6 ms·

Mega, the new MegaUpload, to launch on January 19

92 points by sgarbi 14y ago

GotAnyMegadeth 14y ago
Bit annoying that that button resizes...
- kavaliero 14y ago
  I agree !
- sgarbi 14y ago
  I didn't even notice there was a hidden message triggered by the mouseover..... I remember that once this practice was discouraged by many usability recommendations!
  - manojlds 14y ago
    I thought it was pretty clear with the hand mouse cursor to the bottom right.
    - sgarbi 14y ago
      it is the kind of spammy-like detail you are likely to find in popup windows that probably is blind to me
- tugs 14y ago
  Check out the jitter if you leave your mouse just to the left of the hand.
  - ferongr 14y ago
    This doesn't happen in Firefox so I'd assume it's a bug of the browser.
    - davorak 14y ago
      Worse in Firefox then in Chrome for me. I can not get a continuous jitter in chrome at all but easily get the button and hand to jitter continuously in Firefox if I leave the mouse at the right spot.
narag 14y ago
In the past, securely storing and transferring confidential information required the installation of dedicated software. The new Mega encrypts and decrypts your data transparently in your browser, on the fly. You hold the keys to what you store in the cloud, not us. It seems a good idea to me, maybe because I thought of it before :-) I'm not sure how well they will monetize it. I've read that economies come from detecting duplicates and archiving contents just once. But from the customer POV, that would be a strong feature.
- BrokenPipe 14y ago
  Well encryption changes this. Assuming the key is in the hand of the user (which if it isn't kind of breaks the full point of encryption in this case) then each file will have a different digest and won't be detected as a duplicate. Is there a way to store files encrypted with different data and detect they are the same file ? If there was, wouldn't this allow LEO to verify this and issue DCMA notices ?
  - thefreeman 14y ago
    I believe if you could verify two separately encrypted files were the same it would defeat the purpose of encryption completely. By definition a secure encryption system cannot allow this.
    - BrokenPipe 14y ago
      True. You know what I was thinking ? homomorphic encryption I understand is possible to do operations on encrypted data (which results in an encrypted result) all without having the key to the data (or the result), and maybe there's a way to do this to allow the duplication. If there is it could (but shouldn't ?) be used. The issue here, to me at least, is that someone malicious that has exactly the same data could encrypt it and then verify the above.
      - karamazov 14y ago
        Homomorphic encryption allows you to encrypt the data and then operate on it. It doesn't (necessarily) imply that each plaintext has exactly one encrypted version. [1] It's also highly experimental at this point, from what I remember. [1] As a trivial example, let's say you give me a very large number, and your encryption scheme is to add some number, n, of zero bits at the end. Only you know how many bits you're adding - n is your private key. Regardless of what you pick for n, I can multiply your number by 2 (i.e. bit-shift it) and give the result back to you, which you would then be able to decrypt to the result of the calculation. This works for any value of n, so I can't tell if two original numbers are the same by inspecting the ciphertexts.
jakozaur 14y ago
False start, http://mega.co.nz/ http://mega.co.nz/ will launch on January 19.
dutchbrit 14y ago
What's new about this exactly? This was posted a few months back. Ps. You can access it here too, http://mega.co.nz/ http://mega.co.nz/ Their me.ga domain was taken away from them.
- mikegioia 14y ago
  There's something unsettling about "Mega Conz"
  - dutchbrit 14y ago
    No pun intended... :-)
nextstep 14y ago
This is exciting. Kim also tweeted that each user gets 50GB of storage for free. https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/291936750580953088 https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/291936750580953088
- joeblau 14y ago
  I'm looking more forward to this than I was to the Facebook announcement. I also interested in seeing what Kimble will roll out.
- ramayac 14y ago
  Now all they need, it's a client like DB for PC, Android and iOS, and were done.
ma2rten 14y ago
"Before, we operated only a handful of storage nodes located in expensive premium data centers. Now, thanks to encryption, we can connect a large number of hosting partners around the world without worrying about privacy breaches." Was privacy really ever their main concern ?
- grecy 14y ago
  > Was privacy really ever their main concern ? I expect it will be with the authorities breathing so hard down their necks, and the questionable legality of the files users will likely upload.
  - axusgrad 14y ago
    This is on their "How to become a hosting partner" page (http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting): >Unfortunately, we can't work with hosting companies based in the United States. Safe harbour for service providers via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been undermined by the Department of Justice with its novel criminal prosecution of Megaupload. It is not safe for cloud storage sites or any business allowing user-generated content to be hosted on servers in the United States or on domains like .com / .net. The US government is frequently seizing domains without offering service providers a hearing or due process.
- mcantelon 14y ago
  >Was privacy really ever their main concern? It's a pretext for hiding what content is allowable for download to protect them from liability.
level09 14y ago
>"Powered by Instra" What does Instra provide exactly ? I used them for domains but I don't really know if they also provide some good hosting infrastructure.
- mwilcox 14y ago
  According to NBR they provide "expert product, billing and technical support services to Mega." http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-company-named-key-mega-partner-mega-ceo-named-ck-134668 http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-company-named-key-mega-partn...
BayAreaDev 14y ago
The whole Mega.com is in-your-face thing Kim is doing with authorities. The real bone with megaupload was, authorities held megaupload responsible for what it hosted - and Megaupload could not deny what they had on their servers (copyrighted stuff) - so the responsibility and liability lied with megaupload and caused its downfall. With mega.com - the game is, mega.com will claim we don't know what is on our servers (since its encrypted at browser) so we can't be held liable for it - and this will stick! I read somewhere comment that - its doesn't matter how strong the encryption is for mega.com users - all mega.com need it as a shield from legal troubles. Clever!
- sgarbi 14y ago
  wasn't the content encrypted on MegaUpload then?
  - Sunlis 14y ago
    It may have been, but even if it was the encryption was likely done server-side. If I'm understanding this correctly, they will now be encrypting data before it leaves your browser. That way their servers never see the true data, so they can't be held accountable for what users are uploading. In the previous model of receiving data then possible encoding it, they have full access to the raw data uploaded and are responsible for policing the legality of the files being uploaded.
    - malandrew 14y ago
      TBH, I can't wait until this becomes the standard way for lots of services to do business. This is going to be better for everyone's privacy and it's ultimately going to be cheaper and less complex for everyone to do this by default because the alternatively is being forced to fund cost of policing; something that Hollywood is already trying to force ISPs to do. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was supposed to provide this protection, but it's become clear it simply doesn't provide enough protection when highly motivated politically-connected actors get involved. Encryption from end-point to end-point creates a situation where providers don't even need to worry about needing the protections from Section 230.
bdcs 14y ago
Does anyone care to speculate on how payments will be processed? Payment networks seem to be the weak link...
EGreg 14y ago
Now this is how you do a "Mega launch". From the man who "can't do small".

92 points by sgarbi 14y ago

GotAnyMegadeth 14y ago

Bit annoying that that button resizes...

kavaliero 14y ago
I agree !
sgarbi 14y ago
I didn't even notice there was a hidden message triggered by the mouseover..... I remember that once this practice was discouraged by many usability recommendations!
- manojlds 14y ago
  I thought it was pretty clear with the hand mouse cursor to the bottom right.
  - sgarbi 14y ago
    it is the kind of spammy-like detail you are likely to find in popup windows that probably is blind to me
tugs 14y ago
Check out the jitter if you leave your mouse just to the left of the hand.
- ferongr 14y ago
  This doesn't happen in Firefox so I'd assume it's a bug of the browser.
  - davorak 14y ago
    Worse in Firefox then in Chrome for me. I can not get a continuous jitter in chrome at all but easily get the button and hand to jitter continuously in Firefox if I leave the mouse at the right spot.

narag 14y ago

In the past, securely storing and transferring confidential information required the installation of dedicated software. The new Mega encrypts and decrypts your data transparently in your browser, on the fly. You hold the keys to what you store in the cloud, not us. It seems a good idea to me, maybe because I thought of it before :-) I'm not sure how well they will monetize it. I've read that economies come from detecting duplicates and archiving contents just once. But from the customer POV, that would be a strong feature.

BrokenPipe 14y ago
Well encryption changes this. Assuming the key is in the hand of the user (which if it isn't kind of breaks the full point of encryption in this case) then each file will have a different digest and won't be detected as a duplicate. Is there a way to store files encrypted with different data and detect they are the same file ? If there was, wouldn't this allow LEO to verify this and issue DCMA notices ?
- thefreeman 14y ago
  I believe if you could verify two separately encrypted files were the same it would defeat the purpose of encryption completely. By definition a secure encryption system cannot allow this.
  - BrokenPipe 14y ago
    True. You know what I was thinking ? homomorphic encryption I understand is possible to do operations on encrypted data (which results in an encrypted result) all without having the key to the data (or the result), and maybe there's a way to do this to allow the duplication. If there is it could (but shouldn't ?) be used. The issue here, to me at least, is that someone malicious that has exactly the same data could encrypt it and then verify the above.
    - karamazov 14y ago
      Homomorphic encryption allows you to encrypt the data and then operate on it. It doesn't (necessarily) imply that each plaintext has exactly one encrypted version. [1] It's also highly experimental at this point, from what I remember. [1] As a trivial example, let's say you give me a very large number, and your encryption scheme is to add some number, n, of zero bits at the end. Only you know how many bits you're adding - n is your private key. Regardless of what you pick for n, I can multiply your number by 2 (i.e. bit-shift it) and give the result back to you, which you would then be able to decrypt to the result of the calculation. This works for any value of n, so I can't tell if two original numbers are the same by inspecting the ciphertexts.

jakozaur 14y ago

False start, http://mega.co.nz/ http://mega.co.nz/ will launch on January 19.

dutchbrit 14y ago

What's new about this exactly? This was posted a few months back. Ps. You can access it here too, http://mega.co.nz/ http://mega.co.nz/ Their me.ga domain was taken away from them.

mikegioia 14y ago
There's something unsettling about "Mega Conz"
- dutchbrit 14y ago
  No pun intended... :-)

nextstep 14y ago

This is exciting. Kim also tweeted that each user gets 50GB of storage for free. https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/291936750580953088 https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/291936750580953088

joeblau 14y ago
I'm looking more forward to this than I was to the Facebook announcement. I also interested in seeing what Kimble will roll out.
ramayac 14y ago
Now all they need, it's a client like DB for PC, Android and iOS, and were done.

ma2rten 14y ago

"Before, we operated only a handful of storage nodes located in expensive premium data centers. Now, thanks to encryption, we can connect a large number of hosting partners around the world without worrying about privacy breaches." Was privacy really ever their main concern ?

grecy 14y ago
> Was privacy really ever their main concern ? I expect it will be with the authorities breathing so hard down their necks, and the questionable legality of the files users will likely upload.
- axusgrad 14y ago
  This is on their "How to become a hosting partner" page (http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting): >Unfortunately, we can't work with hosting companies based in the United States. Safe harbour for service providers via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been undermined by the Department of Justice with its novel criminal prosecution of Megaupload. It is not safe for cloud storage sites or any business allowing user-generated content to be hosted on servers in the United States or on domains like .com / .net. The US government is frequently seizing domains without offering service providers a hearing or due process.
mcantelon 14y ago
>Was privacy really ever their main concern? It's a pretext for hiding what content is allowable for download to protect them from liability.

level09 14y ago

>"Powered by Instra" What does Instra provide exactly ? I used them for domains but I don't really know if they also provide some good hosting infrastructure.

mwilcox 14y ago
According to NBR they provide "expert product, billing and technical support services to Mega." http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-company-named-key-mega-partner-mega-ceo-named-ck-134668 http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-company-named-key-mega-partn...

BayAreaDev 14y ago

The whole Mega.com is in-your-face thing Kim is doing with authorities. The real bone with megaupload was, authorities held megaupload responsible for what it hosted - and Megaupload could not deny what they had on their servers (copyrighted stuff) - so the responsibility and liability lied with megaupload and caused its downfall. With mega.com - the game is, mega.com will claim we don't know what is on our servers (since its encrypted at browser) so we can't be held liable for it - and this will stick! I read somewhere comment that - its doesn't matter how strong the encryption is for mega.com users - all mega.com need it as a shield from legal troubles. Clever!

sgarbi 14y ago
wasn't the content encrypted on MegaUpload then?
- Sunlis 14y ago
  It may have been, but even if it was the encryption was likely done server-side. If I'm understanding this correctly, they will now be encrypting data before it leaves your browser. That way their servers never see the true data, so they can't be held accountable for what users are uploading. In the previous model of receiving data then possible encoding it, they have full access to the raw data uploaded and are responsible for policing the legality of the files being uploaded.
  - malandrew 14y ago
    TBH, I can't wait until this becomes the standard way for lots of services to do business. This is going to be better for everyone's privacy and it's ultimately going to be cheaper and less complex for everyone to do this by default because the alternatively is being forced to fund cost of policing; something that Hollywood is already trying to force ISPs to do. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was supposed to provide this protection, but it's become clear it simply doesn't provide enough protection when highly motivated politically-connected actors get involved. Encryption from end-point to end-point creates a situation where providers don't even need to worry about needing the protections from Section 230.

bdcs 14y ago

Does anyone care to speculate on how payments will be processed? Payment networks seem to be the weak link...

EGreg 14y ago

Now this is how you do a "Mega launch". From the man who "can't do small".