Kim Dotcom announces new file-sharing site plans

Mega, which will use encryption so that only users will know what is being uploaded, is expected to launch on 20 January 2013, exactly a year since Mr Dotcom was arrested. 

He said: ‘The new Mega will not be threatened by US prosecutors. [It] avoids any dealings with US hosters, US domains and US backbone providers and has changed the way it operated to avoid another takedown.’

Dotcom also said that a lot of the ‘millions’ of hits the site’s holding page had already received were from US authorities themselves. He tweeted: ‘All FBI agents pressing reload hahaha…We see their IP addresses.’

If 38-year-old Dotcom is jailed over his original charges, he could be behind bars for 20 years. A risky game, this computer-hacky stuff…