FILE-SHARING
On January 19 2012, the US Department of Justice shut down file-sharing website Megaupload and arrested its founder Kim Dotcom, along with three of his colleagues, on charges including conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and racketeering.
Te Hong Kong-based Megaupload allowed Internet users access to millions of pirated movies, television programmes and music, free of charge. According to estimates, it once reported 50 million daily visitors and accounted for 4 percent of global Internet traffic. It
is
TB&I talks to Mega CEO Vikram Kumar about how the offspring of the notorious cyberlocker aims to keep file-sharing above board.
estimated to have cost copyright holders $500 million in lost revenue.
Mega.co.nz rose from Megaupload’s ashes earlier this year with a new image and focus on user privacy. It now has more than three million registered users who can upload and store files using an encryption system that keeps any infringing content invisible to the site administrators.
Can this measure protect the site from being shut down? How does Mega monitor activity on its site to ensure online piracy is kept to a minimum? Can file-sharing ever shake off its bad reputation? Tese are questions Vikram Kumar, Mega’s newly-appointed CEO, will have to consider.
Kumar admits he did worry about his own reputation when he took on the role of Mega CEO in February. “I didn’t accept the job straight away,” he says.
“It took me a month to get into the details, to meet up with Kim and the rest of the Mega team, and look at other opportunities too. But ultimately, I truly believe that Mega is a company that has the right intentions and the right potential.”
Mega operates from New Zealand, Dotcom’s adopted homeland where he remains under house arrest. His extradition hearing is currently scheduled for August, though Kumar is optimistic about the outcome.
“I don’t think the allegations will stand up,” he said. “Tere is no evidence so far that has been put forward to warrant the team’s extradition, even though the US government has been invited by the New Zealand courts many times to provide it.”
Te Mega team is evidently being very careful to ensure the site doesn’t suffer the same fate as its
www.worldipreview.com Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 2, Issue 2 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44