Megaupload has ascended to the heavens. The file-sharing giant is moving away from traditional, physical servers to The Cloud. Whether that means the FBI and RIAA will attempt some sort of foolhardy air raid is yet to be seen. The move itself comes on the heels of a similar announcement from The Pirate Bay.
Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom — “lovable” rapscallion and thorn in the recording industry’s side — has given the new service the name “Mega” (I wonder how they thought of that one). Mega is described as a “unique tool that will solve the liability problems faced by cloud storage services,” according to Dotcom in an interview with Wired. The new service will “enhance privacy rights of internet users and provide themselves with a simple new business.”
Aside from the similar name, Mega will be similar to Megaupload in its general operation. The key difference, according to the Wired article, is “that now those files will first be one-clicked-encrypted right in a client’s browser.” So what that means is that the file is going to be encrypted on your end of things before you, the user, provide a security key of your own. According to Dotcom’s partner Mathias Ortmann, it will be “impossible for Mega to know, or be responsible, for its users’ uploaded content.” That’s twice the encryption and half the none of the liability on Mega’s part!
There’s no official word yet on how this will alter plans for Megabox or if Mega will take the place of Megabox. For anyone keeping Megascore at home, Dotcom is still in New Zealand, awaiting extradition to the US following January’s raid and arrest that led to Megaupload going offline.
