Megaupload Era

2005

Date: 21 March 2005 · Place: megaupload.com, Hong Kong incorporation · Figures: Kim Dotcom (Kim Schmitz), founder · Mathias Ortmann, CTO · Bram van der Kolk, programmer · Tags: Platform, File Locker 01. The One-Click Locker Kim Schmitz, soon Kim Dotcom, launches Megaupload from Hong Kong on 21 March 2005. The proposition is simple: drop any file, get a link, share the link, free users wait through ads, premium users pay $10 a month for speed. No tracker, no torrent, no peering knowledge required. Within five years Megaupload claims 180 million registered users and 4% of total internet traffic. It is the connective tissue of an entire era of forum-shared TV episodes, cracked software, and PDF textbooks. 02. The Forum's Default Verb By 2008 to mega something is a verb on every fan forum, every scanlation board, every pirate music blog. Rapidshare, MediaFire, Sendspace, and zShare compete for the same niche. The locker constellation replaces the IRC bot and the FTP topsite for the casual user. The US Department of Justice seizes Megaupload on 19 January 2012 in a coordinated international raid. The seizure breaks billions of dead links across the web. The dead-link era inaugurates the modern argument for personal archives, which is one of the reasons this archive exists. Sources • US v. Dotcom et al., E.D. Va indictment (5 January 2012) • Wired, 'The rise and fall of Megaupload' (January 2012) • KnowYourMeme, Megaupload