{"id":4284,"date":"2016-04-25T08:40:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T08:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/?p=4284"},"modified":"2016-04-25T08:40:06","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T08:40:06","slug":"kim-dotcom-and-mega-ratchet-up-war-of-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/?p=4284","title":{"rendered":"Kim Dotcom and MEGA Ratchet Up War of Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/mega_logo.png\" width=\"200\" height=\"109\" class=\"alignright\">Last week we reported on what appears to be serious animosity between Kim Dotcom and the company he founded, MEGA.<\/p>\n<p>Just three years ago the MEGA file-hosting platform was the apple of the Megaupload founder&#8217;s eye, but for reasons best known to the warring parties, that warmth has turned to aggression.<\/p>\n<p>Dotcom has previously made derogatory statements about MEGA, a company he no longer has a stake in, but last week&#8217;s outburst was unprecedented.<\/p>\n<p>Referencing comments made by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key that key MEGA shareholder Bill Liu is close to the top of China&#8217;s extradition list, Dotcom described the businessman as the &#8220;5th most wanted criminal in China&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Adding that MEGA has diminishing ways to process payments from customers, Dotcom hinted towards impending doom and warned users to <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/kim-dotcom-warns-mega-users-to-backup-their-files-160421\/\">back up their files<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>MEGA chairman Stephen Hall responded quickly, informing TF that his company has &#8220;significant funding&#8221; and that Dotcom&#8217;s comments are &#8220;factually incorrect.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Liu has a shareholding interest but has no management or board position so he certainly doesn\u2019t control Mega,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This year, MEGA has already committed 24 PB additional storage capacity to service our 40 million registered users, and we will continue that expansion,&#8221; the company later <a href=\"https:\/\/mega.nz\/#blog_40\">added<\/a>. &#8220;MEGA users are able to pay subscriptions through a variety of methods, depending on their country of residence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Over the weekend, however, things got much more personal. First MEGA attacked Dotcom&#8217;s political ambitions with the Internet Party, noting that the endeavor had &#8220;badly damaged his credibility with the New Zealand public.&#8221; Now, in a surprise twist, MEGA is claiming that Dotcom tried to reinvest money in MEGA as late as last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In 2015 the [Dotcom] family trust twice subscribed for new shares in MEGA. In December 2015 Mr Dotcom applied to the New Zealand Court for approval to personally borrow $0.7 million for his family trust to subscribe for further shares in MEGA. The Court declined approval. Since then he has made negative comments about MEGA that have no factual basis,&#8221; MEGA says.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in a clear attempt to discredit Dotcom&#8217;s predictions that it&#8217;s only a matter of time before MEGA folds, MEGA&#8217;s operators published many of Dotcom&#8217;s earlier tweets in which he heralded the <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/kim-dotcoms-meganet-preps-jan-2016-crowdfunding-campaign-150610\/\">arrival of MegaNet<\/a>, a non-IP address based network utilizing blockchain technology.<\/p>\n<p>Just two are shown below, with each already crossed out in red by MEGA.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/meganet-1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-121330\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/meganet-1.jpg\" alt=\"meganet-1\" width=\"637\" height=\"319\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-121330\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/meganet-2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-121331\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/meganet-2.jpg\" alt=\"meganet-2\" width=\"638\" height=\"284\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-121331\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is good practice to have a backup of your files but we strongly disagree with Dotcom&#8217;s scaremongering. If you follow his tweets about \u2018MegaNet\u2019 you may have less confidence in his predictions,&#8221; MEGA says.<\/p>\n<p>But not even that was to be the end of the matter. Responding in a serious of tweets over the weekend, Dotcom stuck by his guns &#8211; and turned up the pressure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I&#8217;ve shared with you about Mega is true. Mega is losing $1 million per month. No credit card processing = no business. #BackupYourFiles,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KimDotcom\/status\/723799605226303489\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mega CEO in December admitted to me that Bill Liu controls Mega. The 5th most wanted criminal in China controls board &#038; puppet shareholders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a somewhat unprecedented situation to have two men, Dotcom and Liu, connected to a single company while both being wanted for extradition by powerful foreign governments. Still, Dotcom says he&#8217;s clear why he&#8217;s attacking MEGA in public.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why do I care? I founded Mega,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KimDotcom\/status\/723802911013130241\">continued<\/a>. &#8220;On-the-fly file encryption was my idea. I asked you to join Mega. It&#8217;s my obligation to warn you now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Only time will tell if Dotcom&#8217;s predictions will come true but in the meantime his advice (and that of MEGA) is clear. Keeping backups of files wherever they are is extremely important &#8211; the Megaupload fiasco should have underlined that.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/\">TF<\/a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102\/\">torrent sites<\/a> and  <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220\/\">ANONYMOUS VPN services<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?a=Dfbbuhc-SQg:TLtaPq16QMU:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?a=Dfbbuhc-SQg:TLtaPq16QMU:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?i=Dfbbuhc-SQg:TLtaPq16QMU:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/Torrentfreak\/~4\/Dfbbuhc-SQg\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nSource: TorrentFreak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week we reported on what appears to be serious animosity between Kim Dotcom and the company he founded, MEGA. Just three years ago the MEGA file-hosting platform was the apple of the Megaupload founder&#8217;s eye, but for reasons best known to the warring parties, that warmth has turned to aggression. Dotcom has previously made &#8230; <a title=\"Kim Dotcom and MEGA Ratchet Up War of Words\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/?p=4284\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}