Kim Dotcom launches mega site

Dotcom's new venture, mega.co.nz, aims to recreate the success of his Megaupload empire, which boasted 50m daily visitors and accounted for four percent of all Internet traffic before it was shut down after the police raid.

The 38-year-old, who changed his name from Kim Schmitz, remains free on bail in New Zealand as US authorities seek his extradition on a range of charges including money laundering, racketeering and copyright theft.

They allege Megaupload sites netted more than US$175m in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than US$500m by offering pirated copies of movies, TV shows, music and other content.

Dotcom denies any wrongdoing. The charges, which carry jail terms of up to 20 years, have not discouraged him from launching the new Mega service, which he has enthusiastically promoted on Twitter in recent weeks.

"I think you will be very happy with the new #Mega," he tweeted on Friday (18 January). "It's like time travel. We'll take you to the future!!!"

The technology entrepreneur has promised an "epic" launch for the new site and even impersonated Willy Wonka to promote it at an Auckland shop last week by handing out golden tickets to the event hidden in tubs of ice cream.

Details of the planned service are scarce, but the site promises to use state-of-the-art encryption methods that mean only users, not the site's administrators, know what they are uploading.

That would theoretically stop authorities from accusing administrators of knowingly aiding online piracy, the central allegation facing Dotcom.

Dotcom said Mega offers users 50GB of free storage, significantly more than similar sites such as Dropbox and Google Drive.

The German national was preparing for his birthday party at the lavish Auckland property in January last year when armed police staged a dawn raid, tracking him down in a hidden panic room near his bedroom.

Officers seized more than a dozen luxury cars, including a 1959 pink Cadillac, along with valuable artworks and a sawn-off shotgun. Dotcom's bank accounts were frozen and he spent more than a month in jail.

Eventually freed on bail, his legal team have enjoyed a number of successes challenging the prosecution's case, including a ruling that the police raid was illegal and a government admission that Dotcom was illegally spied upon before his arrest.

The extradition hearing is due to be heard in August.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge