Külföldi torrent oldalak Kim Dotcom Almost Partnered With Universal Music In A Deal That Would Have 'taxed' Go

Kim Dotcom almost partnered with Universal Music in a deal that would have 'taxed' Google

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom almost partnered with Universal Music just days before the cloud storage service was taken down by the US authorities.

A recording of the controversial entrepreneur in discussion with several executives from the record label has been obtained by TorrentFreak.

The leak suggests that Universal were interested in Dotcom's Megakey platform, a system for monetising free music online by swapping out the adverts users would normally see with ones supplied by Mega.

Internet companies like Google would be the victim of this system as Megakey users would see Mega adverts rather than those provided by search engines and other online service providers.

Users would have earned credits to download free tracks in exchange for viewing advertisements, and 33% of the ad revenue would go back to the record label.

"If we were to enter a partnership with UMG, we would advise to only, for example at the start, to only replace ads being served from Google. Because Google, frankly, is benefiting the most of all internet companies from piracy," said Dotcom.

"They host the world's largest piracy index and if you want to find a song that belongs to UMG you just go to Google and you find a thousand links on a hundred different sites.

"These guys are probably not sending you the ad dollars that they are making, so I think that replacing ads from Google would be a fair thing. You are basically now charging a little tax for the benefits that they have with your content."

The recording also suggests Dotcom sought the help of Universal to have Megaupload removed from industry blacklists, offering to drop a lawsuit against them in return.

The conversation took place just two days before the US authorities derailed Dotcom's Megaupload plans by taking down the service and raiding his properties, levelling allegations of copyright infringement against his empire.

Dotcom claims that the recorded evidence proves that he was only out to help artists generate revenue from the internet.

"This call was two days before the raid. They were excited about Megabox and especially my Megakey innovation. It clearly shows that I was trying to help artists to create more income from the internet," he said.