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Topic: Kim Dotcom Mansion: Press conference 2013-01-19 GMT - page 6. (Read 20489 times)

legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1086
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
CIYAM Open has been "open" for well over a week (it does encryption over plain HTTP using Javascript - although its approach does require an initial GPG message so a little more tricky to use) - I guess 2013 was destined to be the year for this kind of crypto.

Smiley
legendary
Activity: 4690
Merit: 1276

I would go so far as to say that at the end of the day, the model for the service that Mega is providing may rank up there in importance with Zimmerman's PGP work, and he Kim (and his minions) just may have the muscle, money, and smarts to make it stick.
 

Actually, a guy just recently linked this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084261 in the reddit thread about us (or rather, he linked to his reddit thread with this link, but you get what I mean)...

...from the looks of it, Mega's encryption seems to provide far less data privacy assurance than people seem to think (and I kind of understand Kim here, Dropbox-like convergent encryption, and thus deduplication, saves a lot of money and pain, and who cares if it provides the means for preemptive screening of uploaded data and could potentially enable various shenanigans by third parties who already have file plaintexts and would like to know which accounts are involved with storing those files...)


I was a little careful to use the terminology 'model for' because I've not reviewed the Mega implementation in detail (or more accurately, not read the critiques of qualified persons which I am not.)  What I meant by this terminology is that the service provider will not be, because they cannot be, scanning through and cataloging one's personal data and more importantly it will provide some limitation on how practical that is for governments as well.

I actually doubt the Alice/Bob [abc]/[cde] example in the aforementioned thread is valid in Mega's initial implementation, and even if it is it should be easy enough to rectify if there is demand.

I might point out that I may be a bit unusual in that I don't give two shits about music or movies so traditional IP and pirating issues are secondary to me.  The only vid stuff I care at all about is porn and there is so much of that kicking around which is not encumbered that that is not really a big problem.  I make significant use of cloud storage for many other types of documents, drawings, lists, etc.  While these are (currently) of a completely benign nature I still do not want any aspect of my existence to be housed in any data warehouse and gone through by anybody for any reason.  It's more philosophical than anything else.

newbie
Activity: 36
Merit: 0
Not a peep about bitcoin at the press conference.
newbie
Activity: 17
Merit: 0

I would go so far as to say that at the end of the day, the model for the service that Mega is providing may rank up there in importance with Zimmerman's PGP work, and he Kim (and his minions) just may have the muscle, money, and smarts to make it stick.
 

Actually, a guy just recently linked this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084261 in the reddit thread about us (or rather, he linked to his reddit thread with this link, but you get what I mean)...

...from the looks of it, Mega's encryption seems to provide far less data privacy assurance than people seem to think (and I kind of understand Kim here, Dropbox-like convergent encryption, and thus deduplication, saves a lot of money and pain, and who cares if it provides the means for preemptive screening of uploaded data and could potentially enable various shenanigans by third parties who already have file plaintexts and would like to know which accounts are involved with storing those files...)

420
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
unsubbing this thread; someone PM me if anything big happens
legendary
Activity: 1022
Merit: 1000
Nothing here... PENDING....
Only one file started to upload, but I canceled, too slow
legendary
Activity: 3920
Merit: 2349
Eadem mutata resurgo
Ok, after 10 hours trying to upload on and off, still nothing ... has anybody been able to upload even 1 file?

I have my doubts as to whether it is working at all.
legendary
Activity: 4690
Merit: 1276
Somehow I am a bit disappointed of Kim. After all his talk about getting rid of US dictated monopolies, like credit cards and Paypal, I at least would have expected SOME other option than that. Maybe direct bank wires or cash in mail or ANYTHING, but Paypal, Visa and Master all over again?

I'm starting to think more and more that Kim is just a stupid guy who happened to get lucky with his service. I mean he knows how to provide that service but other than that he is a moron.

Actually as far as I can see this is a very smart design. Mega itself does not deal with the retail sales but leaves this to the resellers who can use any payment method they choose including of course Bitcoin. These resellers can be anywhere in the world so even if some one pays with say a credit card or PayPal, Mega itself does not get the payment information, and the end user can literally shop around for the jurisdiction with the strictest privacy laws when choosing a reseller.  This also means that Mega itself collects minimal information a name (with no verification), email address and an IP address (TOR anyone?). The design also calls for distributed hosting with backups of each file in different at least two different jurisdictions.

The files are encrypted and Mega itself does not have the private keys. So the only way a copyright holder will even know that there is infringing content is if the person who uploaded the content leaks the key directly or indirectly to the copyright holder. At this point I am sure Mega will honour a takedown notice provided that the copyright holder has dotted all the legal i's and crossed all the legal t's. Now user side encryption has many perfectly legal and legitimate uses such as the cloud backup of sensitive data.

This whole thing looks like it has been designed by an army of lawyers in order to create a mega legal headache for the entertainment industry while at the same time being in strict compliance with the law.

+1.  The more I think about this, the more I agree.  Both with all of your points, and with the mode of operation which mega.co.nz looks like they may have taken.

After many time-outs, I got on enough to get a test account.  After many time-outs on the e-mailed link, I got signed in.  Now I'm playing with it a bit, but my test upload has not gone through.  Understandable if this really is the most successful 'start-up' of all time, and I would not rule it out.

I needed only provide a working e-mail and it didn't give a shit about my 'name' being just a short small-case username.  So, it is only one step behind 'instawallet' in terms of respecting my privacy.  I like that a lot!  I just read through all of the 'help' items and I like what I see.  So far it's looking a lot like "Kim Dotcom (and company) FTW!"

I would go so far as to say that at the end of the day, the model for the service that Mega is providing may rank up there in importance with Zimmerman's PGP work, and he Kim (and his minions) just may have the muscle, money, and smarts to make it stick.

---

Oh ya.  Hey Hazek.  Don't be so butt-hurt that the guy didn't choose to pump our pet currency.  Very few 'stupid' people get as far as Mr. Dotcom and I would be shocked if he were one of them.  Think about it a little and you might conclude that by (seemingly) ignoring Bitcoin things may well work out a lot better for both us and for Mega.  They are not going to need any extra entaglements, and it'll be lucky if Kim's mansion does not end up being the location of the first drone strike in New Zealand.

edit: name clarity
legendary
Activity: 2282
Merit: 1050
Monero Core Team
Somehow I am a bit disappointed of Kim. After all his talk about getting rid of US dictated monopolies, like credit cards and Paypal, I at least would have expected SOME other option than that. Maybe direct bank wires or cash in mail or ANYTHING, but Paypal, Visa and Master all over again?

I'm starting to think more and more that Kim is just a stupid guy who happened to get lucky with his service. I mean he knows how to provide that service but other than that he is a moron.

Actually as far as I can see this is a very smart design. Mega itself does not deal with the retail sales but leaves this to the resellers who can use any payment method they choose including of course Bitcoin. These resellers can be anywhere in the world so even if some one pays with say a credit card or PayPal, Mega itself does not get the payment information, and the end user can literally shop around for the jurisdiction with the strictest privacy laws when choosing a reseller.  This also means that Mega itself collects minimal information a name (with no verification), email address and an IP address (TOR anyone?). The design also calls for distributed hosting with backups of each file in different at least two different jurisdictions.

The files are encrypted and Mega itself does not have the private keys. So the only way a copyright holder will even know that there is infringing content is if the person who uploaded the content leaks the key directly or indirectly to the copyright holder. At this point I am sure Mega will honour a takedown notice provided that the copyright holder has dotted all the legal i's and crossed all the legal t's. Now user side encryption has many perfectly legal and legitimate uses such as the cloud backup of sensitive data.

This whole thing looks like it has been designed by an army of lawyers in order to create a mega legal headache for the entertainment industry while at the same time being in strict compliance with the law.
legendary
Activity: 1330
Merit: 1000
Bitcoin
Since I did not get an invite to the party Sad I am at home playing with it now.

Can anyone upload anything or is it just me stuck at 0%?


Same here ^^  Sad
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
I'm starting to think more and more that Kim is just a stupid guy who happened to get lucky with his service. I mean he knows how to provide that service but other than that he is a moron.

This reflects my thoughts exactly.
legendary
Activity: 4690
Merit: 1276
Eventually Mega will accept Bitcoin, it's inevitable!

It is far more likely that a Mega reseller will sell Mega vouchers for BTC. The result from a retail preservative will be as if Mega accepted BTC.

That would be kick-ass actually.  Just as good, or better, than using Bitcoin directly.  As long as Mr. Dotcom does not require that I provide him with an identity theft kit (like Mt. Gox, for instance) I might even make use of their service.  Or would if it was useful to me.

IMHO, the thing that would 'save' Bitcoin would be that it becomes 'high powered money' and used relatively lightly for big-ticket and/or important things.  Then there is a potential that 'peers' in the so-called P2P system will be more than a handful of mining pool operators due to uncontrolled growth.

420
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
Eventually Mega will accept Bitcoin, it's inevitable!

It is far more likely that a Mega reseller will sell Mega vouchers for BTC. The result from a retail preservative will be as if Mega accepted BTC.

so he has no blame! booya fbi
legendary
Activity: 2282
Merit: 1050
Monero Core Team
Eventually Mega will accept Bitcoin, it's inevitable!

It is far more likely that a Mega reseller will sell Mega vouchers for BTC. The result from a retail preservative will be as if Mega accepted BTC.
legendary
Activity: 1022
Merit: 1000
legendary
Activity: 3920
Merit: 2349
Eadem mutata resurgo
Since I did not get an invite to the party Sad I am at home playing with it now.

Can anyone upload anything or is it just me stuck at 0%?


Same here ... seems there is no more upload just Mega.
legendary
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
Since I did not get an invite to the party Sad I am at home playing with it now.

Can anyone upload anything or is it just me stuck at 0%?
member
Activity: 103
Merit: 10
It From Bit
Eventually Mega will accept Bitcoin, it's inevitable!
newbie
Activity: 44
Merit: 0
I found the secure connection site worked but open connection not ... i.e. use
https://mega.co.nz

EDIT: oooh, looks like an API https://mega.co.nz/#developers and lots of back-end info is being made available also ... maybe not be too hard for 3rd party to bolt on a bitcoin-enabled service anyway ??

That's my intention. Smiley
legendary
Activity: 3920
Merit: 2349
Eadem mutata resurgo
EDIT: oooh, looks like an API https://mega.co.nz/#developers and lots of back-end info is being made available also ... maybe not be too hard for 3rd party to bolt on a bitcoin-enabled service anyway ??

https://mega.co.nz/#resellerintro  Grin

Yeah interesting he has chosen to use a voucher system for the resellers, like Mt Gox does. I can imagine those Mega vouchers will become a currency in their own right and could be traded for bitcoins on some exchanges somewhere anyway, maybe in the deep web if need be ...

... Kim could have called the vouchers MegaBucks   Cheesy
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