(CNN)
-- Megaupload, the
file-sharing website shut
down Thursday
by the U.S. federal government, is a Web hosting tool that now finds
itself accused of being an online haven for digital pirates.
Many people probably
never have heard of the site. But to millions, the 6-year-old site,
based in Hong Kong, was a fast, easy way to store massive files in a
"locker" online and then share them with friends or colleagues.
At various points in
its history, Megaupload has been among the most popular websites in the
world.
And it once had the
support of some celebrities. A (really bizarre) YouTube video shows Kanye West,
Kim
Kardashian, P. Diddy and several other celebrities vouching for the
site in an apparent
music video-style advertisement."Megaupload
was always going to
get taken down -- far too flagrant publication of copyrighted
material," Jonathan Riggall, a website editor living in Barcelona,
Spain, wrote...nk sharing on the Web is great,
and I don't care if it's copyrighted material -- but Megaupload and
some similar sites are making loads of money out of making it possible
for people to view pirated stuff. Of course they will be targeted as
they are blatantly breaking laws." The U.S. attorney for
Megaupload.com denies the government's allegations. 'We
believe that the allegations are without merit and Megaupload is going
to vigorously defend against the case," attorney
Ira Rothken aid.
Created in 2005, Megaupload was the 72nd-most-visited site on the Web
during the past three months and has peaked as high as No. 13,
according to Internet traffic analytics firm Alexa.
The site
offered what's called "one-click hosting," letting users upload
anything on their hard drive or in cloud storage to the Web.The service
gives users a URL that can then be shared with others -- often on
discreet online message boards or social networks -- letting them
access the file as well.
MegaVideo was the
site's video service, letting even nonmembers view more than an hour of
video at a time on the site, and MegaPix was a photo storage and
sharing site in the mold of Flickr or Photobucket.
People who paid for a
premium account on the site were able to upload and download larger
files. It was, by all accounts, a successful business
model. The U.S. government said that it seized $50 million in
assets and that much of the $175 million the site has earned since 2005
was due to copyright infringement. As Ars Technica notes,
even the site's graphic
designer reportedly earned $1 million last year, and between them, the
seven indicted people (including the creatively named Kim Dotcom) owned
15 Mercedes-Benzes, a Maserati, a Rolls-Royce and a
Lamborghini.
The blog TechCrunch has posted photos of seized assets,
including the cars and a
large house in New Zealand, in case you're interested.
Publicly, at least, the site frowned on illegal uploads. It featured a
tool to report "abuse," gave copyright holders the ability to hunt for
illegal content and registered with the U.S. government under the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law aimed at fighting
piracy. The site's owners have denied any wrongdoing in
regard to copyright violation, and their attorney has said
the site was wrongly shut down
before its owners were allowed to address the charges against
them. But the Justice Department says the anti-theft efforts
were a facade -- that Megaupload's employees knew they were enabling
piracy and made the site difficult for outsiders to search for illegal
material. In an unofficial sampling of CNN Tech readers on
Twitter, many quickly acknowledged using the site to watch TV shows or
movies. But others cited more legitimate uses, with some saying they've
lost legitimate content, not to mention money, after the government
crackdown.
Seng Ung of Boston said he recently
paid roughly $260 for a lifetime membership so he could store old files
from childhood and college. He didn't lose them, but now he's gotten
nothing in return for his payment, he said. Developers of
open-source Linux and Homebrew software said they used it to upload
projects they were working on together. Musicians, as well, said they
stored songs for collaborative projects there. One user said she used
it for sharing large zip files of photographs that were too unwieldy to
send via e-mail. "Megaupload was closed by the FBI ... was I the only
ones who had it for work files?" Twitter user Nina Andrade wrote. "Just
get me my files
back!!!"
The charges come at a time when online piracy is a hot topic. New
legislation before the U.S. Congress -- which would have cracked down
on piracy but, according to critics, would also have endangered free
speech online -- has stalled at least temporarily after a massive
online protest this week. (Full disclosure: CNN's parent company, Time
Warner, supports that anti-piracy legislation.)
Some people online say the Megaupload takedown, which came a day after
Wikipedia and other sites went black in protest of the pending
legislation, was largely symbolic -- singling out one site while bigger
ones still thrive. With a couple of quick clicks on
a pair of well-known file-sharing sites on Friday, CNN was able to see
that Metallica's entire discography, every "Doctor Who" episode for the
past six seasons and Steven Spielberg's epic "War Horse," which is
currently playing in theaters, were offered up for download by anyone
seeking out those files.
Do Hydrogen Kits for
Cars Really Work? By Amy Rodriguez, eHow
Contributor
Hydrogen kits may help save on fuel costs. With the cost of gasoline
staying at high levels, many car drivers are looking for alternate ways
of fueling their vehicles. Many inventions, such as hydrogen kits, are
available in the market place, though not all function the
same.
Related Searches:
Hydrogen Power Hydrogen Cell Identification In general, a hydrogen kit
is an addition to the car's engine that places hydrogen gas within the
combustion chamber to supplement the gasoline supply. This
supplementation results in better gasoline mileage due to the burning
of the hydrogen along with the gasoline. Considerations According to
Cars Direct, one hydrogen kit innovation has proven to work
well.
A hydrogen fuel generator, installed in the engine compartment, creates
hydrogen gas that is then directed into the air intake. Within the
intake, the hydrogen gas then burns to fuel the vehicle. Significance
Burning hydrogen gas has the main benefit of a complete burn. There is
no leftover residue, like gasoline's by-products, that can coat the
engine's combustion chamber. As a result, this cleaner burn can lead to
a longer engine life. Read more: Do Hydrogen Kits for Cars Really Work?
| eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7862518_do-kits-cars-really-work.html#ixzz1l2a47cuk
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