| Type | Limited |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong |
| Key people |
David Robb (CEO) Finn Batato (CMO) |
| Website | megaupload.com |
| Alexa rank | 73 (January 2012[update])[1] |
| Type of site | one-click hosting website |
| Available in | 20 languages |
| Launched | March 21, 2005 |
| Current status | Active |
Megaupload is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005 for the use of uploading and downloading files. It includes a video browsing section in the site Megavideo, Megalive, Megapix and Megabox as well as a sister company called CUM.com (formerly Megaporn, Megarotic, and Sexuploader) which hosts user uploaded pornographic content (Megaupload itself also allows such content). The company has many other services including Megaclick, Megafund, Megakey, Megapay, Megabest, Megaking, Megahelp, Megagogo, and has Megabackup and Megamovie currently in development. [2]
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The basic service is available for free and allows users to upload files of up to two gigabytes. Free users cannot download files larger than one gigabyte, however. Free registered users are offered 200 gigabytes of total file storage. Premium users have unlimited file storage. After a successful file upload, the user is given a unique URL which allows others to download the file.
Any file uploaded anonymously will expire if there are no downloads for at least 21 days. For free registered accounts, the file expiration period is 90 days after the date the file was last downloaded. Premium accounts have no expiration period as long as the user remains a premium member.[3]
In December 9, 2011, Megaupload announced in the main page the maximum inactivity period for files stored by their servers is two years for free members.
Non-registered and registered users have to wait a few seconds in the download queue and a certain amount of time between transfers after a certain number of megabytes had been downloaded.[3]
Paying premium members are able to hotlink.
The website is maintained in 20 languages, including Arabic, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
Megaupload also released its upload/download manager, Mega Manager,[5] a download manager which features a link-checker for Megaupload links as well as options to manage uploaded files, and to access the online control box that is also on the Megaupload site. Mega Manager bears striking resemblances to Conceiva DownloadStudio version 5, self-evident in its "Options..." dialog box and some other aspects of the program. Mega Manager allows users to automatically resume interrupted up- and downloads, which is especially important when transferring large files or transferring several files unattended.
Megakey is an adware application which removes premium limitations on Mega services during "happy hour" periods in return for the verification of personal identity/demographic, and the substitution of ads on third party websites.
FileBox is a Flash applet which can be embedded onto any external webpage. It allows for users to upload content to Megaupload without having to visit the website itself or download the Mega Manager.
Megavideo is an associated, ad-supported video hosting service. For non-members, it is time-limited; it blocks itself after 72 minutes, and then allows users to resume watching after a 30 minute period.
Launched in late 2010, Megapix allows for the uploading of images, competing with other image-hosting services such as Photobucket, ImageShack, TinyPic and others.
Megalive is a live video-streaming service, competing with Ustream, Justin.tv and Livestream.
Megabox is a music/audio-hosting service for the uploading of whole music libraries and playlists.
Although its incorporation is located in Hong Kong, the company does not operate in Hong Kong. Users with Hong Kong IP addresses have been banned since 2009. Not even the homepage was accessible by them. Any purchased premium accounts will still be able to access the Megaupload site in Hong Kong until the last membership day. Some third party download managers can circumvent this, for example, JDownloader but only if a proxy is set up and enabled in the program. IPs from Mainland China have also been blocked. The reason for the block remains unclear.[6] As of 23 May 2010, access to Megaupload has been intermittently blocked by the internet authorities in Saudi Arabia by their regulator Communications and Information Technology Commission. Megavideo has also been blocked in the United Arab Emirates due to pornographic content being accessible through the service.
In Malaysia, as of 9 June 2011, the Malaysian government through Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has ordered all ISPs in Malaysia to block Megaupload and Megavideo. Some ISPs have reportedly blocked all the sites on the list while other ISPs have been throttling connection speeds.[7]
In July 2011, access to Megaupload and Megavideo was blocked in India, along with RapidShare, MediaFire and a range of other file hosting sites.[8] The blocking occurred after Reliance Entertainment obtained a court order, citing illegal copies of its 2011 film Singham on file hosting sites.[9]
In January 2011, MarkMonitor published a report entitled "Traffic Report: Online Piracy and Counterfeiting", which claimed that Megaupload and Megavideo were, along with RapidShare, the top three websites classified as "digital piracy".[10] Megaupload responded by stating: "Activity that violates our terms of service or our acceptable use policy is not tolerated, and we go to great lengths to swiftly process legitimate DMCA takedown notices".[11]
Megaupload Toolbar is claimed to redirect users to a custom error page when a 404 error occurs in the user's browser. It is also claimed to contain spyware.[12] However, FBM software asserts that the Megaupload toolbar is free of spyware.[13]
On December 9, 2011, Megaupload published a music video titled: "The Mega Song", showing artists including Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys and will.i.am endorsing the company.[14] The music video was also uploaded to YouTube[15], but was removed following a takedown request by the record company Universal Music Group (UMG). Megaupload said that the video contained no infringing content, commenting: "we have signed agreements with every featured artist for this campaign".[16] Megaupload requested an apology from UMG, and filed a lawsuit against the company in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, on December 12, 2011.[17][18] UMG denied that the takedown was ordered under the terms of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and said that the takedown was "pursuant to the UMG-YouTube agreement," which gives UMG "the right to block or remove user-posted videos through YouTube's CMS (Content Management System) based on a number of contractually specified criteria."[19] The video was subsequently returned to YouTube, with the reasons for the UMG takedown remaining unclear.[20] YouTube stated: "Our partners do not have the right to take down videos from YT unless they own the rights to them or they are live performances controlled through exclusive agreements with their artists, which is why we reinstated it."[21][22] Lawyers for will.i.am initially claimed that he had never agreed to the project, but on December 12, he denied any involvement in the takedown notice.[23]