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Tag: MegaSaga

  • Kim Dotcom Gets The OK To Sue New Zealand’s Spy Agency

    If anything, you have to agree that Kim Dotcom is tenacious. He’s fought every challenge that has come his way since having his Web site and livelihood seized by feds in January. Now he’s just received clearance to launch a lawsuit that could have some very heavy implications.

    Back in September, it was revealed that Dotcom was subject to illegal surveillance at the hands of New Zealand’s GCSB – the country’s equivalent of the CIA. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key at the time said he was not aware of the spy agency’s actions and would open a full investigation into the issue.

    Fast forward to now where the courts have given Dotcom the OK to file a lawsuit against the GCSB. The interesting part is that the High Court has ordered the spy agency to reveal the details of its electronic spying setup in court. The order also requires the spy agency to reveal which nations it handed the info over to. It could very well reveal that the GCSB was handing over Dotcom’s information to US authorities before the raid on his mansion in January that was conducted by the local police and the FBI.

    Obviously, the government opposes the court order on the grounds that info from GCSB being made public could pose a national security risk. The judge in the case will hand the information to a third party who will verify which information is relevant to the case.

    Like always, Kim Dotcom has something to say, and he says it via Twitter. This time, he seems pretty confident that he’ll beat the spy agency in court with unnamed evidence that he’s gathered.

    Aside from suing New Zealand’s spy agency, Dotcom will also be launching the new Mega in January on the anniversary of the police raid that took Megaupload down. The new domain hit a few snags at first, but now it’s ready to go.

    [h/t: NZ Herald]

  • Kim Dotcom Moves Megaupload Reboot To .NZ Domain

    Kim Dotcom has some lofty goals for Mega, the reboot of Megaupload. To accomplish these goals, he had to move to a domain that couldn’t be easily suspended by the US government. Turns out his first move to Me.ga, a domain under the jurisdiction of Gabon, was suspended by the Gabonese government. Now he’s trying his luck back home.

    Dotcom announced a few hours ago via Twitter that the new Mega will be launching on his home country’s domain at mega.co.nz.

    The site looks exactly the same as it did on me.ga. Dotcom is still looking for investors, hosting partners and Mega API partners. He is also still hoping to launch the site on January 19, the one-year anniversary of the raid on his home that led to his arrest and the shutdown of Megaupload and related services like Megavideo.

    Now it’s time to play the waiting game, and see if the New Zealand government cracks down on the Mega.co.nz domain. Dotcom blamed Gabon’s swift suspension of the domain on interference from Vivendi and the US government. He’s also been adamant that certain players within New Zealand’s government have thrown him to the dogs, but the courts have largely been on his side. Any attempt to suspend the Mega.co.nz domain will most likely result in legal proceedings that Dotcom is likely to win based on precedent.

    In other news, Dotcom is apparently disappointed in the latest Call of Duty – Black Ops 2. His opinion should hold more weight than most as he was at one time the number one ranked player in the world in Modern Warfare 3.

  • Kim Dotcom Details The Return Of Megaupload

    The old Megaupload is dead. Even if Kim Dotcom wins every court case and has the site returned to him, it would be fairly useless. That’s why the Megaupload founder is planning on launching a new Megaupload later this year. We knew it was coming, but we didn’t know any details until today’s announcement.

    Like with all major announcements, Dotcom took to Twitter to detail the second coming of Megaupload. It’s ambitious, innovative and could possibly change file sharing forever if the service does half of what Dotcom claims.

    Looking beyond the claims of changing the world, the details revealed today show a Megaupload that would be immune to pretty much all law enforcement. For one, Dotcom won’t allow U.S.-based hosters to connect to the network. The U.S. authorities claim that Megaupload was under their jurisdiction, despite the company being based in Hong Kong, because they leased some servers in Virginia.

    The second part of that tweet – “hosters will be able to connect servers and bandwidth” – is the most exciting part. The new Megaupload won’t just be hosted by servers contracted out by Dotcom and his company. Anybody can offer storage on the new Megaupload and will probably be compensated quite graciously for their contributions. It would also protect Megaupload from being shut down as the site can be offloaded onto other servers if one is taken down.

    Finally, the one-click encryption would make sure that anybody monitoring the networks wouldn’t know who was uploading what. Granted, the authorities could use decryption software, but Dotcom may be using a new form of encryption that’s not easily breakable. Either way, users of the new Megaupload would be able to upload anything with peace of mind that their IP and files would be unknown to any prying eyes.

    If Dotcom can pull this off, the new Megaupload just might change the world of file sharing. It will be interesting to see if the U.S. makes any statement regarding the relaunch of Megaupload as a new anonymous service that might even be more secure than torrents.

    [h/t: TorrentFreak]

  • Judge Declares Megaupload Searches Illegal

    New Zealand’s High Court has declared that the warrants used to justify the January 19th raid on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom’s were illegat. The court also ruled that it was illegal for copies of Dotcom’s hard drive to be removed from New Zealand to the U.S.

    In the judgment, which is embedded below, Justice Helen Winkelmann ruled that the search warrants were far too broad to be valid. New Zealand law does not permit the issuing of general search warrants. Warrants must be specific in regards to both the nature of the suspected criminal offenses and the articles to be seized. The lack of specificity regarding the offenses and the items to be seized, along with the failure to stipulate that Dotcom was being accused of crimes under American law are symptomatic of “the lack of precision infecting the entirety of the warrants.” As such, “[t]hese were general warrants both in form and reality,” making them illegal under New Zealand law.

    Justice Winkelmann also ruled that the transfer of copies of Dotcom’s seized hard drives to the FBI was illegal. New Zealand law requires authorities to retain all items seized until they receive written direction from the Attorney-General regarding what to do with them. Justice Winkelmann ruled that the files on the seized hard drives “are part of the relevant hard drive,” meaning that “the release of cloned hard drives to the FBI for shipping to the United States was contrary” to New Zealand law.

    Justice Winkelmann concluded by ordering that cloned copies of the hard drives be returned to Dotcom and his co-defendants “forthwith.”

    All in all, this looks like a pretty big victory for Dotcom and the others arrested during the January raid. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities continue to resist returning Megaupload users’ data to them, while making it as difficult as possible for Dotcom’s U.S.-based attorneys to mount a defense.

    You can check out Justice Winkelmann’s ruling for yourself below:

    Dotcom Vag

  • FBI Ordered To Start Copying Kim Dotcom’s Data For Potential Return

    Things are yet again looking up for ol’ Kim Dotcom. It was only a few weeks ago that the New Zealand High Court ordered the FBI to hand over all the evidence they have against him. Dotcom’s other request to have his personal data returned may be awarded to him as well.

    The NZHerald is reporting that New Zealand High Court Justice Helen Winkelman has ordered that the FBI begin copying the 150TB worth of data they took from Dotcom’s home back in January. The data comes from over 130 computers and hard drives that Dotcom personally owned to run Megaupload. The information contained on those hard drives are essential to mounting a defense against the ever weakened attacks from the U.S. government against Megaupload.

    While it’s another potential win for Dotcom, it may still not pan out for him. The court order was just for the FBI to start copying the data which means they get to keep copies as well for their own investigation and prosecution. A separate trial will be required to determine whether or not Dotcom actually gets access to the data.

    As usual, the U.S. complained about the order saying that Dotcom shouldn’t be allowed access to this information until he’s in U.S. court. That essentially means that U.S. doesn’t want Dotcom to have anything in his defense during his extradition trial.

    We’ve heard that argument before, however, so the government came up with a new one. They also said that they don’t have the resources or the time to copy the 150TB of data in the 21-day period provided by the judge. They went on to claim that it took them 10 days to just copy 29TB of data.

    The New Zealand court wasn’t having any of it though. According to NZHerald, Justice Winkelmann told the U.S. government, “The expense involved in copying must be dwarfed by the other costs of an investigative and prosecutorial operation of this site.” Essentially, Justice Winkelmann told the U.S. to stop bitching and just copy the data.

    Once again, we don’t know if Dotcom will actually get his data back, but the news is encouraging. If he can keep up his recent string of wins, Megaupload and Dotcom may both have charges dropped against them.

  • U.S. Doesn’t Want Megaupload Users Getting Their Data Back

    The MPAA shocked everybody last week when they said they would be fine with Megaupload users getting access to their legitimate files. They wouldn’t help those people get back their data, but they wouldn’t be opposed to them getting it back either. Too bad the United States doesn’t want them getting back any data whatsoever.

    CNET got their hands on documents that U.S. filed in regards to the Megaupload case. The documents deal with the case of Kyle Goodwin, the poster boy for legitimate Megaupload users who were harmed by the takedown in January. The U.S. says that giving Goodwin his files back would set a bad precedent.

    Why would a man getting back his legitimate content set a bad precedent? The U.S. believes that granting Goodwin his request would allow anybody to petition the courts whenever a search warrant adversely affects them. The U.S. is essentially saying that Goodwin’s data was collateral damage and that he has no right to petition for its return.

    The U.S. has another far more ridiculous reason for not returning Goodwin his data as well. They feel that giving Goodwin his data back would allow Megaupload to retrieve data that they need to formulate a defense. The MPAA, in their statement, also said that any solution that would get legitimate users their data back would need to prevent Megaupload from getting any data from it.

    The U.S. isn’t completely devoid of sympathy for the man who lost all of his recorded videos of high sporting events that was the core of his business. The government suggests that Goodwin just sue Megaupload and Carpathia for restitution instead.

    It’s absolutely mind blowing that the U.S. would suggest that Goodwin sue these two companies when the fault of his losing data falls squarely on the backs of the U.S. for illegally seizing Megaupload’s servers. The U.S. court in the case may soon throw out the case due to the numerous flaws in the government’s argument against the file sharing company. If that happens, Goodwin may have a chance at suing the U.S. government for destroying his data in an illegal seizure.

    The Megaupload saga just keeps on getting more interesting. We’ll keep you updated on any developments in the case. I feel like we’re almost at the end where the court will either upheld the government’s accusations or drop the case over what has been a bumbled attack on a foreign company outside of U.S. jurisdiction.

  • Kim Dotcom Awarded Access To Evidence Against Him

    Kim Dotcom has a reason to be happy today. Sure, he’s scored some minor wins here and there, but he’s never scored a big win in his case against the American government. Today is that big win.

    According to TorrentFreak, the New Zealand judge in the Megaupload case, David Harvey, ruled that the U.S. must hand over any and all evidence it has against Dotcom and Megaupload. When the judge says evidence, he really means all the evidence. Not only must the U.S. hand over the evidence that they have in New Zealand, but also all evidence that the FBI has obtained.

    As always, the U.S. objected to the ruling by saying Dotcom doesn’t have the right to view the evidence against him during the extradition process. Disagreeing with that, Judge Harvey ruled that Dotcom has a right to mount a proper defense against the accusations levied against him.

    If you’ve been following this case at all, you’ll know just how big this is. Every step of the way, the U.S. government has tried every tactic to make this case as unfair as it possibly can. It has attempted to erase the company’s servers, denied Dotcom his own property to use as evidence and tried to keep him in prison.

    Judge Harvey also made some interesting comments in regards to the case that are worth pointing out as well. He says that the U.S. is trying to apply civil copyright laws to a criminal copyright case. All of the other charges that have been brought against Dotcom rest on whether or not they can prove that Dotcom has indeed violated copyright. The weird mash-up of civil and criminal copyright law makes the case that much harder to actually rule on.

    The U.S. has 21 days to hand over the evidence it has against Dotcom. From that point, he will probably start preparing his defense. Dotcom has been confident that he will prove the charges levied against him are insubstantial.

    TorrentFreak was kind enough to upload the entire 81-page court document. It’s a fascinating read about copyright law and how the Megaupload case has been handled thus far:

    Torrent Freak Mega Extra

  • Kim Dotcom Using Passwords As Bargaining Chips

    It’s been relatively quiet on the MegaUpload front recently. After a U.S. judge said that the trial may not even happen, it seemed that all the parties seemed to have just given up. It appears that is not the case as Kim Dotcom is now fighting for the return of his computers and hard drives.

    TorrentFreak is reporting that Dotcom has requested a judicial review of the search warrants that were used against him back in January. The legality of the search warrant was already brought into question before, but the police filed the proper warrant. The result was that Dotcom got back some of his money, but he’s now fighting to get back something more important – evidence.

    Dotcom’s defense argued that the hard drives and computers are needed to mount a proper defense against the forces that seek to extradite him to the U.S. He also wants to use the information to prove that the police used excessive force against him in the raid that he claimed left him with a bleeding hand from a ruptured fingernail.

    As always, the U.S. doesn’t want Dotcom to have any chance of a fair fight. Their new tactic is saying that the existence of encrypted files on the hard drives means that he must be hiding something. Dotcom claims that he isn’t and is happy to show the authorities what is behind those encrypted files. The catch? They have to return the computers and he will supply the passwords. No computers means no passwords.

    In more troubling news, the New Zealand court had reportedly assured Dotcom’s defense in the past that the information on the hard drives would not be sent to the U.S. without prior warning. It was revealed during the hearing that the New Zealand authorities had already been sending all the information to the U.S. without telling anyone.

    The concern now is that New Zealand will send the hard drives to the U.S. effectively removing them from New Zealand jurisdiction. It’s all part of the conspiracy that Dotcom has been talking about for months now as he believes the U.S. is cooperating with the copyright industry to bring him down as a personal favor. He believes that the record industry was scared of the competition that Dotcom would bring to the table with his music service instead of any legitimate complaints of copyright infringement.

    All of this was just too much for Dotcom as he reportedly had an emotional breakdown in the courtroom. He said that having to relive those days when he was torn away from his family were “unfair and over the top.”

    Now everything is up to the judge in the case to decide if Dotcom should get his belongings back. This case has been all over the place so it’s hard to say what will happen. We’ll hopefully know within the next few weeks. Until then, we’ll keep you updated on any other developments in the MegaUpload Saga.

  • Kim Dotcom To Have $750,000 Returned To Him

    We brought you word a few months ago that Kim Dotcom, founder of Megaupload, was on his way to getting some of his possessions back. It seems that the news has finally become reality as Dotcom had about $750,000 worth of possessions returned to him.

    Stuff is reporting that the New Zealand High Court has agreed to return some money to Dotcom and his family in the form of a bank account worth $301,000, a Mercedes Benz worth $250,000 and he retains his $20,000 a month spending budget. Unfortunately, the court mostly sided with the District Court so that Dotcom won’t be seeing the majority of his funds returned to him. His other belongings could be held by the authorities for up to two years as Dotcom’s extradition case is heard.

    Dotcom’s wife will also see some benefits from the ruling. She will be getting a monthly allowance, money for her medical bills and a car for personal transportation. When Dotcom was waiting to get out on bail, he argued that he wanted to get out to help his wife who was pregnant. The extra money should definitely help in that respect.

    In other possible good news for Dotcom, the judge in the case said that he could bring further legal action to see more of his belongings returned to him. Dotcom’s lawyers are arguing that New Zealand should investigate whether or not the restraining order against his property should even be honored. While the court said that they don’t have to see if the order from the U.S. is legitimate, the door is open for further legal action.

    All of this would be for naught, however, if Dotcom is extradited. The current extradition hearing is scheduled for September. At that time, it will be decided if Dotcom actually committed an offense worthy of being extradited over. According to Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, he’s confident that they will have a “good result in New Zealand.”

    This comes on the news that there might not even be a case against Megaupload. The U.S. judge in the case against MegaUpload said that the FBI never properly filed a criminal complaint against the company. If this is the case, the trial might never happen. Of course, Dotcom feels that the damage has already been done and that he’s now fighting to reveal what he feels was a conspiracy against him backed by Hollywood and the U.S. government. I’m sure having the extra money is definitely going to help with that.

    [h/t: TorrentFreak]

  • Megaupload Data Negotiations Begin April 26

    We brought you word yesterday that the U.S. government may not have a case against file-sharing service Megaupload due to a “procedural error.” If this is true, Megaupload could be potentially let off the hook. There still remains the problem of the Megaupload data that Carpathia is hosting.

    If you recall, the judge in the case told all the interested parties that they had to negotiate over what would happen to the data. This is because Carpathia can’t be responsible for the data forever and it’s costing them an arm and a leg just to keep the data. This could have been easily solved if it weren’t for the U.S. government interfering in the deal where Megaupload would buy the data off of Carpathia.

    BBC is reporting that lawyers for Megaupload and the U.S. government are going to meet on April 26 to start negotiations on what should happen to the data. The news states that it’s only these two parties even though the MPAA and the EFF both have stakes in the fate of the data as well.

    To recap, the U.S. government doesn’t want Megaupload to have access to their data. Kim Dotcom says it’s because the U.S. wants to deny his company the right to a fair trial. With all the weird claims and reasons as to why Dotcom shouldn’t have access to the data including claims of chid porn, it almost seems like the U.S. does have it in for ol’ Dotcom and company.

    As for the other parties, the EFF wants to have the data returned to the legitimate users who have lost access to all of their data. It’s easy to forget with everything else going on, but there were plenty of small businesses and independent users who relied upon Megaupload’s services.

    The MPAA wants the data retained, but not given back, for use in potential lawsuits. They feel that if the data is given back that people will use the data to pirate its studios’ content. It seems almost ridiculous that they think retaining Megaupload’s data will prevent piracy when it has already been proven that this is not the case.

    Once again, the legality of the current charges brought against Megaupload are suspect. The negotiations are going to proceed, but I’m sure they will pull back if it turns out that the U.S. doesn’t have a case against Megaupload. While the damage has already been done and Dotcom is furious, he still plans on fighting to unveil what he feels is a conspiracy against his company.

  • MegaUpload Trial Might Not Happen Due To Procedural Error

    The MegaUpload Saga has been a crazy roller coaster ride the likes of which the world hasn’t seen in a very long time. It’s a shame that more people aren’t paying attention to it since it has the potential set a lot of precedents when it comes to copyright laws. Well, those people might be off the hook now since the case might amount to nothing.

    The NZHerald is reporting that the U.S. judge in the case, Liam O’Grady, has told the FBI that MegaUpload was never formally served with criminal papers in the U.S. MegaUpload’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, said that companies, unlike people, can’t be served outside of the U.S. The judge said that all this leaves MegaUpload “kind of hanging out there.”

    It makes you wonder why the FBI didn’t know about this when they seized all of MegaUpload’s servers and accused the company of running an international copyright infringement ring. Surely they must have known that what they were doing was illegal. At least it’s not without precedent since the authorities who seized Dotcom’s belongings filed the wrong warrant which may get Dotcom his belongings back.

    Of course, Dotcom thinks this goes much deeper beyond some simple oversight. He believes that the U.S. government knew the entire time what they were doing lacked any legal merit. They prematurely seized his Web sites as a way to ruin his business. Speaking to TorrentFreak, Dotcom was livid at the news that the trial against him may never happen. He said that this whole fiasco has destroyed 220 jobs and denied millions of users access to their data.

    Dotcom also spoke on what he views as corruption of the highest degree. He claims that the “Mega takedown was possible because of corruption on the highest political level, serving the interests of the copyright extremists in Hollywood.” In a sense, he says that MegaUpload has become a “re-election pawn.”

    Even if Dotcom never recovers his business and he loses everything, he isn’t going to give up. This whole attack on his business has been personal and expose the machinations that made it possible. He told TorrentFreak that “It is just a matter of time until the truth comes out. We are working on that and we are making good progress.”

    I think that this case has officially entered into the realm of insane. Regardless of whatever happens, this is one for the history books – either as one of the biggest moves against copyright infringement or one of the biggest legal blunders the United States has ever committed. We’ll keep you updated on whatever may happen in the MegaUpload Saga.

  • MegaUpload Data Safe Until Compromise Can Be Reached

    We brought you word last week that MegaUpload and all the other interested parties took to court to argue their case for why MegaUpload’s data should or should not be destroyed. Everybody involved from MegaUpload themselves to the EFF to the MPAA all had a stake in it. Turns out that the court agreed with the voice of reason for now.

    As we reported previously, the current problem can be attributed to Carpathia Hosting, the company that owns the MegaUpload servers, having to foot the bill. They are currently pumping a lot of money to keep these servers online and justifiably want some form of reimbursement. The government doesn’t care what they do with the servers and even suggested that they delete the data. This would greatly weaken MegaUpload’s defense as they need that data to prove their innocence.

    The government and MegaUpload aren’t the only interested parties, however, as the MPAA and the EFF both have a stake in this. The MPAA wants to retain the data so they can possibly bring a lawsuit against MegaUpload. The EFF wants to just return legitimate user data back to customers who have lost all of their data when the servers were taken down.

    The court weighed all of these options and has come to a conclusion. CNET is reporting that the court ordered all the parties – MegaUpload, MPAA, EFF and the government – back into the meeting room. They are to come up with a plan that satisfies all parties.

    In other good news, CNET also reports that the judge in the the case, U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady, was “sympathetic” towards Carpathia and wants to avoid any deletion of user data at this time. O’Grady may even let MegaUpload get to the data they need to properly mount a defense.

    Regardless of how you feel about MegaUpload or file sharing, you have to admit that the court has taken the proper approach. The government has improperly handled this case from the beginning and people are starting to see that. Here’s hoping that all the parties, including the government, can come to a solution that’s fair to MegaUpload and all the parties who have an interest in the data.

    We’ll keep you updated on any more developments in the MegaUpload saga. We don’t know how long it will take them to announce a plan, but here’s hoping for good news.

  • MegaUpload Data Safe For The Time Being

    The MegaUpload saga has turned out to be one of the most fascinating legal cases of our time. There was some worry last week that MegaUpload’s data on Carpathia’s servers was going to be deleted. This would have made the case far less interesting since that would remove one of MegaUpload’s main forms of defense. It seems that the data is fine now, at least for the time being.

    Carpathia Hosting is refusing to delete the MegaUpload data from their servers according to a report from TorrentFreak. The US government told Carpathia that they should just delete the data, but many parties including MegaUpload, the EFF and the MPAA all objected for various reasons.

    MegaUpload wants to use the data in their defense against the allegations that its site was a hive of villainy and copyright infringement. The EFF is representing a man who can’t access his data thanks to the take down. Finally, the MPAA wants the data in case they want to bring a lawsuit against MegaUpload themselves.

    Carpathia is footing a pretty big bill for all of this. In the report last week, the hosting company claimed that it was paying upwards of $9,000 a day on upkeep for the servers. It brought forth a request that the US government reimburse them for keeping the data. The government responded by saying they already got the data they needed and that Carpathia was free to do what they want with the data.

    All of this is now up to the court. The same court that MegaUpload, the EFF and the MPAA have all filed requests with to retain the data. Carpathia filed their own brief yesterday saying that they won’t do anything with the data until they get an opinion from the court. The reason being that the claims brought forth by the parties wanting the data hold merit in Carpathia’s eyes and they won’t move forward until they hear the court’s opinion.

    Of course, this could all be avoided if MegaUpload could just buy the servers from Carpathia. They offered to do so on multiple occasions, but the U.S. government is blocking them from doing so. Things got even more muddled last week when the U.S. claimed that there was child porn on the servers which makes them contraband.

    All the drama now leads up to us waiting on a court ruling. If the court says that Carpathia can delete the servers, they will do so. Here’s hoping the court allows MegaUpload to buy the servers back from Carpathia so the company can mount a proper defense.

    As an aside, don’t forget that Kim Dotcom faces his extradition hearing in August. That will be one to watch as well. The MegaUpload Saga is just getting started. We’ll keep you up to date on any new developments.

  • MegaUpload Server Host Demands Payment

    The MegaUpload Saga just got far more interesting. We reported back when this all first started that the only reason the U.S. could go after MegaUpload was because some of their servers were hosted in the U.S. out of Carpathia Hosting in Virginia. The data was going to be erased, but the Pirate Party and the EFF both want the government to let legitimate users access to their data first. Kim Dotcom, now out on bail, understandably wants access to the servers for his defense.

    So here we are today with Ars Technica reporting that Carpathia spent $9,000 a day in keeping the servers up and running in a facility. MegaUpload could totally pay for the expenses if the company’s accounts weren’t completely frozen. Carpathia, tired of renting out a facility to house these servers, took it upon themselves to move the servers to one of their own facilities at their own expense.

    Carpathia, after footing the bill for so long, wants the U.S. government to start paying them back for keeping these servers online. A reasonable request since multiple parties don’t want the information gone just yet. The aforementioned parties want it for defense and consumer reasons and the MPAA wants the data so they can start suing MegaUpload and its partners. The government isn’t having any of it though. They say that legitimate users are out of luck. As for the MPAA, they haven’t filed any kind of lawsuit yet so there’s no reason to retain the information for them.

    What about Carpathia’s valid complaint about them losing money over all of this? The government says they should just wipe the servers and lease them to new customers. The government doesn’t need the data anymore and they couldn’t care less about any other parties using it. In fact, the prosecution would be pleased as punch if Dotcom wasn’t allowed access to the data that could help him win his trial.

    But wait, there was that one story that said Dotcom’s money and possessions may have been seized with the wrong warrant. If this is true, he could get all his money back which would lead to him being able to get the servers back. No so, says the U.S. government, obviously seeing the opportunity Dotcom has here. They claim the servers can’t be let out of their jurisdiction because their contents could be used for illegal activities if let back out in the wild. If that wasn’t bad enough, they also pulled the old child porn card claiming that sources detailed the existence of child porn on the servers which would make the servers contraband.

    So there you have it, folks. Things just got a whole lot more interesting in the MegaUpload Saga. The judge in the case could still rule that the government does indeed owe Carpathia money, but the government is going to fight that tooth and nail. Carpathia still has the option to delete the info off the server, but they also damn Dotcom to a weak defense if they do so. Not to mention pissing off the thousands of legitimate users who demand their data be returned to them.

    We’ll keep you updated on any developments over the coming months. Remember, Kim Dotcom’s extradition hearing begins in August. That’s when things should get really interesting if they weren’t interesting enough for you already.

  • Kim Dotcom Granted Internet Use, Pool Access

    Kim Dotcom, founder and operator of MegaUpload, hasn’t had much fun lately. He was arrested and denied bail twice. Things began to look up for Dotcom in February when he was finally granted bail. Today in court, Dotcom successfully petitioned to have his bail conditions modified in his favor.

    TorrentFreak is reporting that Dotcom now has more freedom at his disposal, including Internet access, thanks to modified bail conditions. He and three co-defendants today were granted some freedoms today that go a long way towards getting their defense together for his upcoming extradition trial.

    It’s reported that Dotcom’s legal team argued that he needed Internet access to compile his defense. Dotcom had already been working on his defense, but was at a distinct disadvantage that the prosecution had hoped they could keep. The Judge agreed with the defense and granted Dotcom access to the Internet. It didn’t just stop there though.

    It’s also reported that Dotcom had been suffering back problems lately and requested that he be allowed to use the swimming pool at his mansion for relief. The judge ruled that he would be allowed to have 90-minute access to said pool.

    Interestingly enough, Dotcom was also working on a music album with “several International artists.” It’s strange that the defense would object to Dotcom working on an album, but object they did. The judge wasn’t having any of it, however, and granted Dotcom two trips a week to a studio to finish work on the album.

    Like I said, things are looking up for Dotcom and friends. They might just have a shot at properly defending themselves now that more evidence has been revealed in their favor. An example being last month it was revealed that many users of MegaUpload were members of Congress and other government agencies including the DoJ.

    The only thing that will make this way better for Dotcom is if he gets his property back. It was revealed last month that the police filed the wrong paperwork and unlawfully seized his property as a result. It remains to be seen if Dotcom will get his property back, but it’s more likely now than it was when he was first arrested.

    Dotcom is confident that he can fight the charges brought against him. With these new freedoms, I’m sure his legal teams’s confidence has been bolstered even more. It’s only going to get more interesting from here on out so stay tuned for more news from the MegaUpload Saga.

  • MegaUpload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music

    With all this hoopla over MegaUpload’s current battle against multiple counts of copyright infringement among other serious charges, it’s easy to forget that MegaUpload at one time was bringing a lawsuit of its own against Universal Music Group. If you need a refresher, check out our previous coverage of the lawsuit.

    Unfortunately for MegaUpload, and fortunately for Universal Music Group, Kim Dotcom and company have bigger fish to fry. MegaUpload’s lawyers have decided to drop the case against Universal Music Group. The obvious reason being that they need to focus all of their legal attention on the current extradition fight and the charges brought against the company by the U.S.

    Just because they dropped the lawsuit for now, however, doesn’t mean that they’re going to keep it that way. MegaUpload attorney Ira Rothken has told TorrentFreak that the company will be “permitted to refile the case if it chooses to do so.”

    While MegaUpload may one day reopen its lawsuit against UMG, Dotcom and his lawyers need to focus on the upcoming case. The first step, according to MegaUpload, is filing a motion in response to the US indictment. Dotcom told TorrentFreak that their “upcoming court fillings will reveal the full nonsense dimension of the indictment.”

    Check out the MegaUpload Mega Song to relive those magical moments when all MegaUpload had to worry about was a lawsuit against UMG:

  • Kim Dotcom May Get His Money Back

    Kim Dotcom May Get His Money Back

    Things are looking up for Kim Dotcom these days. After being arrested and denied bail multiple times, he finally was granted bail last month. He was then on the verge of a deal that would let users of MegaUpload get their files back. He also found that people within the DoJ and the US Senate were using MegaUpload which could help his case in some way. Now he may get his money back due to a “procedural error.”

    The New Zealand Herald is reporting that police issued the wrong court order when the seized Dotcom’s assets back in January. The judge overseeing the case called the court order “null and void.” This is great news for Dotcom who has been denied all of his assets over fears that he may use them to skip countries and not be present for his upcoming extradition hearing.

    The police and legal team responsible for the seizure admitted their mistake and are now filling for a new restraining order that would keep Dotcom’s funds out of his hands. Dotcom’s legal team are using the chance they’ve been given to call the seizure “unlawful.” The judge is scheduled to make a judgment on the matter soon.

    It would be great news if Dotcom got his money back. Even though Dotcom is out of jail, he still has no money to mount a legal defense against the charges brought against him. He claimed in a TV interview this month that he was going to fight back against the charges. He would be in a much better position to defend himself if he had his money back.

    The MegaUpload case just keeps on getting more and more interesting. Dotcom’s extradition hearing is scheduled for May. Expect more news to come out of this before then. We’ll keep you updated on any changes in the MegaUpload saga.

  • Kim Dotcom Says Many MegaUpload Users Are From US Government

    When MegaUpload went down in January, there were complaints from many legitimate users of the site saying that their personal files, including files for work, were gone. One of the solutions has been in the form of a lawsuit being brought against the FBI by the Pirate Party.

    Kit Dotcom, finally out on bail, has told TorrentFreak that he is now also working with the Department of Justice to get legitimate users their files back. The deal described by Dotcom would have Megaupload users being allowed temporary access to their files to retrieve them.

    The most interesting news, however, comes from the revelation that many users of MegaUpload included government officials from the DoJ and US Senate.

    This isn’t the first time that the very people who are trying to stop copyright infringement have been caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. It was revealed in December that employees at the RIAA and Department of Homeland Security were found to be downloading illegal copies of files. In our original report for example, it was found that people at the RIAA had been downloading all five seasons of Dexter over BitTorrent.

    This is just another case of government officials’ hypocrisy. They push for stricter anti-file sharing laws while their own employees use the benefit of their office’s high speed Internet connection to download all the illegal files they want.

    Going back to Kim Dotcom’s attempt at getting users their files back, the revelation that government officials use the service as well probably won’t help him in his upcoming extradition case. It will, however, make people more aware of the hypocrisy in government which could have an effect on other proceedings and the push for new laws like H.R. 1981.

    We’ll keep you updated on any and all developments in the continuing MegaUpload saga.

  • MegaUpload: Extradition Papers Filed In Kim Dotcom Case

    Kim Dotcom is in for the fight of his life as his extradition hearing is now official.

    We reported a few weeks ago that Kim Dotcom was finally released on bail after being held in jail for almost a month after his company, MegaUpload, was seized by the feds for alleged copyright violations.

    The United States government has filed the extradition papers today according to the NZ Herald. They are seeking to have Kim Dotcom and three of his associates extradited to the U.S. to be charged for their crimes.

    Crown Law will be handling the case for the U.S. government and confirmed that the papers had been filed with the North Shore District Court.

    In his first TV interview since being arrested, Dotcom said he has no plans to leave New Zealand. He will be taking his time to prepare for his upcoming extradition trial and staying with his wife who is currently pregnant with twins. Dotcom seems confident and says that he will win. He feels that he has done nothing wrong and the Internet seems to be on his side with this one.

    If the U.S. is successful in having Dotcom extradited, he will face charges of criminal copyright infringement among other serious charges.

    The extradition hearing has been set for August. We’ll keep you updated on any changes.

  • MegaUpload: Kim Dotcom Gives First TV Interview

    After the crazy events of the last two months in the MegaUpload saga, Kim Dotcom is finally coming out to talk about it.

    New Zealand’s 3 News spoke to the MegaUpload founder recently on a program called Campbell Live. The interview consisted of a lot of topics including the charges and what Dotcom plans to do to combat extradition to the U.S.

    Dotcom began by saying that he never thought MegaUpload would be targeted by the authorities due to protections granted by the DMCA. All of his legal advisers told him that they were completely safe.

    Interestingly enough, Dotcom divulged the inspiration behind the creation of MegaUpload. It apparently came about because of an email he sent:

    Well, you know, one day I was sending a file to a friend via email and I got a message back saying, you know, the file’s too large and the mail server has refused to send it so I thought, you know, what can I come up with, what can I do to solve that? So I basically created a server where I could upload a file and got a unique link and then I would just email that link to my friend and he would then get the file and that’s how Megaupload was started, it was just a solution to a problem that still exists today.

    He said that due to the sheer amount of traffic coming through their servers (800 file transfers every second), it’s impossible to monitor data for copyright infringement. He did say, however, that every member of the MPAA had “direct delete access” to take down any copyrighted material on MegaUpload.com

    In regards to the accusation that MegaUpload has caused damages in excess of $500 million, Dotcom said the accusation is ridiculous and out of proportion:

    Well that’s complete nonsense. If you read the indictment and if you hear what the Prosecution has said in court, it’s at least $500 million of damage were just music files and just within a two-week time period. So they are actually talking about $13 billion US damage within a year just for music downloads. The entire US music industry is less than $20 billion. So how can one website be, you know, responsible for this amount of damage, it’s completely mind-boggling and unrealistic.

    Dotcom compared MegaUpload to the accusation that Iraq had WMDs. He says that the accusations are all lies to fulfill a political goal. He says that file-sharing doesn’t come from sites like his, but rather from an outdated business model from Hollywood.

    Where does piracy come from? Piracy comes from, you know, people, let’s say, in Europe who do not have access to movies at the same time that they are released in the US. This is a problem that has been born within this licensing model and the old business model that Hollywood has where they release something first in one country but they show trailers to everyone around the world pitching that new movie but then the 14-year-old kid in France or Germany can’t watch it for another six months, you know? If the business model would be one where everyone has access to this content at the same time, you know, you wouldn’t have a piracy problem. So it’s really, in my opinion, the government of the United States protecting an outdated monopolistic business model that doesn’t work anymore in the age of the internet and that’s what it all boils down to. I’m no piracy king, I offered online storage and bandwidth to users and that’s it.

    What may be damning for the MPAA is that Dotcom says the organization never came to him first with their concerns. They went straight for the throat instead of submitting take down notices.

    Why does Dotcom feel that he was targeted instead of any other business that offers the same service? His infamy and foreign background:

    I’m an easy target. My flamboyance, my history as a hacker, you know, I’m not American, I’m living somewhere in New Zealand around the world. I have funny number plates on my cars, you know, I’m an easy target. I’m not Google. I don’t have 50 billion dollars in my account and right now I’ve not a penny on my account. All my lawyers currently are basically working without a penny and they are all still on board and all still doing their job because what they see here is unfair, is unreasonable and is not justice.

    As for the future, Dotcom is going to fight the charges.

    I feel confident I am going to win because at the end of the day I know, my family knows, and everybody around me knows that I am no criminal and I have done nothing wrong. So I will fight it. It’s all I can do.

    To watch the full interview, check it out on 3 News.

  • MegaUpload’s Kim Dotcom Granted Bail

    MegaUpload’s Kim Dotcom Granted Bail

    Kim Dotcom has scored a win in his extradition case to the U.S. where he and his company, MegaUpload, face multiple charges including racketeering and criminal copyright infringement.

    Reuters is reporting that Dotcom’s effort to win bail have finally been rewarded as he was allowed to return home today after fighting to be granted bail for nearly a month.

    As we previously reported, the U.S. attorneys in the case said that Dotcom posed a major flight risk due to his vast amount of money and private helicopter. Dotcom argued that he couldn’t leave the country even if he wanted to as the U.S. froze his funds. He also said that he just wanted to go home to be with his wife who is currently pregnant with twins.

    Even though Dotcom was granted bail, he will be still under strict surveillance. He will have to live in a small house near the mansion he rented and must wear an electronic tag. As was expected, he will be restricted in how far he can travel. Just in case, the judge also banned any helicopters from flying to or landing on the property.

    What previously held Dotcom from attaining bail was that it was unclear if he had any hidden funds he could use to escape the country. After a review of the case, the judge in the case found that there was no evidence to say that Dotcom was hiding funds.

    Now that he has been granted bail, Dotcom will be able to prepare for his upcoming extradition trial that the judge has set to take place on August 20. He has scheduled it to last three weeks. While he’s at it, Dotcom can also reclaim his top spot in Call of Duty.

    Even though he has been granted bail and the extradition hearing isn’t set until August, it doesn’t mean that any new developments will occur between now and then. The U.S. is out for blood and it will probably keep adding new charges against the company that Dotcom built.

    We will keep you up to date on any changes in the MegaUpload MegaSaga.