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Megaupload has been under constant attack by Hollywood and the music industry, with help from the US government, and the file and video hosting website branded as a "rogue" site and a "notorious" pirate.
But when some of music's biggest starts participated in a music video produced by Megaupload, the music industry struck back, abusing copyright law in the process.
Kim Kardashian, P. Diddy, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Ciara, The Game and Mary J Blige all stars in a music video singing the praises of the file sharing service used by millions around the world. But when the video was uploaded to YouTube, using the account of the company's owner, Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom, Universal Music Group (UMG) took direct action and forced the video offline via a copyright takedown.
The problem is, UMG doesn't own anything in the video. Speaking to TorrentFreak, Kim explained that "Mega owns everything in this video. And we have signed agreements with every featured artist for this campaign."
"UMG did something illegal and unfair by reporting Mega’s content to be infringing. They had no right to do that. We reserve our rights to take legal action. But we’d like to give them the opportunity to apologize," Kim added.
And to show that the takedown wasn't just some unintentional error on UMG's part, when the video was re-instated on YouTube when Kim filed a dispute notice, the video was once again taken down by UMG, with YouTube now threatening to block Kim's account.
Luckily for Megaupload, they have their own video sharing website, Megavideo, and due to the publicity the takedown has attracted and UMG stepping up the plate as the "villain" character abusing copyright law to censor free speech, the music video, and Megaupload's message, is now even more popular than Megaupload could have hoped for, with #megaupload now a trending topic on Twitter.
You can view the complete music video below, courtesy of Megavideo:
But when some of music's biggest starts participated in a music video produced by Megaupload, the music industry struck back, abusing copyright law in the process.
Kim Kardashian, P. Diddy, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Ciara, The Game and Mary J Blige all stars in a music video singing the praises of the file sharing service used by millions around the world. But when the video was uploaded to YouTube, using the account of the company's owner, Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom, Universal Music Group (UMG) took direct action and forced the video offline via a copyright takedown.
The problem is, UMG doesn't own anything in the video. Speaking to TorrentFreak, Kim explained that "Mega owns everything in this video. And we have signed agreements with every featured artist for this campaign."
"UMG did something illegal and unfair by reporting Mega’s content to be infringing. They had no right to do that. We reserve our rights to take legal action. But we’d like to give them the opportunity to apologize," Kim added.
And to show that the takedown wasn't just some unintentional error on UMG's part, when the video was re-instated on YouTube when Kim filed a dispute notice, the video was once again taken down by UMG, with YouTube now threatening to block Kim's account.
Luckily for Megaupload, they have their own video sharing website, Megavideo, and due to the publicity the takedown has attracted and UMG stepping up the plate as the "villain" character abusing copyright law to censor free speech, the music video, and Megaupload's message, is now even more popular than Megaupload could have hoped for, with #megaupload now a trending topic on Twitter.
You can view the complete music video below, courtesy of Megavideo:
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