Meet Mega, Kim Dotcom’s new and secure Megaupload sequel
Wired has details of Mega, the new cloud storage project from embattled Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. In many ways it sounds suspiciously similar to the previous file-sharing service that came under fire from US authorities, but a new encryption system gives users the ability to limit access to any file via generated keys. Mega won’t keep the decryption keys on its servers, protecting them from possible hacks or government raids, and also meaning that the service won’t be able to know the contents of users’ uploads. As Dotcom explains it:
“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.”
As for the legality of this service, Dotcom believes that it will be safe from prosecution as long as encryption remains within the law, saying “You have the right to protect your private information and communication against spying.”
Dotcom Blames Lag on Spying Earlier Than Admitted, Has Best Excuse Ever for Sucking at Multiplayer
The MegaUpload case continues to seem more like a farce the longer it goes on. Kim Dotcomis now claiming that the New Zealand government was spying on him earlier than they’ve previously admitted. His evidence? There was a suspicious spike in lag in October — two months before the Government Communications Security Bureau claims they started spying on him. He’s come to the conclusion that this increase was due to the fact that his connection was being rerouted by the government.
See, Dotcom had a 100 megabit fiber connection installed at his mansion in order to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in the upper echelon. He even managed to grab the top rank in Free-for-All; the man’s serious about his gameplay. This connection should have provided an almost guaranteed level of speed, but that changed last fall. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Dotcom explains it thus:
When it was first installed the connection had 2 or 3 hops, but when I came back from Hong Kong last October suddenly it had 5 to 9 hops and the latency would increase by roughly 60 to 90 milliseconds[.]
He called out a technician after being unable to fix the problem, then he contacted the ISP to try and figure out what was going on. Nobody seemed to be able to tell him why his connection was suddenly significantly slower when nothing else had changed. In the wake of the MegaUpload raid, though, Dotcom believes this change signifies that the government was spying on him as early as October, even though they’ve claimed otherwise.
This wouldn’t be the first time someone’s blamed others for their poor performance in a multiplayer match, though.
Kim Dotcom Teases the Return of Megaupload
Kim Dotcom, the flamboyant founder of the shuttered web locker site Megaupload, seems to have obliquely announced the return of that site — prompted by a news article that got the story wrong. In his tweet on Monday:
Watch Police Raid Kim Dotcom’s House
Kim Dotcom, founder of Megaupload, was arrested by police in January after law enforcement staged an elaborate raid on his New Zealand home. For the first time, video of that siege has been posted online.
The footage shows a complex military-style operation that included semi-automatic weapons and at least one helicopter.
A New Zealand media outlet, 3NEWS, put together the report above.
Dotcom was arrested on a request from American authorities, who want him extradited to the United States to stand trial for copyright fraud on a massive scale.
However, a New Zealand judge recently ruled the police operation to detain Dotcom was illegal. The judge also called into question the legality of evidence submitted to the court against Dotcom and the FBI’s seizure of Megaupload’s data, throwing more monkey wrenches into an already complicated extradition process.
The fate of data stored on Megaupload’s servers remains unknown. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the FBI to release it.
Until recently, Kim Dotcom was the top Modern Warfare 3 player in the world. He even apparently posted a video to prove it. We imagine it’s tough to maintain such a coveted position while being held in jail for multiple copyright violations.
The Megaupload kingpin claims to have paid $500,000 for the City of Auckland to put on a 2011 New Year’s firework display. In case any Kiwi were to forget who was funding the awesomeness, he produced a video replete with on-screen identification of his whereabouts during the show. “Yeah, that’s me in my personal helicopter!”
Dotcom stands 6 feet 7 inches tall, and tips the scales at 300 pounds, according to CNET. No one really knows his exact measurements though. All reports we’ve seen have him measured differently so whatever his exact height and weight are, it’s easy to see that his physical size matches his personality and ego.
He legally changed his surname from Schmitz to Dotcom in homage to the beloved World Wide Web that made him famous.
He once fancied himself an anti-terrorism fighter by offering a bounty of $10 million for Osama bin Laden after 9/11. He started a group called Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism. He was so kind as to offer the authorities on the hunt a little of his own advice:
“Try Looking in Kandahar in Afghanistan. He visits his wife and daughter there at least once a month.”
Image courtesy of iStock, Vesnaandjic
According to Vanity Fair, Dotcom is a “skilled and very fast driver” who raced in and won the Gumball 3000 in 2005. He bet that he would beat two of the female drivers. If they finished before him, he’d give them each $500,000. If he won, they had to join him in a threesome. No report on what came of that.
According to the Wall Street Journal, we do know that when he was arrested, police confiscated 21 luxury cars.
Even when the game seemed to be up, Mr. Dotcom orchestrated a flamboyant exit. Police had to cut their way through electronic locks to a saferoom, where they found him clutching a gun
Dotcom generated a spectacle wherever he went, often surrounded by cars and women, and wearing his trademark black outfit. He was even known to jump into hot tubs fully clothed. He made movies about himself racing cars, flirting with women, and riding in helicopters and private jets.
According to The New York Times, in 2001 he reportedly made more than $1 million when he allegedly bought shares in a struggling website, then falsely announced he would make a major investment, only to then sell his shares once the price went up after his announcement. He then defended himself by appearing on a popular late-night show, claiming people hated him because they didn’t like his lifestyle. He then fled to Thailand before ultimately being apprehended.
He commissioned this well-produced music video starring many celebrities supporting the site, ostensibly in part to rub Megaupload in the face of copyright holders. Much controversy ensued.
Kim Dotcom: Please, Bring us to America
We reported earlier that the legal proceedings in the case against Megaupload kingpin Kim Dotcom have been delayed to March 2013. And it seems Dotcom is none too pleased about this latest turn.
“Hey DOJ, we will go to the US. No need for extradition. We want bail, funds unfrozen for lawyers & living expenses,” He tweeted, this afternoon.
Prolonging his trial will leave Dotcom unable to pay the through-the-roof legal fees owed to the 22 lawyers he has working on his case in countries across the globe. The New Zealand Herald explains that the FBI used legal orders in New Zealand and around the world to freeze assets and cash belonging to Dotcom (and his co-accused), claiming it money came from the proceeds of crime.
“I have accumulated millions of dollars in legal bills and I haven’t been able to pay a single cent,” Dotcom told the paper. “They just want to hang me out to dry and wait until there is no support left.” [NZHerlad via Twitter]
Kim Dotcom raid was illegal, New Zealand judge rules
New Zealand’s high court today ruled that a raid on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom’s Auckland mansion was illegal. From the Guardian:
Justice Helen Winkelmann said the warrants used when more than 90 New Zealand officers stormed the Megaupload founder’s home and other properties in January were too broadly cast, “lacking adequate specificity as to the offence”. “The search and seizure was therefore illegal,” she ruled, adding that it was “clear that the police, in executing the warrants, have exceeded what they could lawfully be authorised to do”.
The 56-page judgment is here (PDF), and may complicate future hearings on extradition to the US. The case has been described by some observers as a Homeland Security case, initiated under pressure from the MPAA.
Winkelmann said police had acted unlawfully by refusing to release material that was not relevant to the charges, and that their provision to the FBI of cloned hard drives seized in the raid was in breach of extradition legislation. Among the seized items that police have refused to release is video footage captured by Dotcom’s surveillance cameras of the raid on the mansion.
Nlyten 