ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
How would you respond to the reaction from some that you ‘sold out to the bad side?
Yes, there have been some those who have this perception. But, the wider internet community has shown a lot of support to Mega and Kim. When I joined, the perception was that he hired me for getting credibility to Mega, but I don’t buy that. NZ is a small market on a per capita basis for Mega and it was about building a global company based in New Zealand. I was convinced because of this vision.
The story of you accepting Kim Dotcom’s offer is now well know. Tell us a bit about Mega and what do you make of it since joining.
Mega’s business model is underpinned by issues of privacy and security. It’s been six months now and there are a good number of people, who value privacy and security, and are willing to pay for it. With Mega, there is no tracking or spying and users are the only ones in control of their information. Mega has 4 million service users out of which only 0.8 per cent are from New Zealand, the remaining are from France, Spain, US, Brazil and Taiwan.
The issue of copyright infringement is never very far behind...
The best way to counter these issue with reference to Mega is to look at the numbers. Copyright owners are quite aggressive. Googlegets about 15 million takedown requests each month. It takes down 96 per cent of these. Twitter and fb get about 100,000 to 300,000 of such requests each month. Mega gets about 300 for copyright infringement and there are about 300 million files that have been uploaded. Thatmakes it 0.01 per cent. Mega is not even in the top 20 as far as infringement is concerned.
Would your views on copyright issues be described as quite extreme?
Well, its a way of controlling technology and monopolizing. A bulk of copyright problem will go away if content is made available freely and a lot of piracy is because of non-availability. Free (content) winning out is a myth.
Artists and creators do get hit because of this...
I have zero sympathy for intermediaries. You only have to look at the numbers, we’ve never had more music, more content and the Internet has democratised the industry. The value chain has shifted tremendously though we still need to be figured out how artists can and will make money. There is still value in curation.
How would you respond to the reaction from some that you ‘sold out to the bad side?
Yes, there have been some those who have this perception. But, the wider internet community has shown a lot of support to Mega and Kim. When I joined, the perception was that he hired me for getting credibility...
How would you respond to the reaction from some that you ‘sold out to the bad side?
Yes, there have been some those who have this perception. But, the wider internet community has shown a lot of support to Mega and Kim. When I joined, the perception was that he hired me for getting credibility to Mega, but I don’t buy that. NZ is a small market on a per capita basis for Mega and it was about building a global company based in New Zealand. I was convinced because of this vision.
The story of you accepting Kim Dotcom’s offer is now well know. Tell us a bit about Mega and what do you make of it since joining.
Mega’s business model is underpinned by issues of privacy and security. It’s been six months now and there are a good number of people, who value privacy and security, and are willing to pay for it. With Mega, there is no tracking or spying and users are the only ones in control of their information. Mega has 4 million service users out of which only 0.8 per cent are from New Zealand, the remaining are from France, Spain, US, Brazil and Taiwan.
The issue of copyright infringement is never very far behind...
The best way to counter these issue with reference to Mega is to look at the numbers. Copyright owners are quite aggressive. Googlegets about 15 million takedown requests each month. It takes down 96 per cent of these. Twitter and fb get about 100,000 to 300,000 of such requests each month. Mega gets about 300 for copyright infringement and there are about 300 million files that have been uploaded. Thatmakes it 0.01 per cent. Mega is not even in the top 20 as far as infringement is concerned.
Would your views on copyright issues be described as quite extreme?
Well, its a way of controlling technology and monopolizing. A bulk of copyright problem will go away if content is made available freely and a lot of piracy is because of non-availability. Free (content) winning out is a myth.
Artists and creators do get hit because of this...
I have zero sympathy for intermediaries. You only have to look at the numbers, we’ve never had more music, more content and the Internet has democratised the industry. The value chain has shifted tremendously though we still need to be figured out how artists can and will make money. There is still value in curation.
Leave a Comment