Kim Dotcom announces 2017 Megaupload relaunch amid ongoing legal battles
Five years after it was shut down by the US Government, Kim Dotcom could be bringing back Megaupload
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Your support makes all the difference.Five years after it was shut down by the US government for allegations of piracy, popular file sharing website Megaupload could be re-launching in 2017.
Megaupload was a file-sharing and hosting website akin to Dropbox where users could upload a file and receive a unique link they could send to others so that they could then download the file. It's an ideal system when sending files that are too large for email. However, it's also a popular way to share pirated material.
Plans for a relaunch of the site were announced in a series of tweets by the site’s owner, Kim Dotcom, who hopes to have the site back up and running on January 20th 2017.
He also announced that on the 2017 site previous members would see their accounts reinstated with a free upgrade to premium privileges, storage capacity would be expanded, and there would be no data-transfer limits.
It was also hinted through a vaguely disturbing tweet that the virtual currency bitcoin would be used in some way on the site, though it wasn’t stated exactly how.
Kim Dotcom founded Megaupload in 2005, and at the height of the site’s popularity, it drew in over 50 million users per day. The site was shut down in 2012 after the US government said it was heavily used by copyright pirates and Dotcom and three others were arrested, accused of profiting from this piracy.
Dotcom has denied the charges and since 2012 has been resisting extradition to the US as a resident of New Zealand, arguing that his website was a storage facility for files and should not be accountable if any of the content was illegal.
The tech entrepreneur is encouraging his followers to spread the news of the site’s relaunch, stating that everyone who tweets that Megaupload is coming back will receive early access to the site.
He has also reached out to former Megaupload employees in an attempt to bring them on board with the new site. Despite the fact that his name still hasn't been cleared from the allegations that tie him to the original site, Dotcom seems confident that his efforts will be successful, tweeting “I’ll be the first tech billionaire who got indicted, lost everything and created another billion $ tech company while on bail."
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