MegaUpload To Resurrect as Mega

October 28, 2012 by
Filed under: Announcements & Events, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services 

One year after the raid that took down Megaupload and put its founder Kim Dotcom on trial, the filesharing service gets the Phoenix syndrome and resurrects under a new name. On January 19, 2012, police raided Dotcom’s mansion and seized MegaUpload servers – the relaunch of the site is planned for the same exact date next year. Seems like someone’s got the taste for some sweet revenge (or let’s just call it poetic justice).

At its peak, MegaUpload accounted for 4% of the total internet traffic and one day, last year recorded 50 million unique visitors in a day – that can definitely count as something. While nobody knows if the new version of the cyberlocker called simply – Mega – will ever raise to the level of its predecessor, Kim Dotcom surely seemed proud to announce it.

The highly controversial businessman (?) said that the coding work for Mega is approaching completion and the servers have been ordered. It also seems that Dotcom will not settle just for filesharing – this time he’s thinking of implementing API for his new enterprise and perhaps even VoIP and video apps.

So far the domain name for the upcoming filesharing website remains unknown (and considering the legal issues still underway, .com seems highly unlikely for an option) but according to Kim, it will be “a unique tool that will solve the liability problems faced by cloud storage services, enhance the privacy rights of internet users, and provide themselves with a simple new business.”

In an interview with Wired, Mega’s founder explained: “What Mega and Megaupload do have in common is that they are both one-click, subscriber-based cloud platforms that allow customers to upload, store, access, and share large files.”

The new venture, in which Dotcom will be joined by partner Mathias Ortmann, was presented as a highly safe and private one – apparently, Mega will use the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm so that the files will first be one-click-encrypted within the client’s browser and then, a second unique key for that file’s decryption will be provided to the user.

“It will be up to users, and third-party app developers, to control access to any given uploaded file, be it a song, movie, videogame, book, or simple text document. Internet libertarians will surely embrace this new capability.”

Ortmann added: “And because the decryption key is not stored with Mega, the company would have no means to view the uploaded file on its server. It would, Ortmann explains, be impossible for Mega to know, or be responsible for, its users’ uploaded content — a state of affairs engineered to create an ironclad “safe harbor” from liability for Mega, and added piece of mind for the user.”

with concern to eventual legal problems (and he should something about them) Dotcom pointed out: “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. Whatever is uploaded to the site, it is going to be remain closed and private without the key.”

We recently reported about the Pirate Bay’s newly adopted strategy to move their server to The Cloud, claiming to make it thus “raid-proof”in the process. It seems that Dotcom is taking the same path which will probably pay off. Still, both sites will dead-sure continue to be closely watched by the industry.

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