mega

Foreclosures, bankruptcies, eviction notices, and tears.

That's the picture painted Thursday in a New York Times op-ed piece about a Hollywood film industry that is supposedly "contracting."

Hilary De Vries, a screenwriter and book author, writes about how Hollywood's middle class is hurting. We're not talking Brad and Angelina or Martin Scorsese. We're talking about the guy you might remember from a soap opera or the writing team for a lesser-known sitcom. De Vries offered anecdotes about how her neighbors--several cash-strapped actors and screenwriters--have lost homes to foreclosure. She described how popular eateries are … Read more

Kim DotCom, founder of cyberlocker MegaUpload, has been released on bail, according to media reports out of New Zealand.

After DotCom was indicted in the United States for criminal copyright violations and racketeering, he was arrested last month at the mansion he leases near Auckland, New Zealand, following a sensational police raid. Millions in cash, cars, and other possessions belonging to DotCom were seized.

Since then, two judges in New Zealand had denied his previous requests for bail. The judge who heard DotCom's request today, however, decided the defendant was not enough of a flight risk to keep in … Read more

All the build up to an extradition hearing in the MegaUpload case was supposed to culminate with a court fight today in New Zealand.

But all we get is another bail hearing involving Kim DotCom, MegaUpload's founder, according to U.S officials (Update" DotCom was released on bail). A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, told CNET that its lawyers have yet to file extradition paperwork with the New Zealand court and have until March 2 to do so. It's unclear how long after the paperwork is filed that … Read more

For the scope of this article, I am leaving all of the commentary on SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, and such aside for others much more well-versed than I to discuss.

A lot of people have been asking me the same question lately: Just how do sites like MegaUpload--recently taken down by an international collection of law enforcement--make hundreds of millions of dollars a year and fund lottery-winner style lifestyles that include mansions and private jets?

It's actually pretty straightforward. These sites use the same techniques as legitimate Web sites: search, social media, ad networks, and online payment processors.

Sites that … Read more

The $4.3 million New Zealand home owned by MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom was seized by police in that country today, according to published reports.

The home seized was not the grand $25 million mansion where the MegaUpload founder was living and had leased prior to his January 19 arrest by more than 70 police officers. He was prevented from buying that larger home because he failed to pass the "good character test" required for foreigners to buy property in New Zealand, numerous publications in that country are reporting tonight.

But DotCom, who the United States has accused … Read more

With carriers the world over doing their best to reduce customers' data usage, Russian telco MegaFon took the unusual step of encouraging bandwidth hogging instead, with prizes going to top downloaders.

That's right, the carrier gave out prizes worth up to $33,000 to a bunch of winners for using the most amount of data within a week on its 3G unlimited data service. … Read more

Semi-automatic shotguns, body armor, and accusations of police brutality and acts of terrorism are common in stories about Mexico's drug wars or the fighting in Afghanistan.

So what are those terms doing in technology stories about copyright and online file sharing? A recent arrest of MegaUpload's founder by 70 armed police officers as well as cyber attacks on media executives and government officials by Anonymous indicates that the gloves have come off in the copyright conflict.

Against this backdrop, BTJunkie, one of the top BitTorrent index sites, has decided to shut down. BTJunkie posted a note on its … Read more

There are no chat room viewers to keep us on topic now that we've stopped live streaming.

So fair warning: we spend most of the first half explaining the concept of Goodwill stores to Jeff, whose ignorance I still suspect is a veiled attempt at live trolling.… Read more

Facebook filed papers for its initial public offering and in the process provided us with the secrets to its success--as well as what it sees as its greatest threats.

The company filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, officially declaring its intention to raise $5 billion through the IPO. The last major tech IPO was Google's, which raised $1.9 billion.

Last year, it saw revenue double to $3.7 billion, while its profit grew 65 percent to $1 billion. Over the past two years, its revenue rose nearly fivefold, while its profit more than quadrupled. … Read more