On January 20, 2013 Kim Dotcom is set to launch the successor to Megaupload, along with a promise for it to be bigger and better than before.
In anticipation of opposition, Dotcom previously revealed that the site would use encryption to boost the site’s safe harbor protections. Furthermore, it would not use a .com domain as these are easily seized by the United States government.
But, after announcing less than a week ago that the site would use the Me.ga domain, already the plan has run into trouble from not one but apparently two different directions.
First, and just hours ago, came news that the Communications Minister of Gabon, the African country where .ga domains are based, would be suspending the Me.ga domain.
“I have instructed my departments to immediately suspend the site www.me.ga,” announced Communication Minister Blaise Louembe.
“Gabon cannot serve as a platform or screen for committing acts aimed at violating copyrights, nor be used by unscrupulous people,” the minister said.
Dotcom’s reaction was aimed squarely at the United States.
“The reach of the US & Vivendi: Gabon Minister announced Me.ga domain will be suspended. Calls cloud storage site cyber crime,” he wrote.
The reference to entertainment company Vivendi comes after a Numerama article last week which revealed that the TLD of Gabon is administered by Gabon Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Vivendi entertainment group.
Dotcom added this morning that Mega will launch as planned.
“Don’t worry. We have an alternative domain,” he explained. “This just demonstrates the bad faith witch hunt the US government is on.”
But while the threat of a seizure is obvious, what isn’t so clear is what is happening to the domain right now.
For the last few hours the Me.Ga domain has been directing, via France, to a group calling themselves Omega.
In an initial Tweet from an account created just four hours ago, Omega quote the words of German philosopher Max Stirner from his piece Art and Religion.
“Art is the beginning, the Alpha of religion, but it is also its end, its Omega,” they write.
Omega are also operating from a Gabon domain – Ome.ga – and according to comments obtained by TorrentFreak, they appear to have little respect for Dotcom.
“We’re pure in a diogenist way, we’re the true pirates, the true anarchists,” Omega told us. “Kim Dotcom is only taking advantage of us all, he is a megalomaniac with lawyers here to take advantage of us all, the nobodies, the artists he wants to profit from.”
Omega then go on to compare Dotcom to his old music industry adversary from the 2011 Mega Song takedown debacle.
“Kim Dotcom is not better nor worse than Universal. He himself is an industry, only here to pollute,” Omega add.
The group says that they now control the Me.Ga domain and are prepared to do the unthinkable – sell it to Dotcom’s adversaries.
“Of course we will entertain offers from @KimDotcom’s enemies in the millions of dollars (or bitcoins) for the Me.ga domain,” they write.
“Shall @UMG [Universal Music] buy the Me.ga domain name we will donate not 1% but 10% of the proceeds to FOJEGA the Forum des Jeunes du Gabon [Gabon Youth Forum],” they conclude.
