Megaupload
was established in 2005 in Hong Kong to allow cloud based file sharing.
But the domain was seized in January by the US Government allegedly for
copyright infringement. When that happened, users lost access to their
files and $330 million in assets were frozen. The owners, including New
Zealand resident Kim Dotcom, were indicted. Megaupload had enjoyed
50,000,000 visitors per day, 180,000,000 registered users, was the 13th most
visited Internet site, and hosted 12 billion unique files taking up 25
petabytes (25 million gigabytes). Dotcom’s house was intentionally raided
on his birthday by New Zealand authorities at the instigation of the US.
It turned out that the company was never properly served with the property
seizure notice nor the underlying federal case. The Department of Justice
has apparently been writing to lawyers taking on the defense, and warning them
off the case, threatening to call their clients as witnesses. Santa Clara University Law
School Professor Eric Goldman described the Megaupload case as, “a depressing
display of abuse of government authority.” He claimed that seizing
Megaupload’s site had created the “deeply unconstitutional effect” of denying
users their data.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken on cases on behalf of users denied
their data. We say, “Go for it!”
-- Paul Marotta
