Megaupload nearly ready for return, founder says
The Megaupload.com domain has been replaced with a warning from the US Department of Justice, the FBI and the US Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center that the website has been seized and shut down.
Megaupload, one of the world’s largest websites and the most-visited file-sharing site in internet history, may be set to return after it’s shutdown and the arrest of its founder last January.
“Quick update on the new Mega: Code 90% done. Servers on the way. Lawyers, Partners & Investors ready. Be patient. It's comin,” Tweeted the owner and founder of the site, Kim Dotcom, hinting that the well-loved and sorely missed site may be slated for a return.
Dotcom has been alluding to the return of the site for some time via Twitter.
“SOPA is dead. PIPA is dead. ACTA is dead. MEGA will return. Bigger. Better. Faster. Free of charge & shielded from attacks. Evolution!” Dotcom said in July.
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He followed several weeks later with a promise the new Mega would be “100 percent safe and unstoppable.”
Something of an eccentric millionaire, Kim Dotcom’s mansion in New Zealand was raided earlier this year in a fashion fitting for drug kingpins. The raid itself has become controversial. Dotcom’s attorneys and his supporters argue that the use of helicopters, submachine guns, assault rifles, attack dogs and brute force against Dotcom in front of his wife and children was excessive.
Also enraging New Zealand citizens is the presence of the FBI during the planning stages of the raid and waiting in the background for backup during the raid itself.
The US is attempting to extradite Dotcom from New Zealand after raiding his home and offices under charges of racketeering and money laundering, arguing thathis website megaupload.com facilitated huge amounts of internet piracy and online copyright violations.
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The FBI is also accused of removing evidence from New Zealand and returning to the US without the knowledge of New Zealand officials involved in the case. The FBI now hopes to use that evidence to extradite Dotcom to the United States.
According to Dotcom, the new Megaupload will be equipped with an even greater range of uses other than just file sharing.
“We are building a massive global network. All non-US hosters will be able to connect servers & bandwidth,” he explained earlier.