As for the creation of multiple companies, I think you’re being a little ridiculous here. Every ‘company’ had MEGA in front of word that followed, so it’s not like they were trying to hide that the companies (which were more like “divisions” for lack of a better term atm) were tied to the main MegaUpload.

And having separate divisions (Video, music, porn, and so forth) is really just good business sense. I mean, would you want some 13-year-old kid that was browsing MegaVideo to run across a file containing amateur porn when he’s searching for a family vacation video? It’s like organizing files on your computer: you don’t want your porn collection getting mixed up with your work, so you put the files in different folders.

As for charging for access past a certain point on things like MegaVideo? Again, it was a business decision intended to cut down on the number of freeloaders visiting the site (and particularly MegaVideo. I would know, I was one of those freeloaders back in the day).

The 72 min cutoff mark actually carried over between videos (like say, five 15 minute long videos), so the automatic assumption that it was originally intended for copyrighted films is rather faulty. Now, would that business model work today? Given the f***ing hydra of video streaming sites (Rutube, Fileshare, etc) that popped up in the wake of the takedown, I doubt it. More likely they’ll go with what youtube and the other video players are doing these days: 30 second commercial before (and sometimes after) the video plays.

So while the DOJ may actually have something to go after Dotcom with, the fact they went after him by accusing him of copyright infringement for videos that MU couldn’t legally take down, since they were evidence for a case against another video streaming site, and generally speaking, you don’t mess with things that are “under investigation” until the authorities say you can (tampering/destroying evidence). That said, MU was being contacted by the DOJ for that case through Carpathia Hosting, who told them that they were to preserve the evidence and keep users unaware of the investigation, which had started in 2010 against one of MU’s users. However, at the same time, there was a separate investigation going on against the “Mega Conspiracy” that had started three months earlier.

Now, was the second investigation used as a pretext for the MU shutdown? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll find out when (more like if) this ever goes trial. Which with the DOJ’s repeated stalling in Dotcom’s extradition trial, is looking less and less likely.

As the Zen Master says, “We’ll see.”

Actually, it’s Mega that entrapped itself, by having a system to allow users to “upload” without actually uploading files. In order to save storage and to make uploads “instant” they allowed users to bypass the upload process and instead used a common file with multiple URLs.

Mega’s truly big mistake was applying DMCA style notices in a manner that is within the letter of the law but causes bigger problems. By only disabling the links (URLs) as reported, and not removing the common file, they created a situation where they were aware of infringing material on their site, but only removed links that were specifically reported. All other links remained intact. That is really the crux of the problem for them.

Further, the business model sucked. Charging for access to something past a certain point suggests that they are aware of the value of what they were streaming. If the files were free from copyright,they would have generally been available for free somewhere else. The fee charged to see the end of a movie was a clear indication that they realized what they were doing wasn’t right.

Finally, there are apparently a fair number of emails discussing this very thing between the site principals, and it’s pretty clear that they were all aware of what was on the site. In fact, the only way they wouldn’t know would be willful ignorance, specifically not looking because they knew what they would see. That in itself is a problem for them as well.

Further, there is the creation of multiple companies and websites to filter users to Mega, with monies flowing back to those companies as “commissions”, which is an attempt to keep the money away from the main mega company, and to give it to these other sites in a form of laundering the money. That is again one of the key issues here, the structure created to move the money was made specifically to move the money from country to country and to “clean it” so that it didn’t appear to come from piracy, but rather from normal website operations of marketing companies.

I think you need to go back and re-read the whole story (and not the versions posted on sites like TorrentFreak) to understand what was actually going on.

Yes, and remarkably, if you understood the US justice system, you would understand that it’s doesn’t change the status of the information collected as far as the US courts are concerned. It’s not a US law enforcement official that did the work, so the information cannot be “undisclosed” in the US.

The NZ judge may rule that it’s makes it impossible to extradite Kim, but it would in no way hurt the US case – there would still be an international arrest warrant, and the moment Kim left NZ, he would be promptly arrested in almost any other place he went to.

Face it: Kim has to come to the US to face the charges, like it or not. His only other option is to live his life out in NZ, sort of a bigger version of the hell Julian Assange as selected for himself rather than face his own legal problems. I tend to think of both of them as being chickenshits as a result. If you were man enough to do the deeds, you should be man enough to face up the courts for them.

The only way the legal argument works is if this is clearly shown to be against the operating procedures of Mega, which is not the case. Their systems were specifically designed to make it so people didn’t have to keep re-uploading the same files. One copied was shared with multiple links, and only the individual links removed, not the common files. That is really the key.

If the US government was asking Mega to do something that they normally do not do, they might have legs to stand on. But really, since it was standard operating procedure for Mega, it’s a non-issue. It’s a nice head of a legal pin to try to stand on, but fairly hopeless.

Since the Mega system worked in a particular way, which the DoJ was aware of, it’s easy for any judge to see that if it wasn’t on file A, the same warrant could apply to unrelated file B. The system is the same, which is the key to the argument.

They are very unlikely to win this argument, especially with Kim working so hard to fight extradition. It would appear that he feels that he would be found guilty if he went to the US, so he would rather fight by proxy. The courts generally do not look favorably on defendants who are purposely staying out of their jurisdiction.