TorrentFreak

More than a year after Megaupload was shutdown by the feds the site still has millions of visitors every month. Even without content the defunct file-hosting site is among the top 2,500 most-visited websites on the Internet, and only sightly behind Kim Dotcom’s new Mega. The baffling statistics show once again how enormous the site was.

The Department of Justice has responded to Megaupload’s claims that they “planted” evidence and tried to mislead the court. According to United States Attorney Neil MacBride these allegations are “sensationalist rhetoric” and a “conspiracy theory.” The Government says it never asked Kim Dotcom’s file-hosting service to preserve any infringing files, and asks the court to deny Megaupload’s request to be heard on the matter.

Today a few dozen people were invited to try Mega, the new and improved version of the defunct Megaupload file-hosting service. With “The Privacy Company” as Mega’s slogan, Kim Dotcom and his team are making it clear that they are doing their best to secure the files of their users. Our first impression confirms that the encryption indeed works brilliantly, but those who are looking for complete anonymity might be a bit disappointed.

A Canadian court has rejected a request from the United States to hand over 32 servers hosted by a local provider. Instead of simply handing over all data, which may include personal files of users, the court decided to first determine what files are stored on the machines. Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken is pleased with the ruling and hopes the United States will be more considerate of the privacy of cloud hosting users when requesting data seizures in the future.

The Department of Justice has responded to Megaupload’s claims that they planted evidence and tried to mislead the court. According to United States Attorney Neil MacBride these allegations are baseless and unfounded. In a new filing the U.S. asks the court to deny Megaupload’s request for a hearing on the matter.

In a filing just submitted to court Megaupload is looking to declare the search warrants executed by the U.S. Government unlawful. Kim Dotcom’s legal team argues that the Government. deliberately misled the court by withholding information that showed how the authorities had “planted” key evidence. Dotcom is furious about the alleged misconduct that led to the destruction of 220 jobs and the seizure of the personal files of millions of users.

With his upcoming project titled Megabox, Kim Dotcom is hoping to put the major music labels out of business. The music service promises to shift the balance of power away from multi-billion dollar corporations to the artists who actually make the music. Initially Megabox was scheduled to launch this year, but Dotcom informs TorrentFreak that it will take a few more months to get it ready.