Dotcom says encryption will thwart infringement claims against Mega

[Shawn Knight]

The Pirate Bay recently announced plans to move content away from their servers and into the cloud. It’s a change they say will help protect them from attacks and make them virtually impervious to court-ordered server raids.

If today’s news from MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom is any indication, moving to the cloud isn’t the only seemingly viable option to protect against copyright infringement claims

Dotcom and business partner Mathias Ortmann revealed alternate plans for MegaUpload’s successor to Wired just one day removed from TPB’s announcement. The new service, dubbed Mega, will require users to encrypt data using the AES algorithm prior to uploading. Mega will then provide a unique decryption key that will be required to use the uploaded material.

Encryption will reportedly ensure that user’s files are safe and secure and that Mega will be completely oblivious as to the content of data uploaded to their servers. The latter should protect the service from accusations that they knowingly store copyrighted materials, a claim used against Dotcom in the MegaUpload case.

Furthermore, Mega plans to operate servers in several different countries that mirror data from other locations. In the event that a group of servers goes down due to legal intervention or even a natural disaster, files will still be available from other locations. They aren’t anticipating any legal problems because they claim to fully comply with all the laws of the countries they place servers in.

Following the events that took place with MegaUpload, however, we can’t blame them for being overly cautious this time around.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/50542-dotcom-says-encryption-will-thwart-infringement-claims-against-mega.html

 

[Darkshadoe]

I'm calling it now...The MPAA and RIAA will now lobby to make encryption illegal.

 

[Tygerstrike]

Sounds more like they are doing everything they can to make sure that they don't get into more legal trouble. They know that copyrighted material will be downloaded so they just want to cover Thier a$$. I will be pleasantly surprised to see if this success goes through. Although I'm pretty sure a few govt offices and officials really want Dotcom buried deep in a prison somewhere. I do expect a fight.

 

[pmkrefeld]

I'm starting to like this guy

 

[lipe123]

Lmao this takes me back!
Just after school me and a friend ended up at different companies and used the email each other jokes and whatnot.

He suspected they were reading his messages so he wrote a little encryption program that was really basic and we'd each run the text thru that before sending. Their IT dept called him and said he had to stop doing it because the mail server thinks its a virus.

Only issue I can see here is that encryption normally slows down things a bit.

 

[PinothyJ]

Lmao this takes me back!
Just after school me and a friend ended up at different companies and used the email each other jokes and whatnot.

He suspected they were reading his messages so he wrote a little encryption program that was really basic and we'd each run the text thru that before sending. Their IT dept called him and said he had to stop doing it because the mail server thinks its a virus.

Only issue I can see here is that encryption normally slows down things a bit.

You did not know this from the start? It is in the contract you sign that all emails BELONG to the business.


Kids these days...

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I'm calling it now...The MPAA and RIAA will now lobby to make encryption illegal.

So no more copy protection either I suppose, that could get interesting.

 

[Guest]

Just change the law to remove these loopholes.

Surely we can cook up this fatcant and send him to Africa. So sick of his fat little face.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Just change the law to remove these loopholes.

Surely we can cook up this fatcant and send him to Africa. So sick of his fat little face.

Loopholes? You can't bake your cake and eat it too... he setup a website saying users must take responsibility for their own content. He did not put any illegal content on the site. Because it wasn't encrypted, the RIAA etc take him out AND ALL LEGITIMATE users with them. That is complete BS.

Now he is removing the ability for them to say he knows what they are putting up. Legal or otherwise. It is the users who are doing something illegal. Let the RIAA and MPAA chase the people who are doing the illegal thing. Not Kim!

Big media wants to take shortcuts to justice at the expense of anyone in the road including innocents.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Lmao this takes me back!
Just after school me and a friend ended up at different companies and used the email each other jokes and whatnot.

He suspected they were reading his messages so he wrote a little encryption program that was really basic and we'd each run the text thru that before sending. Their IT dept called him and said he had to stop doing it because the mail server thinks its a virus.

Only issue I can see here is that encryption normally slows down things a bit.

You did not know this from the start? It is in the contract you sign that all emails BELONG to the business.


Kids these days...

Well they can own the encrypted emails!

 

[spydercanopus]

Will give encryption a chance to be a part of EVERYONE's life. Yay encryption!

 

[SCJake]

@Darth Shiv

"shortcuts to JUSTICE"
-really?

lets be honest here. its obvious to anyone with a brainstem that while, yes, they are "fighting piracy" theyre only doing it under that guise. They have found a way to make money faster and with less overhead than actually promoting artists. Especially now with artists going through indie labels and youtube channels. They know their time is up and theyre just trying to pad their pockets before they have to actually start working again

 

[Tygerstrike]

This should scare ppl a bit. They may not be able to take down servers but if there is a court order to reveal who Thier member list is. Then the RIAA and MPAA will have a list of offenders to go after. This is starting to look like the common person may end up getting a 4am knock on the door from local police because they can now get search warrants for that persons computer to prove that they did download copy protected material. It would have been better if they continued going after the server side of this. Those ppl can afford to fight a legal battle. With ISP moving to a six strike program this is cooking up to be a giant screw to the general consumer.

 

[Darth Shiv]

@Darth Shiv

"shortcuts to JUSTICE"
-really?

lets be honest here. its obvious to anyone with a brainstem that while, yes, they are "fighting piracy" theyre only doing it under that guise. They have found a way to make money faster and with less overhead than actually promoting artists. Especially now with artists going through indie labels and youtube channels. They know their time is up and theyre just trying to pad their pockets before they have to actually start working again

Yes I fully agree. I'm just running the old tired party line.

 

[Darth Shiv]

@Tygerstrike Member list proves nothing. They have to know what the offending content was that the member was sharing. You can't get a search warrant without that and the MPAA and RIAA are going to have a PR nightmare if they start bringing the black hawks down on innocents. After all they don't have ANYTHING without willing customers.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Sounds like shutting

Just change the law to remove these loopholes.

Surely we can cook up this fatcant and send him to Africa. So sick of his fat little face.

Loopholes? You can't bake your cake and eat it too... he setup a website saying users must take responsibility for their own content. He did not put any illegal content on the site. Because it wasn't encrypted, the RIAA etc take him out AND ALL LEGITIMATE users with them. That is complete BS.

Now he is removing the ability for them to say he knows what they are putting up. Legal or otherwise. It is the users who are doing something illegal. Let the RIAA and MPAA chase the people who are doing the illegal thing. Not Kim!

Big media wants to take shortcuts to justice at the expense of anyone in the road including innocents.

Kim's yacht was paid for by a site that promotes and enables piracy. Helping someone commit a crime is also a crime.

 

[Tygerstrike]

@Darth Shiv
Im sorry to say this. Read more. Keep reading. The ISP will now be sending your personal information to the new watchdog group. You need to put 1 + 1 together here. Its all in a article higher up on the page. Basically the article states that they will identify IP address that they suspect of downloading pirated material and then turn those IP addresses over to the ISP to get information. So if they have a member list, an IP address, and your personal information, how long do you think untill you recieve a subpeona. Or a nice C&D order. Pull your head out of the sand ppl. And dont think just because you THINK youre smarter then them and have a work around for a IP address, everything you do is logged somehow and someway. It only takes time and these guys have plenty of that. Simply because they want you to pay.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Suspect is not enough in our country. They have to have a claim as to what you were pirating. It is a grey area as to whether having an IP is enough to know who is the pirate still but they still must know the content being pirated.

 

[Tygerstrike]

@darth
I'm sorry to say this but you are inncorret in your assumption. If you are suspected of a crime, you can be searched. That's what a search warrant is for. They only need to show a judge/magistrate that they have probable cause to do the search. If they have a member list, proof you have been downloading specific files from a known site that supports links to copy protected material and a ip address in your name, they can issue a search warrant and there isn't a lot you will be able to do about it. Now given the grey area on downloading, it would probably a civil case. Either way, they take your computer and tear it down to get the proof they need. Best bet is to just not download from such sites and never keep any media that you don't own the viewing rights to on your computer. FYI a physical copy normally gives you viewing rights.

 

[mevans336]

If "Mega" provides the end-user with the encryption key, then they have the ability to see what is being hosted. On the other hand, if they were just a dump for files that the end-user encrypted, Mega could claim no knowledge of what was being hosted because they would have no way to decrypt it.

Unless there is an error in the article, they're going to be in the same boat as before.

 

[Testiclees]

Sounds like shutting

Just change the law to remove these loopholes.

Surely we can cook up this fatcant and send him to Africa. So sick of his fat little face.

Loopholes? You can't bake your cake and eat it too... he setup a website saying users must take responsibility for their own content. He did not put any illegal content on the site. Because it wasn't encrypted, the RIAA etc take him out AND ALL LEGITIMATE users with them. That is complete BS.

Now he is removing the ability for them to say he knows what they are putting up. Legal or otherwise. It is the users who are doing something illegal. Let the RIAA and MPAA chase the people who are doing the illegal thing. Not Kim!

Big media wants to take shortcuts to justice at the expense of anyone in the road including innocents.

Kim's yacht was paid for by a site that promotes and enables piracy. Helping someone commit a crime is also a crime.

So aaaah....

Stupid thought process there....

If that was the case then why not sue the ISP?....or lines companies?....or hell - what about the power companies that keep the servers and PC's running?
No wait....lets sue Intel/AMD due to the use of their CPU's!!!

Lets sue EEEEVERYBODY then!!!

 

[Guest]

"They only need to show a judge/magistrate that they have probable cause to do the search."

And they have to explain why they have that probable cause... otherwise they wouldn't need a judge to do it.