Yet another Instra owned brand, Europe Registry, is processing payments for Kim Dotcom’s new venture Mega via Paypal.
Instra Corporation is using multiple brands to resell Mega services. Each of these brands all go through the same Paypal payment gateway.
We will be working to bring this arrangement to an end as swiftly as possible.
{ 0 comments }
Another Instra owned brand, Europe Registry, is processing payments for Kim Dotcom’s new venture Mega via Paypal.
All payments through Paypal go through Instra Corporation’s Paypal account as can be seen below.
There is a very good reason Mega uses resellers, it’s because no payment processing company would directly work with Kim Dotcom after the MegaUpload case. Resellers of Kim Dotcom’s new service are taking a risk in providing him with payment processing as they themselves may find their payment processing arrangements shut down.
{ 0 comments }
Only Domains are yet another company helping Kim Dotcom use Paypal to process payments for his new venture Mega.
Paypal have widely publicised guidelines when it comes to processing payments for file sharing services and we do not believe that Paypal will allow a situation to eventuate where companies can bypass those restrictions by reselling services to services which have not met with the approval of Paypal.
Below is a screenshot showing the Only Domains payment page for Mega.
Below is a screenshot of the Paypal payment page
We will be working to ensure that this thinly veiled payment processing arrangement is not allowed to continue.
{ 11 comments }
Kim Dotcom is well known for running MegaUpload, his new venture Mega and thumbing his nose at rights holders world wide. However a Melbourne company is now helping Kim Dotcom by allowing their Paypal account to be used to process payments for Mega.
Instra obviously think they will make money from being a reseller of Mega, however the decision will most likely end up being a really bad one for them.
Given the history of MegaUpload, this is of great concern to copyright rights holders world wide. There would be little possibility of Paypal working directly with any Kim Dotcom owned file sharing business, however Instra Corporation doesn’t care about any of that.
If Kim Dotcom believes that he can avoid the scrutiny of major payment services by using this thinly veiled reseller scheme then he is sorely mistaken.
Interestingly Kim Dotcome tweeted the following last year:
The world needs online payment alternatives to US based Credit Cards & Paypal. Send me your suggestions and ideas: [email protected]
It is likely that Paypal have not approved this arrangement and it is less likely that Paypal will allow this arrangement to continue as it has strict guidelines for File Sharing services which are probably not being adhered to.
We will begin working from today to ensure that no reseller of Mega is able to process payments through Visa, Mastercard or Paypal.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Jan. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — As Mega prepares to launch their new cloud storage service on January 19, 2013, Instra Corporation – a global domain name registrar – is primed to provide expert product, billing and technical support services to mega.co.nz users in anticipation of dramatic new global demand for the Mega service.
According to Instra CEO, Brian Clarkson, “The new Mega promises a revolution in online privacy with one-click encryption for every user, creating a secure online cloud storage service for internet users across the globe.”
During the launch phase, Instra will be assisting in day-to-day operations, providing all front-line technical support for any and all related products and services.
According to Tony Lentino, CEO of Mega, the new cloud storage service will bring immediate economic value to New Zealand in the form of new jobs as it grows the Mega venture.About Instra Corporation Pty. Ltd.
Formed in 1997, Instra Corporation is a privately-owned company based in Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand, Instra has expanded its initial domain name business from New Zealand and Australia into a leading, world-wide domain registrar.
Instra Corporation supplies over 300+ country domains worldwide and has direct accreditations with over 100 registries. Many companies and household brand names from around the world take advantage of Instra’s unique and sophisticated Domain Management System to actively manage their online intellectual property. Our customers come from over 160 different countries.
http://www.instra.com
Contact
Brian Clarkson
CEO Instra Corporation
[email protected]
+61 408 020 126
+61 3 9783 1800 – Ext 122
{ 25 comments }
As a great start to the new year, Crocko.com lost their Paypal payment processing.
Crocko has been a high profile distributor of illegal and copyright infringing content and as a result, there was no other outcome possible than for the site to lose Paypal payment processing.
Now that we have successfully restricted the ability of Crocko to accept payments we will begin working on shutting down payment processing options at all Crocko.com resellers.
As time goes forward we will keep putting pressure on Crocko until such time as this illegitimate business fails.
{ 6 comments }
After months of discussions and ongoing pressure , we saw Avangate finally remove payment processing from a large batch of file hosts. Avangate did this reluctantly and in the end it came down to the risk to Avangate of losing relationships important to it’s ongoing business. At the time of writing there are still a handful of file sharing sites using Avangate.
Avangate became a refuge of last resort for many file lockers, the largest of which were Freakshare and Bitshare who fled to Avangate after the loss of their Paypal relationships. Avangate took on the business of Freakshare and Bitshare knowing our objections to the illegal file sharing business. For too long, Avangate completely thumbed it’s nose at legitimate rights holders by processing payments for infringing websites.
We shall be keeping a close eye on Avangate over the weeks and months to come, prepared to lobby those who provide necessary services to Avangate for as long as Avangate continue to support IP infringing merchants.
The sites affected by the Avangate’s decision to remove some file sharing merchants are:
Bitshare.com
cepzo.com
Extabit.com
Filefolks.com
FileRio.in
Freakshare.net
Sharedbit.net
Novafile.com
Lumfile.com
Filefactory.com
Luckyshare.net
Upsto.re
Megaload.it
FileStay.com
oteupload.com
upfile.biz
prefiles.com
ryushare.com
Ultimately all third party payment processors accepting credit cards or Paypal rely on their relationships with those organisations. In cases where payment processors do not adopt a best practices approach to the mitigation of IP infringement it will be necessary to continue to apply pressure on their business relationships and to conduct a public campaign until such time as the payment processor decides to place IP rights above profit.
We will continue to monitor all of the sites listed above to ensure that there are no safe havens of payment processing available to them.
{ 16 comments }
The following sites have lost payment processing accounts since the 10th of October.
bitshare.com
freakshare.com
venusfile.com
filenet.ws
fileb.ag
almmyz.com
almmyz.com
filesk2.com
filegig.com
sharedbit.net
fileuplo.de
filestrum.com
megaload.it
uploadcore.com
filehostfree.com
1st-files.com
wowebook.be
gxcandals.com
zkito.com
unrestrict.li
gbmeister.com
247upload.com
mafiastorage.com
fileprohost.com
files2upload.net
megacache.net
sube.me
uploo.net
slingfile.com
It should be noted that both freakshare.com and bitshare.com have backup payment processing with Digital River and are currently using Avangate.
Avangate has become the new go to payment processor for infringing file lockers. The number of file lockers they process payments for increases every week. This is no doubt going to attract the interest of other parties with whom Avangate have relationships.
Avangate’s decision to harbour the infringing file locker industry raises it’s risk profile to a very high level and shows absolute contempt for it’s existing software publisher customer base who have their products pirated on file lockers that Avangate process payments for.
NOTES Copy Control does not claim responsibility for these or any other Paypal terminations. Many organisations work to deal with infringing sites. Some of these sites may have been reported earlier then re-reported as they continued to process with Paypal. This information is current at the time of publication and is subject to change.
{ 6 comments }