It appears as though multiple court cases and potential jail time are doing nothing to deter Megaupload founder, Kim Dotcom, from creating a successor to his popular file sharing site. Kim Dotcom recently announced that the successor to his original file sharing site will operate as Mega under the domain me.ga starting in January of 2013. Dotcom said that he created this site in a way which side-steps U.S. piracy laws.
Kim Dotcom said that his new file sharing site will go around U.S. piracy laws by using encryption methods that make it where the user is the only one who knows what they are uploading. Dotcom is moving forward with this launch even though he is facing possible extradition to the U.S. in March of next year after a U.S. judge ruled that they would pursue the case regardless of the fact that his case was dropped in his home country of New Zealand.
His former site, Megaupload, was shut down in January of 2012 after police raided his mansion and seized his computers and other digital equipment at the request of U.S authorities who accused Dotcom of hundreds of counts of copyright infringement. Dotcom and his website were accused of hosting millions of pirate songs, movies, software, and games, which is illegal in the U.S., a main country the site’s users were from.
Dotcom’s court case was dropped in New Zealand because a court found that the raid that produced evidence against him was ruled unlawful. The U.S. could still be successful in extraditing him and if he is tried and convicted in the U.S. he could face up to 20 years in prison or millions of dollars in fines. Dotcom is a German native who lives in New Zealand and he made his fortune from Megaupload, which when close, had more than 180 registered users.
Dotcom’s case in the U.S. could have a trickle-down effect for other file-sharing rulings.
Additionally, his involvement in the copyright infringement could have severe consequences for others who simply operate website where users upload content. This could also impact other file-sharing sites such as DropBox, MediaFire, and SendMyWay, even if much of their files are obtained via legal means.
The new Mega site will avoid using U.S. web hosts, U.S. domains, as well as U.S. service providers in order to avoid getting into any entanglement with U.S. FBI agents. Dotcom is also confident that the new encryption methods used on Mega will prevent them from being under any scrutiny from the U.S. government because it does not, in fact, break any copyright laws as they are written now in the U.S.
Whether or not Dotcom’s case goes to trial in the U.S. is yet to be seen, but make no mistake that the outcome of this particular situation has a great impact on future copyright laws as well as how policies are enforced and who, exactly, is the target of such enforcement. Those following the case will be all ears come this January when the new Mega launches.
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