A Look At The New Mega File Sharing Site

It's interesting that every time the world of piracy seems to calm down a bit, in a flash something new surges it ahead. Thus is the case with the new file sharing site called Mega created by Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom.

Megaupload was one of the top file hosting sites in the world but was shut down by the US Department of Justice in January of 2012 for copyright infringement. At that point, Dotcom promised he was working on something new that would be a foolproof way around any of the legalities that typical file sharing sites face. Now that Mega has launched, we'll soon see about the claim.

It's already been alleged that Mega is the most private, invincible file sharing service ever created, and here's why. Everything you upload is encrypted locally. When you generate a download link, it contains the decryption code that you need to unravel the file. Mega can't be prosecuted for anything illegally posted because they don't have the decryption key and therefore can't look at the contents of the file. Only you have that. Plus, when you agree to the terms and conditions for using the service, you agree to absolve Mega from anything that you might do that could violate a law somewhere.

This is the difference between Mega and other cloud services, or even Facebook for that matter. They all have access to your data and can readily see what it is. Since it's encrypted on Mega, the only person that can view it is the user and whomever he gives the decryption key to.

Here's what it means to any creator of copy-written material. Kim Dotcom is going to make a lot of money from advertising on his site, and you'll see none of it while your material is being illegally distributed the world over. And it looks like there's nothing you can do about it.

Once again, if you're a musician, just go with it and don't give it a second thought. Remember, your music is your marketing. If you're just starting out, feel privileged that someone thinks so highly of your music that they'd want to steal it and share it with their friends. It's okay if the word about you is getting out. If you're an established artist, you know that you make most of your income from touring, merch and licensing anyway. View it as publicity.

Either way, it looks like Kim Dotcom has outsmarted everyone this time. Plus, the service seems like a real bargain. The basic user gets 50Gb for free to start, and up to 4Tb for only $39.99 a month. Demand has been so high that the site is currently offline as it works to overcome the overload.

You can read more about it on Gizmodo.

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