

Mega will only succeed if developers take the fall - toomuchblah
http://stupidiswinning.tumblr.com/post/41019465324/mega-will-only-succeed-if-developers-take-the-fall

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brownbat
The article seems to be pulling in two directions on MEGA:

1\. It's identical to Dropbox (or spideroak, or tarsnap, etc.)

2\. Its only viable use case is piracy.

These two claims seem at odds...

If nothing else, it's Dropbox where I get 50 GB of free space. If Dropbox can
be legitimate and viable, I don't see why this can't (once they work through
some kinks and get a good client).

~~~
berntb
50 GB free at MEGA?! That can't be viable.

Consider: If you can write an rsync-variant with the API, then movie pirating
will pay for the Internet population's backup system...

~~~
AnthonyMouse
>50 GB free at MEGA?! That can't be viable.

Why not? The cost of 50GB of live storage is not that high anymore. Doesn't
gmail provide something like that much now already?

If you upload data and no one ever downloads it then there only has to be one
copy in one datacenter on the entire internet, which not very expensive. And
if you upload data that tons of people are accessing all over the place,
they'll have to cache it closer to the destination and that will cost money,
but then it generates ad revenue and pays for itself.

Moreover, I don't think anyone with a brain will be using it as a backup
solution for anything important, because I highly doubt they'll provide you
any kind of service level agreement. It's almost the opposite of a backup: If
you upload something then it highly likely gets distributed to the world, but
if they have a serious hardware failure (or have another encounter with
corrupt law enforcement officials) then your data might go away at random
sometime and have to be re-uploaded.

~~~
garretruh
As for free Gmail storage, it is ~10.0926 GB as of 2:35 CST. At least
according to the Gmail sign-in page.

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gesman
This article abruptly terminated as if author got hit by a bus.

~~~
toomuchblah
I thought a single reference to the 'usual' problems developers can face
building on someone's API would be enough by now.

~~~
ableal
For those tuning in now, the "usual" is probably best synthesized in Tim
Bray's 'sharecroppers' piece of ten years ago:
[https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePl...](https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePlace)

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btown
All someone has to do is release a white-label, searchable aggregator for
links and keys, with instructions on how to copy-paste the key to decrypt the
file. No need to interact with the Mega API at all. The developer releases it
with a collection of Creative Commons content, legally says "This should only
be used for open-access content," and open-sources or sells the source code.
Then these sites pop up all over the place with pirated links. Since the
aggregator's original authors never intended it for piracy, they're blameless,
and the operators who use the site take all the risk of takedowns.

Such an app would bring Mega back to its former infamy. A MegaDropbox is not
needed. And no developer needs to take the fall.

Piracy isn't the answer to our arcane copyright laws, or to the industry's
failure to embrace digital distribution, so I hope such a thing won't be made.
But I'm pretty sure it will be.

~~~
eurleif
>Since the aggregator's original authors never intended it for piracy, they're
blameless, and the operators who use the site take all the risk of takedowns.

Are you sure? [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/coder-charged-
for-g...](http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/coder-charged-for-gambling-
software/all/)

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brandonhsiao
_Be warned: there are only three types of businesses you can build on Mega’s
API:

\- ones that nobody cares about

\- ones that become features

\- ones that will destroy your life

It’s basically just like Twitter and every other platform that rose or fell
before them, but with prison sentences._

Can someone please explain what this means?

~~~
ChrisClark
He means one of these three things:

\- No one will use your app and you will fail.

\- Your app will be great, Mega will take the idea and build it into the
service and you will fail.

\- Your app is made to promote piracy using the Mega API and you will go to
jail.

Not sure I agree but I figure that's what he means.

