The plans of the Kim Dotcom team , formerly Kim Schmitz, continue to advance, with a view to launching Mega next January. The new cyberlocker was originally planned to operate in the Me.ga domain belonging to Gabon. However, last week, the Gabonese government decided to suspend that domain , because its country did not want to serve as a platform for the commission of acts of violation against copyright . It didn't take Dotcom long to find a solution in its own country of residence, New Zealand. As of the writing of these lines, the mega.co.nz website is already on the Web.
The founder of Megaupload has just declared that Mega is infinitely more secure with the backing of New Zealand law and authorities. The release date of the new personal cloud storage service is set for January 19, 2013, to commemorate the anniversary of the raid on Kim Dotcom's mansion, produced after the Megaupload hijacking by US authorities. Dotcom is currently immersed in an extradition procedure to the United States, whose hearing is set for March 2013. Dotcom's lawyers intend to prevent their client from being tried in the United States at all costs .
The founders of Mega seem to have learned their lesson and intend to get out of legal trouble. Therefore, those responsible for the successor of Megaupload will not be able to access the content of the files stored in the cyberlocker , in order to be exempt from possible claims for infringements of intellectual property rights. Future users will be able to upload, save and share all kinds of files in the cloud storage service, be they movies, photos, songs or documents. The novelty is that all files will be encrypted and can only be opened using unique keys held by the user himself, but not by the cyberlocker.
Although Mega operates through a New Zealand top-level domain , it is not yet clear where it will be hosted at the start of its activities. What seems clear is that it will not be an American supplier. The company Mega Limited is domiciled in New Zealand territory. Either way, the company is looking for different kinds of partners . First of all, investors who put money into the business. On the website they state that they have sufficient funds to cover the launch, but that they want the service to be free for users for as long as possible. Then they also need hosting partnersthat provide space on their servers in exchange for a fixed monthly fee; the contract may include ad space. Third, they want to attract Mega API partners who develop encrypted applications to create an ecosystem.
The cyberlocker Mega is not the only project underway. They are also working on Megabox , an Internet music service that will allow downloading of songs but paying artists.