The government of Gabon has suspended Me.ga and issued warnings to defunct Megaupload founder and internet tycoon Kim Dotcom who was planning to use the site as a come back to the filesharing scene.
Its reported that Kim Dotcom, who is now out on bail in New Zealand and awaiting a March extradition hearing, had purchased www.me.ga, last week in preparations to for a January 20 re-launch, a year after his online piracy arrest in New Zealand.
Gabon Communications Minister Blaise Loumbe Tuesday announced:”I have instructed my departments to immediately suspend the site www.me.ga,” in a move to “protect intellectual property rights” and “fight cyber crime effectively”.
And added:”Gabon cannot serve as a platform or screen for committing acts aimed at violating copyrights, nor be used by unscrupulous people.”
The AFP reports that Dotcom is wanted in the United States for money laundering, racketeering, fraud and online copyright theft which might earn him up to 20 years in jail but Dotcom denies the charges. The 38-year-old German national is said to have made US $175 million through his Megaupload on pirated music, movies and TV shows.
.ga, is Gabon’s country code top-level domain (ccTLD). According to Louembe the domain name was owned by someone in France who then transferred it to Dotcom. Investigation also found me.ga would redirect traffic to another French site to host the shared files.
According to AFP Dotcom had put a message on the site saying saying, “On January 19 this button will change the world” and added after the Gabon move he said on his Twitter handle he not concerned at Gabon’s move but saw it as “a US led witch-hunt.”
Dotcom insisted through his tweets, that the Mega Ltd company name had been reserved in New Zealand and that Mega was coming as planned. Here is his US government witch-hunt claim.
Look at the actions of the US govt. Bullying us with all it’s power. Abusing due process & hunting us down like terrorists 🙁
Gabon oil income is 60% of state revenues. Over half of Gabon’s crude oil shipments go to the US. We knew that 😉
US Govt destroys legitimate business, keeps assets frozen, denies access to evidence & prevents users from getting files back.
Someone ought to listen to him, maybe Barack whom he congratulated.
Congratulations
@BarackObama – May the next 4 years be better than the last 4 years.