Megaupload Threatens to Sue Universal Music Group
Kim Dotcom's Megaupload, a file uploading service, apparently convinced numerous music stars to provide their faces and voices for a music video that was posted to YouTube, but later was demanded by UMG to be taken down.
Megaupload and UMG are now tangled up in an argument who is right and who is wrong. Kim Schmitz is threatening UMG with legal action, which is an unusual position for Schmitz - not just because Megaupload has been branded by the movie and music industry as one of the world's leading rogue sites, but because Dotcom has had trouble staying out of legal trouble in the past: He is a convicted credit card fraudster and was convicted of insider trading. More recently, those convictions prevented him from settling in New Zealand and buying a $20 million mansion.
According to TorrentFreak, Megaupload is preparing a lawsuit against UMG, which the company considers an effort to sabotage Megauploads "viral campaign". The company also announced that it will support the movement against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA): "We thank everyone for the massive support. Let’s join forces and fight for an Internet without censorship. Stand up and oppose new laws like SOPA and PIPA, which are being written this month in Washington," said Mega CEO David Robb in a statement provided to TorrentFreak.
On its website, Megaupload shows a video of its "Mega Song", which does not feature much on the lyrics side, but the faces of celebrities such as will.i.am, P Diddy, Kanye West, Lil John, Jamie Foxx, Chris Brown, Ciara, Kim Kardashian and Kim Dotcom himself - all of which claim to be using and endorsing the service. Megaupload says it has 155 employees and has more than 180 million registered users. The company states that its server hold more than 12 billion unique files, which the RIAA and MPAA claim hold copyright violating material. A recently settled lawsuit between Megaupload and porn studio Perfect 10 over claims of copyright violations suggest that Megaupload may be fighting an uphill battle.
And excuse me, but f*ck with qualifications as "no different then ... stolen DVD". I don't give a sh*t. If somebody thinks it should be legal, let provide the service with the demanded quality and price. If Megaupload can sell what they sell at what price they sell it, that means they sell it at the demanded price. And don't argue, that it's cheap, because it's stolen, because we all know that a very small percentage of the money, charged for the legal content actually go to the authors, and that they are also not any kind of production costs.
In short - legalized theft is going to be battled with "expropriation" [venseremos]
I hope that this company burns, and the convicted fraudster who owns it ends up in jail for facilitating the whole project. I don't agree with digital rights holders targetting end users but if it was my business I would certainly be targeting organisations like Megaupload who are profiting from my intellectual property.
Then I saw who was in the ad. Now I wonder what they have on will.i.am & Jamie Foxx to get them to associate with the no-talent hacks and criminals (or both) that make up the rest of the list. Maybe they downloaded naughty copyrighted materials and Megaupload has proof.
You just apply crop rotation techniques for what your viewing. There's more sites that use similar systems; Rotate to the next site as you hit your limit, soon the original site will be good for another 45mins.
Except its 72 minutes and then 30 minutes of waiting, unless you want to buy an account, which means you could potentially watch 1008 minutes or 16.8 hours of video in 24 hours using megavideo without paying a cent. Your indignation is ridiculous.
I think you misunderstand how megaupload operates and how such files end up on the site...