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Troubled internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wants to help install a new undersea cable linking the US and his adopted country of New Zealand, which would be paid for in part by his new piracy venture Me.ga — and could eventually subsidise broadband for New Zealanders.
Plans to link the US and New Zealand with a new 8,000 mile undersea cable, which would’ve doubled NZ’s internet capacity, were recently shelved, after company Pacific Fibre couldn’t find the money to make it happen. Old moneybags Mr Dotcom has the answer to that, claiming that Me.ga will become the “most valuable IT biz” in New Zealand and should attract other investors that could make it, and anything else he wishes, happen.
Money to fund the venture may also come from law suits Dotcom plans to launch against the US government and the media companies who’ve been causing him so much grief of late.
Dotcom apparently plans, ultimately, to install the new undersea link, then somehow create a legal ISP that would charge business users for internet access, allowing him/it to offer free or at least extremely cheap broadband access to the people. This would set New Zealand up as a new force in unstoppable internet piracy.
All of which sounds like the genesis of a plot for a James bond film. He who controls internet access controls THE WORLD. [NZ Herald via the Guardian]
Image credit: Twitter
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You’ve got to love this guy; who else is doing anything remotely outlandish and amusing in the world of tech?
I’m sure his mansion in Coatsville is just a secret entrance to an Underground Volcanic Lair..
New piracy venture? Can you say that?
Good luck to him, sounds like a worthwhile project.
Sweet bro!
This whole article is a venture into libel, giving people storing and share space online is not the same as piracy, get a life.
Gotta say, I really do love Kim Dotcom. That crazy man and his legal loopholes.
Kim.com ! He never takes it lying down. Mega talented lad.
“He never takes it lying down.”
I imagine he does considering his size.
Nope. He’s too talented for that. He probably uses a tactical work around.
He’s like the Walter White of internet crimes.
It’s funny how news like this demonstrates that the needs of many internet users is almost diametrically opposed to the needs of big media. I know people don’t generally think this kind of stuff is important, but if the latter loses, it would set a precedent for generations to come.
A piracy network?
Excuse me, how can I make an official complaint against a Gizmodo UK contributor? He has posted biased slander without offering any explanation.
Slander is spoken, published is libel.
Thanks. I do study law, but the first units are never interesting.
Yes, gangsters and organized crime syndicates all over the world promise to help the communities that give them safe haven. On a massive scale, Kim Dotcom’s megaupload paid people to upload other people’s intellectual property and sold tens of millions of dollars worth of subscriptions to other people to download IP he did not own. He did not pay the people whose art and labor made the content. He kept the money. It is actually very similar to what Youtube did and in the US, that is why Viacom is suing Youtube for more than $1B and that case is on its way to the supreme court. He did real harm to tens of thousands of creative professionals. No first world democracy should give this man safe haven.
Weirdo.