Remember Kim Dotcom? He is the hacker-turned-multimillionaire businessman, accused of costing the entertainment industry $500 million through pirated content uploaded to his popular file-sharing site, Megaupload – which was shut down earlier this year.
So! The shutdown MegaUpload and charging of founders with piracy ostensibly started with a copyright scuffle between the filesharing site and the Universal Music Group. Except the shut-down was also timed to scupper MegaBox, a venture to sell artist’s work directly to consumers while letting artists keep 90 percent of earnings. Raised eyebrows all around.