Kim Dotcom launches Mega file sharing service

250,000 users register within two hours of going live, Mega looks for hosting partners and provides API for developers

Kim Dotcom's new file sharing service mega.co.nz went live at 6.48am today to mark the exact time and day of the police raid on his Coatesville, Auckland home last year.

However the new file sharing service soon became unavailable due to high demand. Dotcom tweeted around 9am: "250,000 user registrations. Server capacity on maximum load. Should get better when initial frenzy is over. Wow!!!"

By midday, it was possible to access the site using the web addess https://mega.co.nz.




The file sharing site is a secure online storage box for files which are encrypted when they are uploaded. The site has a simple, no frills aesthetic, making it easy to navigate and the process to register was quick, with just name, email and password required and authentication via an email. "

However it was not uploading files this afternoon due to overloading issues. Mega's chief marketing officer Finn Batato (and one of Dotcom's co-accused in the Megaupload case) apologised by email to Computerworld: "We are pretty overwhelmed but the guys are working on it, sorry for the inconvenience."

A poor experience may alienate early adopters keen to check out the site on launch day. Steve Simms co-founder of Tomizone tweeted this afternoon: "Mega experience on first day failed. Same 756KB file awaiting upload after four hours. Back to Dropbox. #fail #mega.

When users sign up to Mega, the free plan provides 50GB of storage, with paid plans starting at 9.99 euros ($NZ19.50) for 500GB storage and 1TB bandwidth.

Mega is offering developers the opportunity to create client applications through an API. "For now, our JavaScript site code is the only sample code available, and we did not have the time to comment, structure or even format it properly yet (it is also our first JavaScript project, so please bear with us)."

Mega is also looking for hosting companies to become partners as "Mega storage node". But potential partners must be based outside the US, with a message on the site making it clear this is due to the Megaupload experience:

"Safe harbour for service providers via the Digital Millennium 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 on servers in the United States or on domains like .com / .net. The US government is frequently seizing domains without offering service providers a hearing or due process."

Auckland lawyer Rick Shera, who comments on intellectual property and who has joined Dotcom's legal team, told stuff.co.nz that the cyber-locker service is different model to Megaupload which was shut down by US authorities following the police raid last year.

"It is a cloud storage service but it has got new features in terms of accelerated uploads and downloads and on-click encryption."

Shera says legal teams from several jurisdictions are "looking at this and poring over it."

The site has a section for posting copyright infringement notices, with the following message to potential pirates: "We respect the copyright of others and requires that users of our services comply with the laws of copyright. You are strictly prohibited from using our services to infringe copyright. You may not upload, download, store, share, display, stream, distribute, e-mail, link to, transmit or otherwise make available any files, data, or content that infringes any copyright or other proprietary rights of any person or entity."

Domain name registrar Insta Corporation announced last week that it will be providing product, billing and technical support for Mega. Instra founder Tony Lentino will be the new CEO of Mega. In addition, the National Business Review reports that Instra is also an investor in Mega, along with Luxembourg-based domain reseller EuroDNS and Christchurch-based Digiweb.

Dotcom is holding a party to officially launch Mega at his Auckland mansion tonight.