Alleged video pirate Kim Dotcom loses in U.S. appeals court; Politico, 8/12/16

Josh Gerstein, Politico; Alleged video pirate Kim Dotcom loses in U.S. appeals court:

"A panel of the Richmond-based 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, 2-1, that Dotcom—the swashbuckling founder of the once-highly-popular file-sharing website Megaupload—could not recover his assets because he remains a fugitive from criminal charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a scheme that allegedly caused $500 million in damages to the motion picture industry.

"The refusal to face criminal charges that would determine whether or not the claimants came by the property at issue illegally supports a presumption that the property was, indeed, so obtained," Judge Roger Gregory wrote in an opinion joined by Judge Allyson Duncan."

Kim Dotcom's extradition to US cleared by New Zealand judge; Guardian, 12/22/15

Guardian; Kim Dotcom's extradition to US cleared by New Zealand judge:

"A New Zealand court has ruled that Kim Dotcom, the Megaupload founder, can be extradited to the United States to face charges of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering.

The decision, which can be appealed, comes almost four years after New Zealand police first raided Dotcom’s mansion west of Auckland at the behest of the FBI. US authorities shut down the entrepreneur’s file-sharing website, which had been used to illegally download songs and movies...

US authorities say Dotcom and three co-accused Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than US$500m and generated more than US$175m in profits by encouraging their paying users to store and share copyrighted material, such as movies and TV shows.

The New Zealand prosecution, which argued the case for the US government, said Dotcom and his executives had encouraged and paid users to upload the pirated films and music to generate profit."

Estonian Man Pleads Guilty in Megaupload Piracy Case; Associated Press via New York Times, 2/13/15

Associated Press via New York Times; Estonian Man Pleads Guilty in Megaupload Piracy Case:

"An Estonian man who worked as a computer programmer for the now-defunct file-sharing website Megaupload has pleaded guilty in what prosecutors say was a massive copyright-piracy scheme run through the site.

Andrus Nomm, 36, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Prosecutors say Megaupload was used to illegally download millions of songs and movies in one of the biggest copyright cases in history.

Nomm was one of seven men indicted in the case three years ago and the first to be brought to the U.S. to face charges."

Online Renegade, Wanted in U.S., Shakes Up New Zealand Election; New York Times, 9/18/14

Jonathan Hutchison, New York Times; Online Renegade, Wanted in U.S., Shakes Up New Zealand Election:

"It was not an ordinary political rally, but it has been anything but an ordinary election.

The hundreds of people who packed Auckland Town Hall on a recent evening were regaled by speeches by Glenn Greenwald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder; and Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, the last two appearing by Internet video link. Mr. Greenwald and Mr. Snowden said the New Zealand government had carried out, or at least participated in, mass domestic surveillance.

But at the center of the show was the event’s organizer, Kim Dotcom, an Internet entrepreneur accused of mass copyright theft whose fledgling Internet Party stands a chance at winning seats in Parliament in the national elections on Saturday.

“We are going to work really, really hard to stop this country from participating in mass surveillance,” Mr. Dotcom told the crowd. “And we’ll close one of the Five Eyes,” he added, referring to the intelligence alliance that consists of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. The crowd erupted in cheers."

Kim Dotcom's Mega 'not being used for wide-scale copyright infringement'; Guardian, 10/17/13

Stuart Dredge, Guardian; Kim Dotcom's Mega 'not being used for wide-scale copyright infringement' : ""Kim Dotcom may be seen as a villainous pirate-king by the creative industries, but his Mega cloud storage service is attracting white-collar professionals, according to its chief executive Vikram Kumar. "The segment that seems to be most interested in Mega, and in paying for space, security and privacy tends to be professionals," Kumar told the Copyright and Technology conference in London this morning, beaming in for his keynote interview via Skype. "Accountants, lawyers, financial advisers, architects... These are people that want to use the internet, are concerned that their confidential client information may get compromised, and who are willing to pay for security and privacy online.""

A Year After the Closing of Megaupload, a File-Sharing Tycoon Opens a New Site; New York Times, 1/20/13

Jonathan Hutchison, New York Times; A Year After the Closing of Megaupload, a File-Sharing Tycoon Opens a New Site: "At 6:48 a.m. local time Sunday, the Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom opened his new file-storage Web site to the public — one year to the minute after the police raided the mansion he rents in New Zealand. The raid was part of a coordinated operation with the F.B.I. that also shut down Megaupload, the file-sharing business he had founded. Mr. Dotcom faces charges in the United States of pirating copyrighted material and money laundering and is awaiting an extradition hearing in New Zealand. But on Sunday, he said his focus was on the new site, which was already straining under heavy traffic within two hours of its introduction. In the first 14 hours of the site’s operation, more than half a million people registered to use it, Mr. Dotcom said."

Kim Dotcom plans Megaupload reboot; Sydney Morning Herald, 10/12/12

Nick Perry, Sydney Morning Herald; Kim Dotcom plans Megaupload reboot: "Jennifer Granick, the director of civil liberties at the Stanford University law school's Centre for Internet and Society, said Dotcom's case marks the first time the US has attempted to hold somebody criminally liable for copyright infringement committed by others. She said prosecutors are pushing at the boundaries of the law. "It makes the substantive underpinnings of the case highly questionable, legally," Granick said. "It's a novel case.""