kim dotcom

Kim Dotcom threatens to sue Twitter, others over patent

Kim Dotcom says he doesn't really want to sue Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other companies, but he really needs some help funding his defense.

The eclectic and controversial MegaUpload founder today said he invented two-factor authentication, which is being used by more and more companies to secure access to their sites. The verification steps aim to reduce the likelihood of online identity theft, phishing, and other scams because the victim's password would no longer be enough to give a thief access to their information.

Along with Twitter's recent introduction, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, PayPal, and countless other … Read more

Court rules Kim DotCom can sue New Zealand spy agency

MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom has the right to sue New Zealand's spy agency for illegal surveillance, a court ruled Thursday.

The New Zealand Court of Appeal rejected a request from the country's attorney general to exclude the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) from DotCom's lawsuit. The GCSB collected intelligence on Dotcom ahead of the 2012 raid on his house to determine whether he posed any danger to the police who would later swoop in by helicopter to arrest him.

New Zealand law prohibits the GCSB from conducting surveillance on the country's citizens, but the agency was … Read more

U.S. skirts one roadblock to Kim Dotcom extradition

The U.S. is one step closer to bringing Kim Dotcom to its shores.

The New Zealand Court of Appeal today ruled that the U.S. government will not be required to turn over all of their evidence against Kim Dotcom in order to obtain his extradition to the States. A summary of its case, the judges ruled, will do just fine.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the ruling.

Dotcom had been hoping to force the U.S. government to present all of its evidence against him before it could move forward with hopes to extradite him from New Zealand. … Read more

Low Latency No. 49: Keep your distance

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Thursday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.… Read more

DotCom promises splashy launch for Mega

Kim DotCom, the New Zealand-based entrepreneur, is up to his old tricks again.

In a ploy to promote the launch of the Mega cloud storage service, DotCom has taken to Twitter to promise a "press conference like no other."

The press conference will take place at DotCom's mansion, so we should probably expect the extravagant entrepreneur to lay on quite the show. Reportedly worth $30 million, the property comes complete with a fleet of vintage cars, customized shotguns and even an inflatable tank or two.

The founder of MegaUpload also mentions on his Twitter feed that he … Read more

Kim Dotcom

Kim DotCom is one of the most visible Internet personalities, yet he remains out of reach of U.S. law enforcement. DotCom generated more than $175 million from MegaUpload, the cloud-storage service he founded and a company accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of being an illegal enterprise. The DOJ alleges DotCom and six others encouraged millions from across the globe to pirate movies, TV shows, and other media and then store their booty in MegaUpload's digital lockers.

In January, the United States began trying to extradite him from his home in New Zealand. Since then, DotCom'… Read more

MPAA: No MegaUpload data access without safeguards

The Motion Picture Association of America told a federal judge in Virginia today that any decision to allow users of the embattled file locker to access their own files risks "compound[ing] the massive infringing conduct already at issue in this criminal litigation" unless proper safeguards are taken to prevent the further dissemination of illegally copied material. (See the MPAA's brief embedded below.)

MegaUpload's servers with approximately 25 petabytes of data are currently unplugged, offline, and in storage at Dulles, Va.-based Carpathia Hosting.

When an FBI raid took down MegaUpload's U.S.-based servers … Read more

MegaUpload rises from the dead as Mega

MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom has proven to be unstoppable. After the U.S. government's major takedown of the cloud-storage service, which came with charges of racketeering, copyright infringement, money laundering, and more, DotCom has escaped extradition to the U.S. for now and was given a formal apology by New Zealand's prime minister.

Emboldened, DotCom has announced that he is building a new file-sharing site called Mega. According to Wired, this new site will work slightly different than MegaUpload but will still let users upload, store, and share data files. DotCom also intends to make it raid-proof.

"… Read more

MegaUpload founder teases new music service, Megabox

A new music service from MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom was given the video treatment today.

Kim DotCom posted a video on YouTube today showing off a new music service that he, and what appears to be a large development team, are working on. The two-minute video includes everything from a listing of artist songs to some details on functionality, including the ability for users to upload their music to the service.

Megabox was first revealed last year as a technology that promised to transform the music industry by allowing artists to sell their own music and earn 90 percent of the revenue … Read more