Kim Dotcom says new Mega venture will launch on the first anniversary of police raid

Controversial entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has tweeted that his next business venture will launch on the first anniversary of the police raid at his New Zealand home. The Department of Justice, however, has issued a warning that this may not be in his best interest.

Kim Dotcom has tweeted that he intends to launch his new Mega business venture on the first anniversary of the police raid at his New Zealand mansion. The tweet says “Announcement: The new Mega will launch exactly 1 year after the raid with a #MansionPressConference & #DoomsdayLaunchButton.”

The raid took place on January 20 2012, so we can expect Mega to launch in just under three months time. There are few firm details concerning Dotcom’s new venture, with the controversial entrepreneur releasing only small amounts of information, and a vaguely explanatory video.

What is clear however, is that it’s as legally dubious (and in this case, morally too, thanks to the system’s close ties with malware) as Megaupload was, and the Department of Justice has already taken a dim view of Dotcom’s future business plans. According to Dotcom’s bail agreement, he would not and could not restart Megaupload or a similar business, and had been completely shut down.

Megabox sounds similar enough to cause problems, and the Department of Justice has issued a statement saying “If defendant Dotcom intentionally misled the court in New Zealand about his intentions and capabilities … [it] might endanger Dotcom’s bail situation or even subject him to additional charges.”

It certainly looks like Dotcom is playing with fire, and could be underestimating the DOJ’s overwhelming desire to see him pay for his “crimes,” thanks to some recent courtroom wins and his sudden rise to Internet stardom.

Going back to the announcement tweet, the Mansion Press Conference hashtag speaks for itself — and will undoubtably be entertaining spectacle, should it all go ahead — but the Doomsday Launch Button may need a little more explaining.

It’s a reference to the FBI’s belief that Dotcom had a “doomsday device” in his possession, which could remotely wipe all the servers with evidence of Megaupload’s existence at the touch of a button. This was one of the reasons why a dawn raid on Dotcom’s home was considered necessary. Of course, he didn’t have anything of the sort, but he’s clearly going to play it up for Megabox’s launch.

Will Megabox really launch in the New Year, and will Dotcom avoid further prosecution if it does? At the moment, we have nothing other than his word that it will. Let’s see if he can live up to it.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Kim Dotcom teases Megabox in trailer, and a launch is just around the corner

Megaupload 2.0? Kim Dotcom's Megbox teaser trailer shows off some features and screenshots from the free service, and it looks promising.

Megabox, the latest venture from everyone’s favorite famed fallen entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, is coming soon. Dotcom has released a couple of teaser trailers for his very much alive music service that he says will revolutionize the music industry, despite the legal battles he’s currently facing over Megaupload.

His new platform will provide its users the option to listen to music for free without the need to pay for subscriptions like Spotify and Pandora. Instead, artists will be compensated for hosting free music that Megabox users would be able to download through a cut of the advertising revenue.

The ads aren’t just ads you’ll find on Megabox’s site, but the way Megabox will display ads is quite intriguing — and at the same time, it could anger some third party ad networks. Megabox will require that users download and install an application called “Megakey.” This application is similar to an ad blocker, but instead of getting rid of ads, Megakey will replace a small number of existing banner advertisements on any given site with Megabox’s own ads.

If you’d like to get access to free music, you’ll have to install the application. Otherwise Megabox will direct you to purchase its music instead.

There are some major artists on board with Dotcom’s latest endeavor. In the teaser trailer we recognized a few major names including Rusko, The Black Keys, Two Fingers, and Will.i.am listed under “Megabox Exclusive Artists.” However, when asked by Torrentfreak about these artists’ participation with Megabox, Dotcom declined to confirm their association with the service. But with the claim that Megabox will provide its participating artists with 90 percent of all earnings, the platform sounds like an attractive proposition that just might end up being a formidable competitor to the most popular music streaming services today.

Some user-facing features may include personal playlists, curated lists for discovering popular albums and songs, and tour dates information.

There also appears to be an emphasis on social interaction within Megabox. A “Who’s Listening” section seems to display, similar to Spotify’s Facebook integration, what your friends have listened to, and users may be able to chat in the app with friends.

Analytics might be an integral factor in the service, but we’re not sure if it’s a feature reserved for artists or the general community. From what we can discern, this feature will include not only the number of plays that a song has garnered, but also how many followers or other metrics about an artist’s social presence, and a sentiment level to display generally how users are liking the music.

We should expect to see Megabox as a platform supported across devices, so you’ll be able to access the service through your tablet, smartphone, and PC.

Megabox is expected to launch near the end of this year.

Check out the trailers below.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com