New Megaupload will use advanced encryption to evade copyright cops
It’s not just the Pirate Bay that’s upping its game to thwart the copyright cops — Kim Dotcom and his Megaupload team are working on a few new tricks as well. Wired recently caught up with both Dotcom and business partner Mathias Ortmann to discuss how they’ll keep the revamped version of Megaupload, which will launch as “Mega” within the next few months, safe from government raids and copyright infringement claims. The key, according to Wired, is that all files uploaded to and shared on Mega “will first be one-click-encrypted right in a client’s browser, using the so-called Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm” after which the user is “provided with a second unique key for that file’s decryption.”
The most important aspect of these new security features is that it puts responsibility for obeying copyright laws squarely on individual users because “the decryption key is not stored with Mega” and thus it will “be impossible for Mega to know, or be responsible for, its users’ uploaded content.” This technique should also give users stronger protections over their own data because it will be impossible for thieves to properly access it without the decryption key.
“If servers are lost, if the government comes into a data center and rapes it, if someone hacks the server or steals it, it would give him nothing,” Dotcom told Wired. “Whatever is uploaded to the site, it is going to be remain closed and private without the key.”
Related stories
Kim Dotcom vows that new Megaupload will have ironclad legal protection
Kim Dotcom vows to keep America out of next version of Megaupload
New Zealand judge rules Kim Dotcom can see FBI evidence being used against him
