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MegaUpload's closure boosts movie rentals and sales

Here's something that will make the Motion Picture Association of America happy: movie sales and rentals increased after the feds shuttered cyberlocker MegaUpload last year.

A new study by Carnegie Mellon's Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics shows that after MegaUpload's closure online movie revenue increased by between 6 percent and 10 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal. The study researched two major movie studios and the results were measured in 12 different countries, including the U.S.

"We conclude that shutting down MegaUpload and Megavideo caused some customers to shift from cyberlocker-based piracy to purchasing … Read more

Kim DotCom's 'Mega' goes live

A year after file-storage site MegaUpload was brought down by U.S. law enforcement officials targeting piracy, flamboyant founder Kim DotCom has cut the ribbon on his new site, Mega.

"As of this minute one year ago #Megaupload was destroyed by the US Government. Welcome to http://Mega.co.nz," DotCom tweeted today.

Not long after, he followed up with a tweet trumpeting what he said was the site's immediate popularity: "Site is extremely busy. Currently thousands of user registrations PER MINUTE." And indeed, as of this writing the site was difficult to access at … Read more

Kim DotCom promises 50GB for free from Mega

Kim DotCom plans to launch his new site in two days, and users will get 50GB of storage for free, the infamous entrepreneur tweeted today.

DotCom also tweeted that his lawyers are working on giving former premium users their premium statuses on the new site but that the site "can't at this time."

50GB is a huge amount of free storage right off the bat. DotCom's tweet comes a day after another cloud storage service, MediaFire, announced it would be offering 50GB of free storage. Other storage services may offer as much -- or more -- … Read more

Feds: MegaUpload was not entrapped

Entrapment is one of MegaUpload's claims in its legal battle against the U.S. government. The feds are now saying this claim is "baseless."

"Megaupload's allegations are baseless, as even a cursory review of Megaupload's pleading and the search warrant materials at issue disproves the allegation that the government misled the court as part of a conspiracy to entrap Megaupload," the government wrote in a Friday filing (PDF).

MegaUpload, which was founded by Kim DotCom, is the highest-profile service to be accused of criminal copyright violations by the U.S. government -- and … Read more

MegaUpload's DotCom gets a peek at government spy records

In what looks like another blow in the U.S. case against MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom, New Zealand's spy agency is forced to turn over records of its illegal surveillance and raid of DotCom's home.

According to Reuters, New Zealand's high court ordered the agency to reveal the records to DotCom, which could possibly aid him in his battle to fight U.S. extradition. The court also ruled that DotCom and his company managers could seek damages from the government because of the agency's unlawful actions.

DotCom's saga has played out over the past year … Read more

MegaUpload extradition hearing 'likely' delayed to July

From the start, the MegaUpload case promised to be one of those long-running courtroom fights -- and that's exactly what it is turning into.

Anne Toohey, a lawyer working for the commissioner of police in New Zealand, said in court today that there is a "high likelihood" that the extradition hearing to determine whether MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom and several other company managers can be extradited to the United States will be delayed until July, according to a report by MSN in New Zealand.

If postponed, it will mark the second time the case has been pushed … Read more

Obama may have talked Kim DotCom with New Zealand PM

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said today he took up some issues important to his country in a private conversation with President Barack Obama and one of the topics may have been about the MegaUpload case.

The impromptu discussion occurred today prior to a meeting at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, according to several New Zealand publications. Key confirmed that he brought up the fighting in Gaza but when asked whether he and Obama talked about MegaUpload, the cloud-storage service accused by the United States of criminal copyright violations, Key said he couldn't discuss it.

New Zealand'… Read more

U.S. judge in MegaUpload case partially unseals search warrant

A federal judge has partially unsealed the warrant he issued that allowed MegaUpload's domain names to be seized.

The documents had been under seal since January, when the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia charged the company and managers, including founder Kim DotCom, with criminal copyright violations, money laundering, and wire fraud.

The search warrant offers very little new information about what kind of evidence the U.S. government possesses to support its case. But Ira Rothken, the Silicon Valley attorney who oversees MegaUpload's worldwide defense, says the document shows that U.S. officials misled … Read more

Kim DotCom: New Zealand will be home to new MegaUpload site

New Zealand appears to be embracing Kim DotCom and the service he's creating to replace MegaUpload.

DotCom announced on Twitter that his new cloud-storage service will use a New Zealand-based domain: Mega.co.nz. DotCom attempted to use a domain name from the West African country of Gabon, but that country's administration last week ordered that the domain, Me.ga, be suspended.

DotCom didn't waste time in finding a new domain name.

"New Zealand will be the home of our new website: Mega.co.nz," DotCom wrote, adding that the site will operate within the … Read more