After years of delay, Mega founder Kim Dotcom facing extradition

Nearly four years after dozens of black-clad police rappelled into his New Zealand mansion and cut him from a safe room, flamboyant German tech entrepreneur and would-be hip-hop star Kim Dotcom may finally be about to face the music. A New Zealand court hearing starting on Monday will determine whether Dotcom will face charges of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering in the United States related to the Megaupload file-sharing site he founded in 2005. U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three co-accused Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million and generated more than $175 million by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material, such as movies and TV shows.

We feel as though Kim Dotcom … will not have a fair procedural playing field because he won’t have any assets with which to mount a defence for the largest copyright case in history.

Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken

Megaupload accounted for about 4% of total traffic on the internet in its heyday as users stored and shared files containing everything from wedding videos to Hollywood films. Since his arrest, Dotcom, a German national and New Zealand resident, has been barred from leaving the country or venturing more than 80 km (50 miles) from his mansion, and is required to report to police twice a week. The prosecution must prove that a crime was committed in both the United States and New Zealand in order to trigger an extradition treaty between the allies.

Technology Dotcom