[ComradePhil]

Yes, MEGA is amazing.

Unlike Megaupload, I have only used MEGA for personal use and not pirated content download.

I think MEGA being fully encrypted was their answer to them being targeted for hosting any illegal content (with MEGA, they were hosting encrypted files, which they don't have access to themselves because the encryption key remains with the client). Did it take off as the replacement for pirated content sharing because of it?

[qalmakka]

I know as a fact that there's a lot of pirated content shared on MEGA online, but that's also true for Google Drive though.

[rideontime]

I get most of my pirated niche music from MEGA and Google Drive links, hosted on a blogspot page.

[jimkri]

Yeah there is a lot of pirated content on MEGA, but there are a ton of other sites available that have started recently.

I have been a day one user of MEGA and haven't had an issue.

[ReaLNero]

I never really understood how MEGA is any better. Sure, personal files are encrypted, and thus it's hard to detect pirated files that I upload for myself. But a lot of piracy happens with publicly downloadable files, which MEGA can definitely decrypt and search for copyright violations.

I'll be honest -- I've used both MEGA and Megaupload for piracy, and MEGA makes it easier.

[shmde]

> But a lot of piracy happens with publicly downloadable files, which MEGA can definitely decrypt and search for copyright violations.

This is straight up wrong. Mega cannot decrypt files and search for copyright files just like that. They need to have the key for that. I have shared a lot of copyrighted stuff on mega and the links are still available publicly but in closed forums( still active ). mega would've taken it down a long time back if they knew what was in it. They can only take down files when corpos notify them with the base links to the file. If they don't it stays up.

[ReaLNero]

So you're saying the file URL for publically downloadable files contains the decryption key?

[jpgvm]

Usually but not always. If omitted from the URL parameters then it has to be provided for decryption.

[DoItToMe81]

I once downloaded copyrighted material to my drive. I never gave the key out, yet a few days later it was no longer downloadable due to said copyright violation. Has Mega's encrypted design been audited?

[shmde]

Did you import the copyrighted material from someplace else ? The base link + key was given to you by somebody else ? If YES then copyright holder got hold of the base link and notified mega. This is common.

OR

You uploaded copyrighted material to your own computer to your own cloud, downloaded it and the file got taken down ? This is not possible. If yes then I am in trouble.

[DoItToMe81]

Most likely the former. It was a while ago and I barely recall how it happened.

[jffry]

> But a lot of piracy happens with publicly downloadable files, which MEGA can definitely decrypt and search for copyright violations

How would MEGA do this, without crawling the web looking for links + keys? Which is certainly something they'd have no interest in doing.

Naturally, I'm sure that third party "rights enforcement" companies might trawl for these links and look for infringing content and issue a takedown notice to MEGA, but there must be an ongoing arms race between people sharing links+keys and the bots crawling for them.

[vmception]

> How would MEGA do this, without crawling the web looking for links + keys? Which is certainly something they'd have no interest in doing.

By doing that.

They receive reports and take links down.

[SXX]

How can MEGA decrypt those "publicly shared" files to scan them? Do you think they should scan whole internet for such file links?

[stjohnswarts]

I think only a zealot or MPAA/RIAA lawyer is blinded enough to see that as an actual answer to your question :)