http://m.cnet.com/news/megaupload-rises-from-the-dead-as-mega/57535674:
MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom has proven to be unstoppable. After the U.S. government's major takedown of the cloud-storage service, which came with charges of racketeering, copyright infringement, money laundering, and more, DotCom has escaped extradition to the U.S. for now and was given a formal apology by New Zealand's prime minister. Emboldened, DotCom has announced that he is building a new file-sharing site called Mega. According to Wired , this new site will work slightly different than MegaUpload but will still let users upload, store, and share data files. DotCom also intends to make it raid-proof. "If servers are lost, if the government comes into a data center and rapes it, if someone hacks the server or steals it, it would give him nothing," DotCom told Wired. "Whatever is uploaded to the site, it is going to be remain closed and private without the key." The way Mega will work is subscribers will easily be able to one-click encrypt their files within their browser using the "Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm," and then they will be given a second unique key for the decryption of that file. This way, the only person who can decrypt that file is the subscriber. So, if Mega's serversare seized or hacked, no one will be able to access the subscriber's private information. As Wired writes, it would be "impossible for Mega to know, or be responsible for, its users' uploaded content -- a state of affairs engineered to create an iron clad 'safe harbor' from liability for Mega, and added piece of mind for the user." Skeptics believe that Mega is just a re-fangled MegaUpload and is acting as a public insult to the U.S. Department of Justice. But, DotCom told Wired that Mega is not "a giant middlefinger to Hollywood and the DoJ." He explained that Mega will have rules that allow copyright holders to send the DMCA a takedown notice to remove infringing files. Also, some entities, like film studios, will be allowed to directly remove copyright-infringing material themselves. "But this time, if they want to use that tool, they'll have to accept, prior to getting access, that they're not going to sue us or hold us accountable for the actions of our users," DotCom said. Despite DotCom's current safetyin New Zealand, the U.S. government is still attempting to extradite him and six other associates . MegaUpload was once among the largest cloud-storage services in the world. But U.S. officials claim the company was a criminal enterprise. However, it increasingly appears less likely that the U.S. will ever get DotCom or the other defendants out of New Zealand. Besides Mega, DotCom has also been working on a new music service called Megabox . The service was first revealed last year as a technology that promised to transform the music industry by allowing artists to sell their own music and earn 90 percent of the revenue generated through those transactions. According to Wired, Mega is scheduled to be released later this year. |