Kim Dotcom Mansion: Press conference 2013-01-19 GMT

[tvbcof]

Somehow I am a bit disappointed of Kim. After all his talk about getting rid of US dictated monopolies, like credit cards and Paypal, I at least would have expected SOME other option than that. Maybe direct bank wires or cash in mail or ANYTHING, but Paypal, Visa and Master all over again?

I'm starting to think more and more that Kim is just a stupid guy who happened to get lucky with his service. I mean he knows how to provide that service but other than that he is a moron.

Actually as far as I can see this is a very smart design. Mega itself does not deal with the retail sales but leaves this to the resellers who can use any payment method they choose including of course Bitcoin. These resellers can be anywhere in the world so even if some one pays with say a credit card or PayPal, Mega itself does not get the payment information, and the end user can literally shop around for the jurisdiction with the strictest privacy laws when choosing a reseller.  This also means that Mega itself collects minimal information a name (with no verification), email address and an IP address (TOR anyone?). The design also calls for distributed hosting with backups of each file in different at least two different jurisdictions.

The files are encrypted and Mega itself does not have the private keys. So the only way a copyright holder will even know that there is infringing content is if the person who uploaded the content leaks the key directly or indirectly to the copyright holder. At this point I am sure Mega will honour a takedown notice provided that the copyright holder has dotted all the legal i's and crossed all the legal t's. Now user side encryption has many perfectly legal and legitimate uses such as the cloud backup of sensitive data.

This whole thing looks like it has been designed by an army of lawyers in order to create a mega legal headache for the entertainment industry while at the same time being in strict compliance with the law.

+1.  The more I think about this, the more I agree.  Both with all of your points, and with the mode of operation which mega.co.nz looks like they may have taken.

After many time-outs, I got on enough to get a test account.  After many time-outs on the e-mailed link, I got signed in.  Now I'm playing with it a bit, but my test upload has not gone through.  Understandable if this really is the most successful 'start-up' of all time, and I would not rule it out.

I needed only provide a working e-mail and it didn't give a shit about my 'name' being just a short small-case username.  So, it is only one step behind 'instawallet' in terms of respecting my privacy.  I like that a lot!  I just read through all of the 'help' items and I like what I see.  So far it's looking a lot like "Kim Dotcom (and company) FTW!"

I would go so far as to say that at the end of the day, the model for the service that Mega is providing may rank up there in importance with Zimmerman's PGP work, and he Kim (and his minions) just may have the muscle, money, and smarts to make it stick.

---

Oh ya.  Hey Hazek.  Don't be so butt-hurt that the guy didn't choose to pump our pet currency.  Very few 'stupid' people get as far as Mr. Dotcom and I would be shocked if he were one of them.  Think about it a little and you might conclude that by (seemingly) ignoring Bitcoin things may well work out a lot better for both us and for Mega.  They are not going to need any extra entaglements, and it'll be lucky if Kim's mansion does not end up being the location of the first drone strike in New Zealand.

edit: name clarity

[marcus_of_augustus]

Ok, after 10 hours trying to upload on and off, still nothing ... has anybody been able to upload even 1 file?

I have my doubts as to whether it is working at all.

[tbcoin]

Nothing here... PENDING....
Only one file started to upload, but I canceled, too slow

[420]

unsubbing this thread; someone PM me if anything big happens

[Jane Rand]

I would go so far as to say that at the end of the day, the model for the service that Mega is providing may rank up there in importance with Zimmerman's PGP work, and he Kim (and his minions) just may have the muscle, money, and smarts to make it stick.
 

Actually, a guy just recently linked this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084261 in the reddit thread about us (or rather, he linked to his reddit thread with this link, but you get what I mean)...

...from the looks of it, Mega's encryption seems to provide far less data privacy assurance than people seem to think (and I kind of understand Kim here, Dropbox-like convergent encryption, and thus deduplication, saves a lot of money and pain, and who cares if it provides the means for preemptive screening of uploaded data and could potentially enable various shenanigans by third parties who already have file plaintexts and would like to know which accounts are involved with storing those files...)

[schalk]

Not a peep about bitcoin at the press conference.

[tvbcof]

I would go so far as to say that at the end of the day, the model for the service that Mega is providing may rank up there in importance with Zimmerman's PGP work, and he Kim (and his minions) just may have the muscle, money, and smarts to make it stick.
 

Actually, a guy just recently linked this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084261 in the reddit thread about us (or rather, he linked to his reddit thread with this link, but you get what I mean)...

...from the looks of it, Mega's encryption seems to provide far less data privacy assurance than people seem to think (and I kind of understand Kim here, Dropbox-like convergent encryption, and thus deduplication, saves a lot of money and pain, and who cares if it provides the means for preemptive screening of uploaded data and could potentially enable various shenanigans by third parties who already have file plaintexts and would like to know which accounts are involved with storing those files...)

I was a little careful to use the terminology 'model for' because I've not reviewed the Mega implementation in detail (or more accurately, not read the critiques of qualified persons which I am not.)  What I meant by this terminology is that the service provider will not be, because they cannot be, scanning through and cataloging one's personal data and more importantly it will provide some limitation on how practical that is for governments as well.

I actually doubt the Alice/Bob [abc]/[cde] example in the aforementioned thread is valid in Mega's initial implementation, and even if it is it should be easy enough to rectify if there is demand.

I might point out that I may be a bit unusual in that I don't give two shits about music or movies so traditional IP and pirating issues are secondary to me.  The only vid stuff I care at all about is porn and there is so much of that kicking around which is not encumbered that that is not really a big problem.  I make significant use of cloud storage for many other types of documents, drawings, lists, etc.  While these are (currently) of a completely benign nature I still do not want any aspect of my existence to be housed in any data warehouse and gone through by anybody for any reason.  It's more philosophical than anything else.

[CIYAM]

CIYAM Open has been "open" for well over a week (it does encryption over plain HTTP using Javascript - although its approach does require an initial GPG message so a little more tricky to use) - I guess 2013 was destined to be the year for this kind of crypto.

[Gabi]

Somehow I am a bit disappointed of Kim. After all his talk about getting rid of US dictated monopolies, like credit cards and Paypal, I at least would have expected SOME other option than that. Maybe direct bank wires or cash in mail or ANYTHING, but Paypal, Visa and Master all over again?

I'm starting to think more and more that Kim is just a stupid guy who happened to get lucky with his service. I mean he knows how to provide that service but other than that he is a moron.

Actually as far as I can see this is a very smart design. Mega itself does not deal with the retail sales but leaves this to the resellers who can use any payment method they choose including of course Bitcoin. These resellers can be anywhere in the world so even if some one pays with say a credit card or PayPal, Mega itself does not get the payment information, and the end user can literally shop around for the jurisdiction with the strictest privacy laws when choosing a reseller.  This also means that Mega itself collects minimal information a name (with no verification), email address and an IP address (TOR anyone?). The design also calls for distributed hosting with backups of each file in different at least two different jurisdictions.

The files are encrypted and Mega itself does not have the private keys. So the only way a copyright holder will even know that there is infringing content is if the person who uploaded the content leaks the key directly or indirectly to the copyright holder. At this point I am sure Mega will honour a takedown notice provided that the copyright holder has dotted all the legal i's and crossed all the legal t's. Now user side encryption has many perfectly legal and legitimate uses such as the cloud backup of sensitive data.

This whole thing looks like it has been designed by an army of lawyers in order to create a mega legal headache for the entertainment industry while at the same time being in strict compliance with the law.

+1

[World]

VIDEO
Press Conference (FULL)

[evoorhees]

The problem with taking in as much revenue as he would through Bitcoin is cashing it out. Totally impossible today, even if you utilized all the on and off-exchange markets...including Coinabul.

This is not true.  Consider that for every puchase on his site via Bitcoin, there had to be a corresponding acquisition of coins prior to that. In other words, every coin that Kim sells on the market was first bought on the market to send to him.

So the only way his site's massive volume would substantially harm the price is if people with coins just decided to get rid of them via his service and never acquire more.

[cedivad]

VIDEO
Press Conference (FULL)

The guy is crazy.
I love him.

[SouthernComfort]

Well.. this is something I'd be happy to be wrong about.
I'm looking forward to seeing whether Mr Dotcom is visionary or just, as I suspect, reactionary.

If it's the later - I expect he'll still adopt it eventually...  once other businesses have built up the Bitcoin ecosystem to the point where he can't ignore it.

[tvbcof]

...
After many time-outs, I got on enough to get a test account.  After many time-outs on the e-mailed link, I got signed in.  Now I'm playing with it a bit, but my test upload has not gone through.  Understandable if this really is the most successful 'start-up' of all time, and I would not rule it out.
...

Update on Mega:  Tonight, from my satellite connection (and BSD box with chrome built from source) I got logged in after about 1/2 and hour.  This time I managed to get a 44 byte file uploaded.  Took about a minute at 1 byte per second.  So, it's 'working'.  Sorta.

If this thing:

 - starts to work better after the initial teething and sizing problems
 - proves secure on competent analysis
 - python or C API's are forthcoming (filesystem mounts that work) so I can shit-can the browser
 - nothing demonstratable better (in philosophical terms) comes around

I imagine I'll be mostly ditching my current user-level cloud solution and switching to it.  I may even pay, but it would be mostly as a token of my appreciation since I can hardly imagine needing the capacity in my use-case.  If I can use BTC for payment or donation, all the better.

---

If Dotcom really did have a paradigm shift after being spied on (in addition to the other obscene abuse) and shifts some focus away from video games and cars and toward humanitarian efforts I might develop a man-crush on the guy.  This whole thing reminds me a bit of Larry Flynt getting sued and shot.  He kept on making porn, but also put a lot of money and effort into making society a generally better place by standing up for our (the US's) first amendment rights...and fingering the hypocrites in our political circles.

[molecular]

VIDEO
Press Conference (FULL)

The guy is crazy.
I love him.

Well my view is this: If I'm not doing anything illegal, then why is my data being captured? Some of you may have nothing to hide. Like John Banks for example. But most people do have something to hide. They hide many things, even from their closest friends and family.

Privacy is about much broader values than just hiding things. It's about the human need for refuge from the eye of the community and the importance of maintaining the balance of power between individuals and the state.

Mega believes in your right to privacy. Mega has developed technology that keeps your data private and safe. Mega will support an ecosystem of 3rd party privacy applications born from our new technology. Ultimately more and more of the internet will be encrypted thanks to mega *grin*. And by using mega you say 'no' to those who want to know everything about you. By using Mega you say 'no' to governments that want to spy on you. And by using Mega you say yes to internet freedom and your right to privacy.

While I don't like all the hubris, I must say the guy has the right view on things and is moving some shit.

[hazek]

While I don't like all the hubris, I must say the guy has the right view on things and is moving some shit.

I must say I'm reversing my perception of him..

[atomium]

what do you guys think about him accepting bitcoins only after this?

http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-mega-anti-piracy-group-moves-to-cut-off-finances-130121/

[Luno]

BTW, Kim was on BBC world today in a little "at home" special.

[Littleshop]

what do you guys think about him accepting bitcoins only after this?

http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-mega-anti-piracy-group-moves-to-cut-off-finances-130121/

Amazing.  The owner of the group stopfilelockers is already trying to cut off the companies that do payment processing for mega.  And stopfilelockers wants all file locker sites to intrude on customers and do file fingerprinting to check for infringing files.  With Kim's mega that would be impossible since only the customer can decode the files.

[TraderTimm]

I'm so glad that Mucus called the "crash" for this weekend.

We seem to have CRASHED UPWARD. Well done, please, predict another one!

16.75 ... NICE.