Controversial online content entrepreneur Kim Dotcom’s announcement that he plans to reintroduce the Megaupload site next year and hinting that it will accept bitcoin has created a stir among bitcoiners.
Megaupload, Bitcoin. Coupled.Bitcoiners have varying views about Megaupload 2.0’s chances for success and about being associated with a file sharing platform that ran afoul of the law. Dotcom’s legal battle with the U.S. government continues.
Dotcom tweeted this weekend, “I can tell you that Megaupload and Bitcoin had sex. There is a pregnancy and I have a feeling that the baby will be such a joy.”
He noted that Megaupload will return on Jan. 20, 2017, the fifth anniversary of the U.S. government shuttering his domain names.
Dotcom clearly wants attention for his plan for Megaupload 2.0, as he also tweeted that everyone who tweets on his behalf will get beta access to the new site before the launch.
The association with bitcoin indicates there will be paid access to the new file sharing website, which has not always succeeded.
Reinstating Legacy Megaupload Users
Dotcom promised that former Megaupload users’ accounts will be re-instated, which could spell future legal complications since the first Megaupload encouraged users to post copyrighted content.
Dotcom’s recent language, true to form, garnered a lot of attention on Twitter and other websites. Tweets and Reddit posts responded with sexual innuendoes of their own, a response that Dotcom undoubtedly expected, and one that drives his message.
One tweeter said Doctom is only reviving Megaupload to annoy the U.S. government for harassing him.
Reddit posts noted that Dotcom’s actions can’t be divorced from current bitcoin events. One post suggested Dotcom suffered from the recent bitcoin halving and is looking for a way to recover from it.
One Reddit post noted Doctom could be rewarded with a halving or a child DAO.
“Kim is a very smart guy,” a Reddit post noted. “My question is whether he impregnated Megaupload with bitcoin, or whether they had a mutant child that no one will love.”
New Features On The Way
Megaupload 2.0 will provide 100gb of free storage, according to Torrentfreak.com. Users will be able to sync all of their devices and there will be no data transfer limits. Encryption will be baked-in.
Dotcom sees Megaupload 2.0 as a reunion of all the loyal users who were made homeless when the former site was shuttered. Dotcom claims new venture will launch with the original Megaupload user database intact.
How Dotcom will preserve a copy of this data isn’t clear. He claims that each user account he has held will get a foot up.
If all of the former Megaupload users hit the new site on the first day, 100 million people will need attention. While it is unlikely anywhere near that will come aboard, a small percent would be a great start.
Megaupload 2.0 will offer more than file sharing. Doctom’s MegaNet project, still in development is censorship resistant. Dotcom claims Megaupload 2.0 will be a crucial component of that network.
Whether or not former Megaupload users will be able to use their old credentials to access the new site is uncertain at present.
Charges Continue
Dotcom, along with two executives for file-sharing site Megaupload, was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, CCN reported. The indictment, dating back to January 2012, led to an FBI shutdown of Megaupload and then a dramatic raid at his New Zealand home. The government accused Dotcom of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering.
Doctcom’s website cost record firms and film studios more than $500 million. Dotcom claimed he was not responsible for the copyright infringement.
“The U.S. … took down the entire Megaupload site, went ahead and froze all their assets and did this with great publicity and public fanfare and did it in coordination with the very powerful force in the United States, from Hollywood,” Dotcom lawyer Ira Rothken told Reuters.
The prospects for his file sharing venture that accepts bitcoin remain unknown, for now.
Whether or not Dotcom views bitcoin only as a way to encourage people to use the site is open to question. What’s inevitable is that Megaupload will continue to raise awareness when coupled with bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that continues to increase in value and popularity around the world.
Images from Flickr/thierry ehrmann and Kim Dotcom’s Twitter.
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