Kim Dotcom's Mega pops up AGAIN, now in New Zealand

Kiwi-hosted site to be 'powered by legality'

Embattled internet tycoon Kim Dotcom has emerged with yet another a new domain for the promised revival of his Megaupload file-sharing site, this time located in his adopted home nation of New Zealand.

Much like its earlier incarnation at www.me.ga, the new website at mega.co.nz is essentially just an advertisement for the forthcoming service, which Dotcom claims will launch in January.

The move comes after the government of Gabon, which owns the .ga top-level domain (TLD), got cold feet about serving DNS for Mega and pulled its domain registration last week, calling Dotcom and his cohorts "unscrupulous people."

The voluble Dotcom, whose fast-moving Twitter feed now boasts more than 150,000 followers, was quick to mock Gabon's decision, claiming it was made under pressure from the US government, the FBI, and – curiously enough – international media conglomerate Vivendi.

In another post, Dotcom said he already had an alternative domain name registered, which seems to have been the case, given that Mega is back online so soon.

Dotcom says his New Zealand–based domain won't have any of the troubles he experienced in Gabon because, in his words, the new website is "powered by legality and protected by the law."

The Kiwi government has indeed shown sympathy for Dotcom's legal position of late. In June, a New Zealand high court found that property seizures made during a January raid of Dotcom's home were unlawful. Then in September, the same court heard that Dotcom's communications had also been illegally tapped, prompting a formal apology from the Prime Minister.

But although Dotcom's new site bears the .nz TLD, it's not clear whether its infrastructure will actually be hosted in New Zealand when it launches. Although Dotcom has registered a company in New Zealand under the name Mega Limited, all he has said with regard to hosting is that he will avoid any registrars or providers based in the US.

In fact, the new Mega site invites companies to set up "Mega storage nodes," claiming the more servers, the better. To be considered, potential partners must have sufficient internet connectivity to handle Mega's high traffic volume and enough staff to be able to replace dead hard drives within 24 hours.

And in case you were wondering just how long Dotcom's reputed $200m personal fortune can last given his ongoing legal woes and his apparently ambitious business plans, Mega is open to another kind of partner, too – the kind with money.

"We have raised sufficient funds to cover the launch, but we would like to provide Mega free of charge for as long as possible," reads a message on the new Mega site. "If you would like to be part of the success story, please get in touch." ®