Megaupload Is Coming Back — Kim Dotcom Is Reviving The File-Sharing Site Despite Pending Trial For Piracy
Five years ago, the massively popular storage site Megaupload was shut down by the United States government, and the site’s owner, Kim Dotcom, was arrested for profiting off of internet piracy. The entrepreneur has since moved to New Zealand and is still resisting the government’s attempts to extradite him back to North America to stand trial for his alleged crimes. But that hasn’t stopped Kim Dotcom from aspiring to bring Megaupload back to life.
According to BBC News, Dotcom is hoping to get Megaupload back online on January 20, 2017, the five-year anniversary of the site’s collapse. At one time, Megaupload had more than 50 million users and was thought to be the 13th most visited website on the internet. The creator, who changed his last name to Dotcom in 2005, made a lot of money off of the site’s heavy traffic, so it’s understandable that he’d want to bring Megaupload back. To ensure that the user-base returns, Kim Dotcom is promising a handful of new features for old Megaupload patrons.
It’s expected that loyal users who lost their accounts and files during the raid will not only be able to return to Megaupload, but they will also get a free upgrade to premium user privileges. Dotcom also plans to expand the file storage and sharing services that Megaupload offered five years ago, increasing the maximum storage capacity to 100GB for each user and unlimited data for file transfers. The 2017 version of Megaupload will also be compatible with mobile devices, allowing people to sync up smartphones and upload to their accounts remotely.
Kim Dotcom hopes that all previous accounts will be seamlessly reinstated to the new Megaupload. These users will be invited back to the revitalized site with a simple mass email.
Those who are willing to pay for Megaupload features will even be able to use Bitcoin this time around, which Dotcom hinted at in a rather disturbing way.
I can tell you that Megaupload and Bitcoin had sex. There is a pregnancy and I have a feeling that the baby will be such a joy.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 10, 2016
And there’s more. According to Stuff, Kim Dotcom is offering even more to users who help him promote the triumphant return of Megaupload, claiming that any Twitter users who post that Megaupload is coming back with a hashtag will get access to a beta version of the site.
These may seem like a lot of promises, but Kim Dotcom reportedly “lost everything” in the 2012 raid. Many of his home assets were seized by the United States government and has been fighting non-stop to get them back, all while free on bail. It seems at this point the Megaupload mastermind might be giving up on winning the legal battle and turning back to the cash-cow that made him a billionaire. He boastfully tweeted that the return of Megaupload would be guaranteed to restore his riches.
I’ll be the first tech billionaire who got indicted, lost everything and created another billion $ tech company while on bail. #goals
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 10, 2016
To accomplish this task, Kim Dotcom also reached out to former Megaupload employees with the hopes of getting them back on board to restore the website.
It’s unclear at this point how Dotcom expects to revive Megaupload’s file-sharing services without prompting another raid from the United States government, especially since he still hasn’t cleared his name from the original Megaupload. But if you’re interested in returning to the site to use the digital storage again, leave a comment below.
[Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images]
