Kim Dotcom launches Mega, his new file-sharing site

Kim Dotcom launches Mega, his new file-sharing site

Headline grabbing Kim Dotcom launched his new file sharing site “Mega” on Saturday, a year to the day the FBI closed down “Megaupload” for copyright infringement. The new site represents a challenge for the American authorities who are trying to extradite the German born tycoon from New Zealand where he is free on bail and living in a luxury mansion.

The millionaire, who is accused of making a fortune from pirated material while filmmakers and songwriters lost out on copyright revenue, has welcomed the success of the eagerly anticipated website. He has posted a message to Twitter claiming that in just a few hours, some 250,000 users had already signed up to the platform. The overwhelming response sent the sites servers into overload, and the site was momentarily pushed off line.

Already a victim of its own success, Mega is a cloud storage site, and what makes it different is that all the files are encrypted. So when web users set up an account they are given an encryption key that they can share with other users. So the files they upload will not be directly accessible from the platform. A clever trick which effectively means the site cannot be accused of knowingly storing copyrighted materials.

And Kim Dotcom has other projects up his sleeve. He is planning to launch his “Megabox” music service which promises to give artists a healthy revenue stream. And he has also unveiled plans for "Megamovie", a platform devoted to films and TV series.

Newtown shooting conspiracy theories

Some Americans are convinced the Newtown shooting was orchestrated by the Obama administration to gain support to tighten gun laws in the US. And with the US president recently proposing a series of tougher gun control measures, all sorts of conspiracy theories are doing the rounds online. This video which reviews the various theories was posted online last week and has already been viewed over 9 million times.

James Tracy, a blogger and professor at a Florida university, was one of the first to suggest the massacre could actually have been staged. He points out discrepancies in media coverage in the hours following the tragedy and claims there are a number of grey areas in the case, notably the number of gunmen involved and the weapons used.

And while some think events did not actually unfurl as reported in the media, others believe that the massacre never actually took place. The administrators of this website claim the witnesses and families of victims were in fact actors, and working for an agency that specializes in simulating crisis situations as part of training exercises for police and fire crews in the US.

Gene Rosen, in particular has been a prime target for conspiracy theorists. He sheltered six children after they fled their classroom during the shooting and in this interview for Salon.com, the 69-year-old retired psychologist says he has since been on the receiving end of constant harassment.

The Pirate Bay documentary

First announced around two years ago, the documentary about file sharing site The Pirate Bay is set to be released on the web, for free, in the spring. And Simon Klose, the Swedish director has posted this teaser trailer online to give web users a taste of what’s to come. The documentary has been financed entirely by web users who sent in donations to the crowd funding site Kickstarter, raising over 50 000 dollars to get the project off the ground and onto the screen.

Make 3D paper face masks

On this site “paper-kit.com”, you can print out a customized image which you then cut out and assemble to create a 3D paper mask of your own face! An original idea which will no doubt be a great hit with kids and adults alike.

Video of the day

Google’s translation tool is not always that accurate it can sometimes be pretty far off the mark … and members of the CDZA collective that creates musical experiments decided to demonstrate just this by using Google to translate the lyrics of the theme tune to the popular TV series of the 90s, "the Fresh Prince of Bel Air", into various languages and then back into English. With pretty interesting results and new theme tunes which end up making very little sense…