Kim Dotcom reveals launch date, domain name for upcoming Mega file-sharing service

02 November, 2012 19:14:00

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Kim Dotcom, founder of the now-defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, has unveiled the domain name of his new cloud-based platform me.ga. The news broke via Dotcom's Twitter account, with the site's launch date being set for 19 January 2013.

by Oluseun Alufa

Kim Dotcom, founder of the now-defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, has unveiled the domain name of his new cloud-based platform me.ga. The news broke via Dotcom's Twitter account, with the site's launch date being set for 19 January 2013.

For now, visiting the me.ga domain redirects users to Kim.com/mega, which boasts the slogan “bigger.better.faster.stronger.safer." The phrase is presumably a reference to the site's predecessor, Megaupload, which was shut down by the US Department of Justice on charges of copyright infringement against its domestic companies.

Mega, which Dotcom recently teased, will use a new encryption technology that will reportedly enhance users' privacy while protecting itself from litigation. If media companies want to delete allegedly infringing material from the site, "they'll have to accept, prior to getting access, that they're not going to sue us or hold us accountable for the actions of our users," said Dotcom earlier this month.

Unsurprisingly, persistent legal issues have compelled the founder to restrict Mega’s services from being hosted in the US.

“Unfortunately we can't work with hosting companies based in the United States. Safe harbour for service providers via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been undermined by the Department of Justice with its novel criminal prosecution of Megaupload," reads a statement on the site.

"It is not safe for cloud storage sites or any business allowing user generated content to be hosted on servers in the United States or on domains like .com / .net. The US government is frequently seizing domains without offering service providers a hearing or due process,” the statement goes on.

The follow-up web service is already facing legal contention as the DOJ has recently filed a new complaint, which asserts that launching Mega would constitute a wilful breach of Kim Dotcom's bail conditions. .