Kim Dotcom starts new file-
sharing site
20 January 2013 Last updated at
01:58
Mr Dotcom launched Mega early
on Sunday
Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom
has set up a new cloud storage
and file-sharing site.
Mega, a web-based service that
lets people upload and store
files of any kind, is a sequel to
the Megaupload system that was
shut down last January.
Police raids on the offices and
home of Kim Dotcom led to the
closure of Megaupload.
The Mega site went online at
dawn on Sunday, with Mr
Dotcom due to hold a gala at his
New Zealand mansion later.
Mr Dotcom has said the new site
complies with the law and
warned that attempts to take it
down would be futile.
"This is not some kind of finger
to the US government or to
Hollywood," he told Reuters on
Saturday.
"Legally, there's just nothing
there that could be used to shut
us down. This site is just as
legitimate and has the right to
exist as Dropbox, Boxnet and
other competitors."
Extradition hearing
Hours after the site was
launched, Mr Dotcom tweeted
that it had received 250,000
user registrations, although
limited server capacity meant
Mega was unreachable to many.
In a series of earlier tweets Mr
Dotcom said every customer
would have 50 gigabytes of free
storage - far more than is
offered by rival services such as
Dropbox or Microsoft's SkyDrive.
A gala will be held at Dotcom
Mansion in Auckland later
Mega will be encrypted so only
those who upload data have
access to it.
Data is also being held in the
cloud to make it easy for users
to get and share files.
The 2012 raids on Megaupload
were carried out because, said
US law enforcement, many users
of Megaupload were engaged in
pirating content and illegally
sharing it.
They accused Mr Dotcom and
other managers at Megaupload
of profiting from piracy.
Mr Dotcom, who was born Kim
Schmitz, has rebuffed the
accusations and is fighting a
legal battle to stay in New
Zealand from where he ran
Megaupload.
A hearing on whether he can be
extradited to the US is due to be
held in March.
The case has generated
controversy in New Zealand over
the way the police and
intelligence services gathered
evidence before the raid and
won an apology to Mr Dotcom
from the country's prime
minister.
Mr Dotcom has also won support
from prominent computer
pioneers such as Apple co-
founder Steve Wozniak.
The raid on Megaupload put 25
petabytes of data uploaded to it
by its 50 million members into a
legal limbo.
In one message, Mr Dotcom said
he was working with lawyers and
the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, which campaigns on
digital rights issues, to get
access to that seized data and
return it to users.

Viva la revolucion