Live data from Hacker News

Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

kim.com

111–120 of 145 posts

Re: Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

#113
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a career criminal. He hacked for profit. He traded in stolen phone cards and turned in his compatriots for reduced sentence. He ran a "premium" phone number scam. He ran a pump and dump scheme to defraud investors. He evaded prosecution by jumping jurisdiction. He tried (and failed) to run a fake hedge fund. He sold pirated software. He committed insider trading. He's not a self-made man. He's a career criminal…

That was years ago when he was a teenager. Many people went thru an "illegal period", his was just... more successful than most. As for sociopathic, so what? Didn't you know that most CEOs are sociopaths? I find that argument... not compelling. Like it or not, sociopathy appears to be an integral/essential part of human organizations.

Steve Jobs and Woz got their start selling Blue Boxes that let you illegally make free phone calls. They just never got caught.

Re: Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

#114
post #32

I can vouch for Kim's positive traits. He also has negative traits, as do we all - but I don't know much about them. However he was a customer of AdBrite (a large ad network I founded around 2000) and I spoke with him via Skype many times around 2002. AdBrite is kinda like AdSense in that you can run our ads on your site and make money. And he was running AdBrite on one of his sites. I don't remember which site of Ki…

That's a pretty cool story :)

Re: Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

#115
post #35
post #32

I can vouch for Kim's positive traits. He also has negative traits, as do we all - but I don't know much about them. However he was a customer of AdBrite (a large ad network I founded around 2000) and I spoke with him via Skype many times around 2002. AdBrite is kinda like AdSense in that you can run our ads on your site and make money. And he was running AdBrite on one of his sites. I don't remember which site of Ki…

The logos are practically the same. Cool story though.

Remind of certain detergent(s)

Re: Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

#117
I guess it's typical but I've had this idea before. tptacek should stop by with his rant against javascript, client-side encryption.

The other trick to making this idea cool? Once you have the wiring hooked up to make Mega look like local storage (even though it's in the browser), you can wire that up to the PeerConnection Data Channel (once it's available) and literally implement peer-to-peer networks in your browser. There are limitations as you can't use aggressive discovery protocols like with a native socket, but it's still tantalizing.

Re: Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

#118
post #85
post #20

It would be very interesting if he decides to use bitcoin or something similar for this.

How volatile is the bitcoin right now? For example, what happens when the bitcoin raises 200% vs. the US dollar? Do you change your pricing? What happens if it then drops the next day?

its not that volatile right now, therefore your statement is invalid.

Re: Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

#119

I like the design of the website.

Single-page app for something that really doesn't need to be?

Not even a so you're not actually sure if the page loaded or not[1].

Gratuitous animations between slides?

Barest hint of content scattered across slides?

If I was there for informational purposes, I'd say it was a terrible site.

[1] Although I don't really expect people to cater to the miniscule audience that is NoScript/equivalent users[2], it's nice to see at least the tiniest thought towards those who can't/don't have JS.

[2] In fact, there are even some tech-focused sites now that actually ask you to whitelist them for js instead of 'please upgrade to Netscape 3+ or IE5'!

Re: Kim Dotcom's new Mega project

#120
post #95

I especially like the DMCA callout on the Hosting Partner's page: Unfortunately we can't work with hosting companies based in the United States. Safe harbour for service providers via the Digital Millenium Copyright Act has been undermined by the Department of Justice with its novel criminal prosecution of Megaupload. It is not safe for cloud storage sites or any business allowing user generated content to be hosted…

That's hilarious. The Safe Harbor works fine for Dropbox, YouTube, and numerous others. That's because they don't have people on staff specifically looking for infringing material in order to reward the up loaders and encourage more infringement, and their responses when they are properly notified of infringing material is to actually deal with it instead of just trying to hide it from the notifier so he'll think it…

So far it has not been proven that Megaupload has violated the DMCA, and it looks uncertain whether the cased against them will even survive long enough for the claims to even get prosecuted, so how is that hilarious?

Whether or not Megaupload violated the DMCA, the US government have effectively demonstrated that if they think you've violated the right laws, it doesn't matter whether or not the courts agree, as your business will be dead before then.

Post reply on HN