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Forums - General - Is This The Real Reason Why MegaUpload Was Shut Down?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/01/24/is-this-the-real-reason-why-megaupload-was-shut-down/

Is This The Real Reason Why MegaUpload Was Shut Down?

The internet is up in arms over the federal crackdown of file-sharing website Megaupload, from irate blog posts to coordinated digital attacks on secure government servers. The move appeared to be a sort of governmental muscle flexing in the wake of the successful internet protest of SOPA and PIPA. But was there another reason? In the weeks before the crackdown, Megaupload was planning on launching a new music sharing website called Megabox that looked like it had the potential to completely transform music distribution, and even find a way to pay musicians in the process.

From TorrentFreak, via Digital Music News:

“UMG [Universal Music Group] knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings,” said MegaUpload founder Kim dotcom.

“We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free,” Dotcom said. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads.  The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works.”

This smacks a little of conspiracy theory, but there may be some truth to the timing. MegaUpload no doubt looked like a good target for FBI attention even before this new development,  considering it was prime hacker territory and its founder was living like a Colombian drug lord in New Zealand. But the timing seems a little serendipitous, especially since MegaUpload had even begun to acquire legitimate partners in the form of 7digital, Gracenote, Rovi and Amazon.

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So music companies have this secret lair where they come together so they can discuss world domination with a nice cup of coffee.. anyway Megabox sounded awesome.. a real gamechanger.. too bad it's gone..



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

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Interesting read, this guys been all over the news in little old New Zealand lol



think-man said:
Interesting read, this guys been all over the news in little old New Zealand lol


Yup, ONE news. 



Yay!!!

Ah hell. I've thought someone needed to have done a site like that for ages. The amount of traffic it would have generated would have given it massive ad revenue, allowing them to pay the artists. Sure beats paying £0.99 per song on iTunes.

As much as I'm against piracy, I do often feel music companies don't help themselves. And it's exactly the sort of thing activist felt SOPA would have done, allowed large corporations to shoot down competitors.

EDIT: Going off the post fromt he user below, doesn't sound anywhere near as good is that was the guy's business plan.



(NO IDEA ON THE SOURCE OF THIS, NOT MINE)

The “Megakey business model” was adware on people’s computers that replaced legit ads on sites with their own so they could make more money off of piracy. Megakey was actually an existing, but what they were doing was hijacking your computer to make money off any site you visited that had ads on it.

If you went to VGChartz, for example, it would block the the ads and replace them with MU ads, so Dotcom and crew would get paid for you reading the site instead of Brett.

Also, your source there is an article quoting only the owner of MU, a criminal convicted multiple times of computer fraud, making untested and unverified claims.

Here is an Ars Technica article that looks at the unsealed indictment from federal court and lays out what the U.S. is accusing MU of:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars


In other words: Megabox was also fraud.

No one should feel sorry for this idiot:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/mega-man-the-bizarre-rise-and-sudden-downfall-of-kim-dotcom.ars