He launched Megaupload two years before Dropbox. Kim could have pivoted there, then expanded to docs/collaboration. Yes, hindsight is 20:20, but in theory it would have been possible moving from a piracy-centric business model to regular cloud storage/collaboration for businesses and small teams.

Regulatory does not matter if your product does not matter. Megaupload did matter, and did not solve the regulatory problem or change the business model.

Maybe it came too early for the solution or alternative business models to become apparent.

Hmm, this is an interesting counterexample.

What was the difference? Did not have the correct investors? Did not have a unique enough product?

I would assume the latter. However, this is an interesting topic for discussion.

He knew that and talked about and used alledgedly illegal files. He should just not do the drugs himself and fire everyone who eats from the forbidden fruit and he would be fine.

Dropbox actually took action on shared files if piracy was reported. Megaupload made systems that faked they took action.

Spotify did illegal stuff in beta, but they fixed it since then. Megaupload never cared about the law.

While I have no proof, I feel like the fact that Megaupload wasn't in the US prevented them for using the correct legal loopholes that could have kept them aloft for long enough to grow to a size where they could settle these types issues out of court.

I don't know seemed to me everyone was using Mega for piracy...

The file lockers that pirates use today operate under the radar. The owners don't do interviews and they use crypto.

What's file lockers? Do you have examples?

Devil is in the details. Teenagers tend to appreciate things that can seemingly collapse a complex topic into a binary black and white thing. The real world is nuanced.

Compliance and capital vs. defiance and disaffiliation.

That takes me back to when Kim Kimble, known scammer, was going around boasting of representing some script-kiddie army fighting Al Qaeda.

I like to think that early exposure helped immunize me against some other self aggrandizing grifters over the decades.

https://www.theregister.com/2002/01/22/kimble_schmitz_deport...