Megaupload Readies for Comeback, Code 90% Done | Hacker News Reader

Megaupload Readies for Comeback, Code 90% Done

torrentfreak.com

94 pointsmtgx30 comments

Unfortunately for Kim, finishing that last 10% usually takes 90% of the time.

I rarely experienced that with megaupload. I won't say it never happened though.

That's a programmers' saying about projects completion, not a comment on data transfers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

Who would be dumb enough to use it, given Kim Dotcom's criminal record? The man has been convicted of receiving stolen goods, insider trading, and embezzlement. If he's not convicted in the Magaupload case, it will be ENTIRELY due to procedural errors on the part of the prosecution.

The only times he appears to have not been engaged in criminal activity is when he was on parole waiting for a sentence to run out.

Why would you trust him with your data? Or if you are an investor, with your money?

this. those are exactly the questions i ask myself when sharing ripped music with a friend. good point.

The mega services aren't really used for legit hosting, they are used for "Linux ISO hosting".

They were actually used to host Linux software, and Linux drivers, and custom-built Android firmware images, and... Shortly after the Megaupload shutdown I was looking into USB DVB-T tuners and the official Linux drivers for one of the ones I was looking at were only available on Megaupload.

If he's not convicted in the Magaupload case, it will be ENTIRELY due to procedural errors on the part of the prosecution.

That, and the fact that it isn't entirely clear how enabling copyright infringement is anything other than a civil matter.

And that pesky thing about not having jurisdiction over all the computers in the world.

Pretty clear, actually: the law in the US, in the UK, and in New Zealand says there's criminal copyright infringement. The difference between civil infringement and criminal infringement tends to be "you tried to make a business out of it".

Hope that helps.

Yep, that is true, but there is no crime of enabling copyright infringement for profit in either the US or New Zealand, as far as I am aware.

Yep. In my mind, its the same argument as the gunsmith. They aren't responsible for the crime/infringements committed by their customers.

This is an article of faith among advocacy groups but I'm not sure (I'm not a lawyer) that's actually true. People have been held criminally vicariously liable for other criminal actions despite the lack of clear statutory language to that effect. They've then argued to appeals courts, "but there's no statute that clearly says I can be held criminally liable vicariously", and lost. "Vicarious liability" is not some crazy idea invented by the copyright cartels; it's a basic principle of common law.

I am just basing this view on the Sony vs Universal and Grokster vs MGM trials, which were both civil. Admittedly there is a legal argument that could be made for criminal vicarious liability, however from my understanding, that is usually only used for situations that could endanger the general public, where the lack of direct criminal action is deemed to be outweighed by the need to protect people, and that does not seem to apply in this instance. However, that said, I am also not a lawyer, so I could well be misunderstanding the issues completely.

> Why would you trust him with your data?

Absolutely not. Unless I was a non-technical user looking for an easy way to share my pirated software/audio/video etc, in which case it's almost a plus that the guy in charge is going to try his hardest to avoid being shut-down again.

> Or if you are an investor, with your money? For me the answer is a firm "no" but other people will weigh risk/reward differently.

This isn't and was never Megaupload's purpose. I'd imagine most of the people awaiting Megaupload's ressurection are those who make affiliate commissions from uploading high traffic files (38 part movies, books, applications, etc).

Doubt it. Megaupload's business model was based around refusing to pay out people who uploaded anything they obviously don't have the right to distribute. The e-mails released by the FBI were carefully selected and spun to make it appear as though Megaupload deliberately paid commissions to copyright infringers, but even they didn't manage to remove all the references to the actual policy.

This is an incredibly narrow point of view.

Who is a bigger criminal, Lloyd Blankfein or Kim Dotcom?

That's a rhetorical question of course, but considering the status quo and Kim's agenda actually siding with that of the general public, he seems to stand in good favor.

Then you have to take into account the new services being offered, which in addition to the old services seem to offer legitimate music marketing opportunities for bands around the world. Ways to promote your band without selling your soul. Ways to earn more from your album sales, and even ways to earn money when people listen to your music for free.

They're going after the music industry, and they're doing a very good job of it.

Investors are perfectly capable of determining risk vs. monetary reward in any venture.. and if not, then they won't be an investor very long.

Who the hell cares? Ok, don't give your data to Lloyd Blankfein either. I am mystified by why HN invariably thinks this is a compelling argument.

"Oh yeah? Well you know who Schmitz isn't? HITLER."

> Or if you are an investor, with your money?

It's Kim Schmitz - just because he says investors are "lining up" doesn't mean a thing. This is just his typical spiel.

Now they just have to write the other '90%'.

Yeah, that was my first thought. Although they're essentially redoing the exact same code so they might have a fairly good idea of how long it would take.

It's interesting to know investors are still interested. The risk for them has shifted from "will this be successful", which they have experience in predicting, to "will this get shut down again", which they presumably don't.

He has enough money, he won't need investors.

Sometimes Torrentfreak takes a snippet of available information, then makes it into a full, long (and excruciating) article, nothing new is added after the opening paragraph here.

Maybe they'll clean up the interface!

Do you mean the U.S. Dept. of Justice interface?

They should call it TeraUpload. Not only would the headlines be great, but also the server instances could then be called tera-cells.

Buy Megaupload here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007EGTDSS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...

This IS a joke.

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