DOT

Kim DotCom and MegaUpload helped fill out the cyberlocker's video library in 2006 by snatching videos from the then-fledgling YouTube, the U.S. government alleges.

The U.S. Justice Department is trying to extradite DotCom and three other MegaUpload managers from New Zealand and have accused them of piracy, money laundering, and racketeering.

Buried in the January 5 indictment against MegaUpload, DotCom, and six other employees of the cyberlocker service, are e-mail communications between two managers, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, from April 2006.

"Do we have a server available to continue downloading of the Youtube'… Read more

MegaUpload users can rest easy about the fate of the digital files they stored at the cyberlocker service.

With MegaUpload disabled by the feds and accused of widespread piracy, and many of its top managers in jail or out on bail, there has been no way for the company to pay Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications, the services that host its data. For a while, it looked like those companies would begin deleting user data as early as Thursday.

But managers at both firms have agreed to preserve the material a minimum of two weeks, according to Ira Rothken, MegaUpload'… Read more

Days after police in New Zealand arrested Kim DotCom, the founder of cyberlocker service MegaUpload and accused pirate, journalists were chasing reports that a tank was parked on the front lawn of his Auckland home.

"National Radio (New Zealand) called me about a half hour ago because someone texted to say that there's an army tank on Kim's lawn that is aimed at the front gate," France Komoroske, an attorney and DotCom neighbor, wrote CNET. "They asked me to go take a look."

Now, before we go on, put yourself in the position of … Read more

A New Zealand judge today denied bail for MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom in a federal antipiracy case, and his lawyer there said he will appeal the decision immediately.

Judge David McNaughton ruled that DotCom, who operates the popular cyberlocker service MegaUpload, will remain in custody until February 22, when an extradition hearing is expected, according to New Zealand news service TVNZ.

The U.S. government alleges that MegaUpload was a criminal operation that made money by enabling millions of people across the globe to pirate films, TV shows, music, and other media. Federal agents accuse the "MegaUpload Conspiracy" … Read more

The U.S. official who has accused Kim DotCom of operating an online criminal empire has plenty of piracy-fighting experience.

Neil MacBride, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is the former general counsel and antipiracy enforcer for the Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing software producers such as Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, and Intuit.

MacBride has accused DotCom and six others of operating MegaUpload, a cyberlocker service that has allegedly generated more than $170 million in criminal proceeds. The government asserts that MegaUpload enabled and encouraged users to upload pirated movies and other media to one … Read more

A lawyer representing MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom denied his client has engaged in piracy and told a New Zealand judge the U.S. completely misunderstands the nature of his business.

DotCom, along with three other men accused of helping him run MegaUpload, appeared in court to plead for bail after he was arrested Thursday at his mansion near Auckland. The group is charged with money laundering, racketeering, and online piracy.

In an indictment issued in Virginia, the U.S. contends that MegaUpload was a massive criminal enterprise designed to enable and encourage millions of people to store and distribute unauthorized … Read more

Leave it to Sony's marketing arm in Japan to rustle up yet another cryptic advertising campaign.

A video quietly emerged last week on Sony's YouTube channel labeled Dot Switch. It's a first-person view of someone holding what appears to be an Xperia Arco smartphone and wielding it as a remote control. The Arco is the Japanese version of the Xperia Arc, and perhaps it's relevant to note that the Arco also has an infrared (IR) port.

What's got everyone buzzing about the viral ad is that the person holding the device in the vid is controlling a random assortment of products, such as a gramophone, a TV, and confetti machines. What a strange combination!

The end of the video is marked by yet another tap on the smartphone's screen toward a robot arm that reveals a small shiny black box. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--This could become the year for panoramic video.

New York-based startup Kogeto, which makes the Dot camera lens, is on a roll. I met up with founder and CEO Jeff Glasse this morning at CES' Eureka Park exhibition, where Kogeto is showing off the device, and he told me that his 1-year-old company just raised more than $1 million in venture funding, which is no easy feat for a hardware marker.

More importantly, the Dot's distribution is about to get a huge boost. He said the lens will be on sale in all U.S. Apple stores on … Read more

Scientists designing the next generation of solar cells are trying to do away with waste heat.

Two research groups this week reported advances in a technique to capture a portion of the sunlight's energy that's normally lost as heat. The advances are aiming toward a breakthrough in how much light can be converted to electricity on a solar cell.

In a paper published in Science, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) reported developing tiny crystals a few nanometers in size, called quantum dots, that are able to capture high-energy photons that today's solar cells don'… Read more