Kim Dotcom's Mega removing legitimate files

The newly launched Mega is already removing legitimate files, but the problem appears to lie with a third-party search engine.

TorrentFreak reported that thousands of legitimate files were being blocked and removed from users' Mega accounts, even when the file is legal for sharing.

TorrentFreak put the claims to the test, uploading a number of files free for sharing, including, amusingly, a video explaining fair use and a copy of Dotcom's own music single. All were removed within minutes, with TorrentFreak receiving emails from Mega explaining that a takedown notice had been issued on the files.

The problem is that Kim Dotcom recently took to Twitter to claim that Mega was receiving only 50 copyright takedown notices a day, which doesn't explain the number of files being removed.

It transpired that the takedowns were a response from Mega to a third-party indexing site called Mega-Search.me. In an effort to avoid piracy, Mega didn't want to allow a search engine to index possibly copyrighted files, and therefore, make it easy for users to find and distribute these en masse. So Mega found a way to block it.

According to the now defunct search engine (translated from French): "Due to a script developed by Mega to delete all files indexed in Mega-search, the engine is temporarily unavailable. A solution to overcome this problem will be made shortly."