't come here, we don't have cheap connectivity we don't have good connectivity and we are raiding IT companies', and that's of course bad for New Zealand."

 

Dotcom and others accused in the Megaupload piracy case are preparing to fight an extradition hearing, scheduled for later this year.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/8201230/Kim-Dotcom-launches-Mega-co-nz

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIGSRqbAjck]Indicted tycoon Kim Dotcom launches new site - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm1tArfga5k]Kim Dotcom on Mega, Hollywood, Internet & Copyright Enforcement - YouTube[/ame]

Although nice of them to go into bed with Google's logging browser

 

It's all nice of them to boast about security and whatnot, but then they advocate Chrome... wry?!? It makes me cautious

 

Kim Dotcom, Megaupload Founder, is Anonymous' Latest Victim

 

The newest target for hacktivist group Anonymous is none other than Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload, who Anonymous has loudly defended in the past.

 

When US authorities took down Megaupload, a popular file sharing site, in 2012, Anonymous retaliated in defense of Megaupload by flooding the bandwidth of websites such as the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the FBI.

 

In a recent turn of events, Wired reported that Dotcom aided the government by sharing files with them that ultimately took down another popular file sharing site, NinjaVideo. The files Dotcom shared were ultimately used to convict the NinjaVideo founders for pirating videos.

 

Now, Anonymous has taken to Twitter and its blog urging people to boycott Mega altogether.

 

The blog post reads, “In the Wired article, it outlines that in June of 2010, Dotcom agreed to keep secret a warrant by the DHS HSI IPR Center of Carpathia hosting, and was told by HSI that he was not target of the investigation, which he had in fact been a target of since January of 2010. Dotcom 'cooperated' in the 'spirit' of 'being a good corporate citizen', which apparently means ratting small fish out so the the top dog can stay king. Kim Dotcom thinks he can play both pirate and 'good corporate citizen' at the same time, but one cannot be both.

 

“Kim Dotcom broke the pirate code. He is a snitch, and needs to be exposed to the world as such. Hana Beshara, 'Queen Phara', has been sitting in FPC Bryan in Texas for the past year awaiting release this August because Kim willingly cooperated with this investigation, thinking he would be building a rapport with the IPR fanatics at DHS. Matthew David Howard Smith, aka (Dead1ine), founder of NinjaVideo, will be released from Butner Penitentiary in North Carolina this April."

 

This will unlikely help Mega’s attempt to launch another file sharing service in New Zealand, which they attempted on Sunday but it had crashed multiple times. Dotcom has not responded to Anonymous’ attacks, but, knowing Anonymous, it’s unlikely they will back down any time soon.

 

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/technology/gadgets/kim-dotcom-megaupload-founder-attacked-anonymous-latest-victim

Kim Dotcom wins access to MegaUpload evidence (and maybe his million-dollar car collection)

 

 

Kim Dotcom wins access to MegaUpload evidence (and maybe his million-dollar car collection)

 

The only thing taking longer than the whole Kim Dotcom/MegaUpload legal boondoggle is the Apple/Samsung court battle being waged across half the globe.

 

But it’s starting to get close.

 

Today a New Zealand court granted Dotcom’s legal team access to all the evidence seized by police in that illegal raid way back in early 2012 that followed an also-illegal government surveillance campaign. Last year, the FBI had wanted to give Dotcom access to only one document out of 22 million seized emails, arguing rather cheekily that Dotcom did not need to see all the evidence against him before he faces trial in U.S. courts.

 

In addition to digital evidence, police had seized $17 million worth of Dotcom’s personal assets, including millions of dollars worth of luxury cars — including a Mercedes SUV with a custom “MAFIA” license plate — and art.

 

It’s no wonder Dotcom has pulled a Che Guevara on Barack Obama.

 

Based on today’s ruling, any computer hard drives — apparently there were 135 — and other evidence, including emails and other files, must be returned to Dotcom. Irrelevant materials must be returned immediately, and materials that the prosecution thinks are relevant to the case can be cloned or copied before being returned. There’s no word, however, on whether Dotcom’s cars and art fit the category of “evidence.”

 

An extradition hearing that could deport Dotcom to the U.S. is scheduled for August.

 

It’s unlikely that it will proceed as planned, as other cases could disrupt the timetable, but even if it does and Dotcom is actually extradited, it might be a good thing for the flamboyant technologist, who led the Time100 poll for top leaders, artists, and innovators in the world before ending up third.

 

That would just increase his visibility, and add power to his message.

 

http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/31/kim-dotcom-wins-access-to-evidence-in-megaupload-legal-battle-and-maybe-his-million-dollar-car-collection/

This is when the USA will arrange an 'accident' ;)

Based on today’s ruling, any computer hard drives — apparently there were 135 — and other evidence, including emails and other files, must be returned to Dotcom. Irrelevant materials must be returned immediately, and materials that the prosecution thinks are relevant to the case can be cloned or copied before being returned. There’s no word, however, on whether Dotcom’s cars and art fit the category of “evidence.”

 

What does that last sentence have to do with anything??? What, they're going to copy the artwork? :shame:

It's evidence of the money he earnt via his site.

^Oh c'mon, you don't need to confiscate items to prove they exist. Unless they're concerned Dotcoms going to deny the millions and millions of dollars he has so they have to drive a jeep full of art into the court room. From the sounds of it, they've had no problems attaining proof of his wealth and probably have various records of what he's bought and tax paid on it, etc.

 

I'd say they're holding essentially useless information either because they want to disrupt him/the case and piss him off (And if you think that's implausible and offers little reward, you forget people with that kind of power can be more bitter than anyone) or they're planning on re-possessing it if he's found to have attained these items from illegal means.

Leaseweb Wipes All Megaupload User Data, Dotcom Outraged

 

 

Leaseweb Wipes All Megaupload User Data, Dotcom Outraged

 

Megaupload’s former hosting provider Leaseweb has deleted all Megaupload user data from 690 servers without warning. Petabytes of data and backups, mostly from European users, are now lost forever. Kim Dotcom is outraged by the scandal and says this is what the U.S. Government was hoping would happen all along. “I’m furious about this betrayal, and extremely sad,” Dotcom tells TorrentFreak.

 

Ever since the raids in January last year, the fate of Megaupload users’ personal files has remained uncertain.

 

It’s been a frustrating situation for the millions of affected users and one that has taken a turn for the worst today, with the news that one of Megaupload’s main hosting companies has decided to delete all the data they had stored.

 

Dutch hosting company Leaseweb has informed Kim Dotcom that all 630 servers they rented have been wiped clean. This means that petabytes of data belonging to Megaupload users is now gone for good.

 

“This is a huge disaster,” Dotcom tells TorrentFreak, explaining that the servers mainly contained files from European users as well as the associated backups.

 

Leaseweb’s decision has come as a shock to the New Zealand-based entrepreneur, not least because Megaupload has been trying hard to reconnect users with their data. In fact, Dotcom’s lawyers specifically asked the hosting provider not to delete anything until the U.S. court comes to a decision.

 

“They deleted petabytes of data and did not warn us at all. Our legal team asked them multiple times not to delete the data while the U.S. court is deciding about the rights of our users,” Dotcom says.

 

“It’s such a betrayal. They could have given us some warning. We could have informed the court that a deletion is imminent. But Leaseweb did not even give us or our users a fair chance.”

 

Soon after the raid Megaupload’s legal team started to discuss the option of giving back users their uploaded data, but the U.S. refused all suggestions. Megaupload and the U.S. hosting company Carpathia did come to an agreement to hand over the servers, but the Government blocked this plan in court.

 

“This is what the U.S. government wanted all along. That’s why they seized all of our assets and would not even release funds to pay our hosting partners,” Dotcom now says.

 

The fate of the data stored at Carpathia is now in the hand of a U.S. judge, who still has to come to a decision. The hosting provider, meanwhile, is paying $9,000 per day out of its own pocket to store them.

 

“Carpathia has done the right thing and stored Megaupload servers at their own expense. That’s what Leaseweb should have done after making millions of profits from Megaupload,” Dotcom says.

 

“This was totally unnecessary and evil.”

 

Dotcom doesn’t know whether Megaupload can or will take steps against Leaseweb. The lawyers are looking into the matter, but Megaupload’s founder is most of all very sad and disappointed.

 

“All I can say right now is that everyone is very upset. This is the worst day since the raid for me because I was fighting every day to get users their data back. EVERY DAY!” Dotcom concludes.

 

Update: Leaseweb’s Alex de Joode confirmed that they deleted all Megaupload data stored on their servers. The company says it reached out to Megaupload but received no response. The company then decided to re-provision the servers.

 

“The storage of the 630 servers – while a relatively small burden – must serve a purpose. During the year we stored the servers and the data, we received no request for access nor any request to retain the data. After a year of nobody showing any interest in the servers and data we considered our options. We did inform MegaUpload about our decision to re-provision the servers.”

 

“As no response was received, we commenced the re-provisioning of the servers in February 2013. To minimize security risks and maximize the privacy of our clients, it is a standard procedure at LeaseWeb to completely clean servers before they are offered to any new customer.”

 

“We absolutely regret the setbacks Kim Dotcom has had since MegaUpload was taken offline, but we hope he as an entrepreneur will understand our side of the story and the decisions deliberately taken.”

 

http://torrentfreak.com/leaseweb-wipes-all-megaupload-user-data-dotcom-outraged-130619/

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom mulls legal action over Leaseweb ‘data massacre’

 

 

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom mulls legal action over Leaseweb ‘data massacre’

 

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom may be suing server hosting company Leaseweb over a “data massacre." The Dutch company says it deleted files from 630 servers due to lack of interest in them, but Dotcom has revealed letters proving otherwise.

 

The revelation comes a week after Dotcom accused the US government and Leaseweb of deleting millions of personal files without warning, including “petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property.”

 

 

Most of the permanently deleted data came from European users, with servers then re-provisioned to other customers – despite the fact that Megaupload had specifically requested that the hosting provider preserve the information.

 

 

“They deleted petabytes of data in the face of Megaupload’s data preservation notices. Our legal team asked them multiple times not to delete the data while the US court is deciding the pending cases including the rights of our users,”TorrentFreak quoted Dotcom as saying.

 

 

But Leaseweb’s senior regulatory counsel, Alex de Joode, said his company deleted the data and re-provisioned the servers “after a year of nobody showing any interest” in them.

 

 

“We did inform Megaupload about our decision to re-provision the servers,” de Joode said in a June 19 statement, thus disputing Dotcom’s accusation that the decision was made "without warning.”De Joode said that Leaseweb received no answer from the Megaupload team, so they “commenced the re-provisioning of the servers in February 2013.”

 

 

“To minimize security risks and maximize the privacy of our clients, it is a standard procedure at Leaseweb to completely clean servers before they are offered to any new customer,”he said.

 

 

To back up his accusations, Kim Dotcom has published an email which was sent from Megaupload’s legal counsel to Leaseweb in March 2012. The letter allegedly shows that Megaupload did, in fact, request preservation of the files.

 

 

"Megaupload continues to request that Leaseweb preserve any and all information, documentation and data related to Megaupload - as destruction by Leaseweb would appear to be in violation of amongst other things the applicable civil litigation data preservation rules and would interfere with evidence in a criminal matter [...]," said the letter. The email is signed by Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken and addressed to Leaseweb’s A.H. Bram de Haas van Dorsser.

 

The email adds that “the Mega data on the servers at Leaseweb contain private and sensitive customer data and is subject to applicable privacy and data retention laws.”

 

“Megaupload is negotiating with the United States to discern feasibility of consumer data access and the conditions for the same," Rothken wrote in the letter.

 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) representing the file-sharing website in court made a similar request to Leaseweb USA in April.

 

“We now write to formally request that you preserve that material both for purposes of contemplated future litigation and as a matter of obligation and courtesy to the innocent individuals whose materials have unfortunately been swept up into this case,” the EFF letter reads.

 

According to Dotcom, Megaupload’s legal team is analyzing whether Leaseweb violated the law.

 

 

“I can tell you that we are contemplating legal action against Leaseweb,” he told TorrentFreak on Wednesday.

 

“We believe that Leaseweb acted inappropriately under the circumstances when they destroyed data,” Rothken told the blogging website. “Ultimately we blame the United States who exercised constructive control over Megaupload’s assets and who had the obligation, resources, and ability to preserve all relevant and exonerating evidence including the data located at Leaseweb and failed to do so,” he added.

 

But Leaseweb claims it done nothing wrong. In a June 26 statement, the company stressed that “the contract between Leaseweb B.V. and Megaupload was governed by Dutch law.”

 

“This means the termination, and subsequent data retention needs to be valid under Dutch law. As there was no claim from the Dutch authorities on the data, the data was not subject to evidence rules. Also Dutch and European Privacy legislation prohibit giving third parties (i.e. MegaUpload customers, or Instra) direct access to their data,” the statement read.

 

Dotcom, who made a fortune from his file-sharing service Megaupload, is currently under a federal investigation, launched by the US Department of Justice after police raided his home. He is currently free on bail in New Zealand, with an extradition trial set for August.

 

The US has charged the Megaupload founder with facilitating copyright fraud on a massive scale, racketeering, and money-laundering, which carries maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

 

Authorities claim Megaupload has cost copyright holders upwards of $500 million in lost revenues, due to content being illegally uploaded to its servers. The Department of Justice also believes Dotcom illegally earned $175 million by selling ads and subscriptions on the site.

 

On the anniversary of his arrest last January, Dotcom launched a new file-hosting site called ‘Mega.’

 

http://rt.com/news/dotcom-megaupload-sue-leaseweb-348/