Kim Dotcom Will Revive Megaupload, Linking File Transfers To Bitcoin Microtransactions

Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike quotes an article from Fortune: The controversial entrepreneur Kim Dotcom said last month that he was preparing to relaunch Megaupload, the file-sharing site that U.S. and New Zealand authorities dramatically shut down in 2012, with bitcoins being involved in some way... This system will be called Bitcache, and Dotcom claimed its launch would send the bitcoin price soaring way above its current $575 value.

The launch of Megaupload 2.0 will take place on January 20, 2017, he said, urging people to "buy bitcoin while cheap, like right now, trust me..." Crucially, Dotcom said the Bitcache system would overcome bitcoin's scaling problems. "It eliminates all blockchain limitations," he claimed.
Every file transfer taking place over Megaupload "will be linked to a tiny Bitcoin micro transaction," Dotcom posted on Twitter. His extradition trial begins Monday, and he's asking the court to allow live-streaming of the trial "because of global interest in my case." Meanwhile, the FBI apparently let the registration lapse on the Megaupload domain, which they seized in 2012, and Ars Technica reports that the site is now full of porn ads.

Re:

[Opportunist]

Could I imagine Thatcher instead? Yes, as a corpse.

As a corpse, Thatcher is actually not that bad a mental image. I mean, sure, she's till hideous, but at least she's dead.

Re:

[mrbester]

"... at least she's dead"

She was cremated, just to make sure.

Re:

[Opportunist]

She was cremated at least 30 years too late.

Re:

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Is anyone actually listening to anything this fat fuck says anymore?

"This fat fuck, he played two, he played knick knack with a _____"

the file-sharing site that U.S. and New Zealand authorities dramatically shut down in 2012,

the file-sharing site that U.S. and U.S. New Zealand authorities dramatically shut down in 2012,

Minor fix for you there. Welcome New Zealanders, as the 51st state of America!

My personal tip for you, avoid the noodle salad at the buffet in Las Vegas.

Australia is stuffed with thousands of deadly creepy crawlers, but the noodle salad from the buffet in Las Vegas tops them all!

Re:

[OrangeTide]

51st state? No way that New Zealand gets to cut in line.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right, I've not accomplished much in my life. For example, I've never eaten a dozen donuts in one sitting.

Re:

[Chas]

No. My main problem with him is NOT that he's fat.

Learn to fucking read before trying to become someone who's "professionally offended".

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the only reason this guy pushes for publicity is because when the public forgets him, that extradition to America will happen real fast. Can't think many people would be bothered by that happening.

Re:Oh boy. Another scam.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am very bothered by that happening.

It reinforces the idea that no matter who you are or where you are from, even if you have never been in the USA, that:

1) The USA can just say "Give me that guy". And have his head handed over on a plate.

2) The nation of which you are national will not lift a finger to help you.

3) That a stupid copyright issue is the reason for all this. In this case.

4) That and more means there is no place on Earth safe from the corporate greed propagated by the USA.

Never mind that raiding a guys home with armed helicopters is crazy way over the top for any stupid copyright violation.

In short, pretty much all of copyright law should be scrapped and the world should tell the yanks to swivel on it.

Re:Oh boy. Another scam.

[nomadic]

1) The USA can just say "Give me that guy". And have his head handed over on a plate.

If he's handed over it will be after years of extradition proceedings, involving significant due process, which is the exact opposite of how you characterize it.

2) The nation of which you are national will not lift a finger to help you.

See above.

3) That a stupid copyright issue is the reason for all this. In this case.

He didn't burn a CD for his mom. He ran a huge organization with billions of visitors and tens of millions of dollars, with most of that coming from sharing copyrighted materials.

4) That and more means there is no place on Earth safe from the corporate greed propagated by the USA.

Yes, America invented greed. And copyright law.

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[angel'o'sphere]

America did not invent copyright law, only the brain dead american variation they invented.
Go google ... oldest copyrights are assigned to Albrecht Dürrer by the Pope at that time.
During Roman tiimes there where law suits about copy catting designs ... pottery usually ... or glasses.

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[thegarbz]

Never mind that raiding a guys home with armed helicopters is crazy way over the top for any stupid copyright violation.

To add some context to this, in a country where citizens don't typically carry guns police were going to arrest a man they knew had access to restricted weapons, many licensed weapons of his own, who has in the past brandished guns in front of government officials, and as it turns out after the fact his body guard was charged under their strict gun laws for illegally modifying weapons.

Copyright is not the reason for the raid, perception of the target was. In a country where police don't routinely carry guns

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

If he was violating any gun laws in New Zealand I'm sure they could have taken care of that locally if they wanted to.

But why did they want to arrest him in the first place? Not for those gun violations. Because copyright, because Disney, because MPAA, because the USA. There is no way you can wriggle out of that.

The sins of his body guard are not his. Especially after the event. Unless you can show some causal connection.

I don't get the logic, if the warrant for the raid was illegal, how is it possible that

Re:

[Chas]

1) This is one of the downsides of globalism. A bunch of governments prostituting themselves to one another with vague bullshittery about how beneficial it's going to be for everyone.

The only people it's beneficial for are political cronies and law enforcement entities.

Re:

[Mashiki]

Can't dispute anything he's said, has to break down into insults. How a-typical. I remember playing with and against him in Quake, he was a jerk. But even at that, the shit that the US did was so far outside of what should have been allowed that anyone with a functioning brain should be on his side. Funny though, how he wants his extradition hearing televised and the US government is going nonononononono we can't let that happen. [torrentfreak.com] Sure does say a hell of a lot about the state of affairs doesn't it?

Re:

[alexhs]

Is anyone actually listening to anything this fat fuck says anymore?

Yes, as apparently it's still wise to listen to anything the FBI tells you.

Person from issue

[Okian Warrior]

Is anyone actually listening to anything this fat fuck says anymore?

Dude, WTF?

Are you so intellectually dishonest that you can't separate the person from the issue?

Re:

[ThatsMyNick]

Because ignoring fat fucks and their ramblings work so well.
/me wonders how we ended up with Trump.

Go Kim

[LostMonk]

Even though the man himself, by all accounts, is a loud-mouthed, megalomaniac, international jerk ... I do believe his fight against U.S laws and its publicity is doing the world a service.
So ... Go Kim, I'm for you.

Re:Go Kim

[Opportunist]

Well, one asshole keeping a bunch of assholes busy... you know the saying, nobody on this planet is useless, and behold, even Kimmie has a use.

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[smooth wombat]

Because allowing people to "buy" products to which you have no right to be "selling" in the first place is something we should defend.

When your company produces a product I'll be sure to "share" it with millions of people while charging them for it. I'm certain your company won't mind me making money off their efforts.

Re:

[LostMonk]

I'm not supporting his long-dead file-sharing business, although that's just a symptom of a deprecated business model that should die (U.S music industry in its current form).
I am supporting the fight against corporate tailor-made-laws overreaching across international borders where they should have no mandate, and blowing a minor case beyond all proportions.

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[nomadic]

At this point the music industry basically has been pushed into selling any song you want DRM-free for a dollar. They still screw with musicians, but at this point I think there's not much more that can be improved for the consumer.

The FBI let it lapse?

[guises]

So the FBI seized some... let's call it "property" and then just allowed it to decay? Even if their were a real trial and a conviction and the site were seized legitimately, wouldn't they then auction it off like any other police auction?

Re:

[guises]

Oh, bleh. I did that thing where I only read the summary and started running my mouth based on that. My bad. This was apparently simple negligence on the part of the FBI.

Re:The FBI let it lapse?

[Anonymous Coward]

"simple negligence"

I have a bridge to sell you...

The most important rule in life I've learned is: don't believe an intelligent group of people when they say the harm they've caused was due to a simple error.

The second most important rule is: never assume that powerful people are stupid just because they're not doing what you think they should be doing. They got there due to competing with other people who want power just as much, and the competition is great.

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[guises]

Uh huh. Maybe you also made the mistake of judging without reading the article, but this is the second time in a row that the FBI has done this - the domain lapsed last year as well. Yes it's always possible that there's some incredibly convoluted conspiracy afoot, but it's far more likely that whoever's in charge of handling their evidence just isn't equipped for this kind of stuff and doesn't know what they're doing.

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[Cinnamon Beige]

Never underestimate the capacity of 'clever' people to make stupid, stupid mistakes, either--this may be generally symptomatic of a larger problem of institutional lag, which admittedly has some benefits for everybody else since if they really don't get on an institutional level that domain name registrations must be renewed...then the only thing necessary to retrieve a domain name they seized is patience and whatever the price of re-registering happens to be.

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[Gavagai80]

It's not as if they were allowed to sell it for the only purpose someone would buy that domain for. That'd be facilitating further illegal activity.

Please stop this farce

[RandomSurfer314]

I don't care about how Kim Dotcom is depicted by the media, fact is that his company respected DMCA takedown requests and there is probably more infringing content on Youtube than there ever was on Megaupload. But even if he was totally guilty of infringing New Zealand copyright law, this illegal prosecution by a foreign country without any jurisdiction is the biggest scandal in the history of the Internet. It's just unbelievable to me that a foreign power can seize the assets of a company in another country on the basis of illegal warrants and illegal wiretapping, refuse to return them, and treat someone as a 'fugitive' who has never put a foot in their soil. If the same trick had been pulled by Russia or North Korea, the whole world would be upset and nobody would even get the idea that an extradition request could be justified. The US should seriously consider to act act like an asshole less often and clean up their own justice and prison system instead, rather than bullying other countries and their businesses.

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[FlyHelicopters]

The US should seriously consider to act act like an asshole less often and clean up their own justice and prison system instead, rather than bullying other countries and their businesses.

Rest assured that there are plenty of Americans who agree with you...

Sadly, they have no voice in the government, since it is all run by special interests...

Which is why I continue to be amazed how many Americans will vote for Clinton, when it is so clear that she is bought and paid for by big money...

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[BringsApples]

Don't take me as a Clinton fan, I'm not. I plan to vote for whoever else is on the ballot, or myself. I think that Clinton is a bullshitter, professional politician, paid by special interest groups. I think that Trump is one of the leaders of said special interest groups, and has in the past, paid for politicians.

One of the good things that I see in this election is that one of the people that used to sit back behind the scenes, "pulling the strings", if you will, of politicians, has finally figured t

Re:

[FlyHelicopters]

I have no idea if Trump will do or even can do half of what he says, he might be full of crap...

I think anyone who says they "know" what Trump will or won't do is talking out of their butt...

But I do know that Clinton is evil, I can look at 35 years of history to see it, so why would I ever vote for her?

Our options suck, but they have been this way for some time...

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[BringsApples]

If you're going to navel-gaze that deeply, then you don't "know" what anyone or anything will do, so you might as well stick your head up your ass, since you can't seem to recognize a person for who they are.

...said the anonymous coward.

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[BringsApples]

I have no idea if Trump will do or even can do half of what he says, he might be full of crap...

Right, exactly. If anything, Trump's shown that simply getting up and saying everything that a lot of people want to hear, will get you right through the primary, and into the main show. We're all very tired of politics as usual. But once he's president (and a little vomit comes up when I say that), he can just sit back and make any excuse(s) and/or say nothing at all about all of the empty promises that got him elected.

There should be laws against lies to get elected (oh and thanks Obama for lying to

Re:

[FlyHelicopters]

People who would do a good job as President can't get elected because... reasons...

I want a man of honor, integrity, duty, and respect to be President... or a woman, I don't care which...

I REALLY want someone who served for 20+ years in the military, I'd LOVE for Collin Powell to be President, he is someone I'd respect...

Re:

[theArtificial]

As you are aware Youtube is able to identify content, and there are other services you may have even used such as Shazam which allow you to identify audio specifically. They're really interesting pieces of software. I don't think infringement is as big a problem now (vs when they opened their doors) on Youtube since uploaded copyrighted media is able to be identified via Content Id [google.com] the ad revenue is shared with the respective organizations. When this process doesn't proceed that's when the content is disapp

hmmm

[nomadic]

"he said, urging people to "buy bitcoin while cheap, like right now, trust me..."

Well it's a somewhat novel pump n' dump scheme, I'll give him that.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It really really smells like a pump and dump. Come on. "Eliminates all blockchain limitations"? Is this even plausible, or is he selling off his bitcoin and just wants the price to rise over the next few months?
The limitations on blockchain are inherent in the system, seems to me. I can't see any way of getting around them. I want to see more than hype from someone with a long history of scamming, before I believe them.

Re:

[Ragnarok89]

This was my exact thought... so maybe I'll buy some and see.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

So, essentially the same as the currency of the American government and it's banks.

Re:

[codebonobo]

So you are saying Bitcoin has an bright future because it serves as a very important role for a specific demographic of wealthy people?

TL;DR of what Kim is doing

[codebonobo]

Decentralized Torrent tracker where seeders and uploaders are rewarded with bitcoin and he takes a small cut. This will at least fill in the gaps of missing content that is hard to find on piratebay and lack seeders. Should be another great use case for bitcoin along with gambling/speculating, dark market drugs sales, prostitutes, ransomware, and regulatory arbitrage of giftcards/amzn points.

Pump and dump scam

[manu0601]

Is it smart to start a pump and dump scam campaign the day your extradition trial starts?

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[senxiaohan]

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good timing

[cellocgw]

On my part -- as I read the summary line about the site currently being full of porn ads, I noticed the number of comments on this article had reached .... 69 .

How 'bout that, eh?