Megaupload Boss Kim Dotcom Won't Go Back To Jail, Says New Zealand Court

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The founder of the online file-sharing site Megaupload.com has asked a New Zealand court to free nearly a quarter of a million dollars in frozen assets to pay for living expenses, including nannies and bodyguards, as a bid by the United States to put him back behind bars was thrown out of court on Wednesday.

Kim Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is charged by the United States with being an Internet pirate whose group netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.

Dotcom, who is on bail in New Zealand pending an extradition hearing, says the company offered online storage and will fight extradition.

With all his funds frozen, Dotcom on Wednesday asked for around NZ$220,000 to be released to cover lease costs of a multi-million dollar mansion outside of Auckland, wages for staff, and other living expenses such as phones and power.

The application said that Dotcom paid NZ$1 million a year to lease the country estate, around NZ$600,000 on maintenance and property costs. He also sought more than NZ$50,000 a month to pay for a nanny, a tutor for an autistic child, personal assistants, and four bodyguards.

The New Zealand High Court granted Dotcom an interim payment of around NZ$32,000 to cover immediate living costs, as well as the use of a car, pending a final decision on continuing financial support.

Dotcom has three children and his wife is due to give birth to twins late next month.

In a separate High Court case, the United States appealed against Dotcom's bail and asked for him to be returned to jail pending his extradition hearing in late August.

The prosecution said Dotcom is an extreme flight risk because he has had multiple passports, sources of funds, access to various means of travel, and a previous history of fleeing to avoid criminal charges.

But the court rejected the appeal, saying the electronic bracelet Dotcom must wear, along with other restrictions on his movements, were sufficient to allow him to remain free.

"It's great to be able to return home with my family and I'm looking forward to fight these charges on a level playing field, so indeed I'm very relieved today," Dotcom told reporters outside the court.

Last week the lower court placed Dotcom under virtual house arrest in a small house on a corner of the country estate.

Signs at the entrance to the house tell visitors to leave all mobile phones, smart phones and laptops at the gate, as Dotcom is forbidden to use the Internet as a condition of bail.

Dotcom, 38, and three others, were arrested on January 20 after armed New Zealand police raided his country estate at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

An extradition hearing to send all four to the United States for trial has been set down for late August.

($1=NZ$1.19)

(Writing by Gyles Beckford; Editing by Ed Lane and Michael Perry)

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Comments

[jaydeerdld]

02:09 AM on 03/01/2012

Whether I agree or approve of his business activities is irrelevant here. All that matters is that the government of the USA has been thwarted ... again. Keep up the good work

[mfstout]

08:54 PM on 02/29/2012

Can we at least send him to hell for a few weeks?

[Runey]

02:10 PM on 03/01/2012

why are you so plump full of purple haterade?

[karim1]

07:47 PM on 03/20/2012

This kind of sentiment is the reason why many rich people don't deal with poor people; they are the type that blame the rich for them being for, whether they are the actual cause or not. Just plain, old, ugly jealousy.

[karim1]

07:48 PM on 03/20/2012

Sorry, I meant poor.

[Daniel Desormeau]

04:27 PM on 02/29/2012

So STARZ Network pulls 1000 titles from Netflix, a known paid media service that is profitable, and able to pay royalties; but their main problem is piracy? Their main problem is that people do not want to consume their media as dictated by these antiquated giant studios that pump out garbage year after year. If you want people to pay for your content, then make that content AVAILABLE !

[Master Jeffrey]

02:53 PM on 02/29/2012

The character of Dot Com on the show 30 Rock is the only "real" Dotcom to me!

[Daniel Desormeau]

04:25 PM on 02/29/2012

You just got yourself a fan...

[lensman3]

02:23 PM on 02/29/2012

Hooray for New Zealand, for not kowtowing to Washington.

Using Megaupload and then "linking" to it is not a crime. Megaupload did not put the data on their site, other people did! This is just like the novel 1984 being in the public domain in South Africa but is not in the public domain in the USA, and if I link to a South African site from the USA then I'm breaking the law. Bull Pucky. Britain and the US are trying to take down South African web sites.

The USA and the DOJ need to back off. Go after Wall Street bankers!

[BravoFour]

02:06 PM on 02/29/2012

Dotcom should have spent more of that $175 million on lobbyists.

[Runey]

02:11 PM on 03/01/2012

f'n'f

[yadayer]

02:03 PM on 02/29/2012

Correction: they did not copy anything. Users did.

[ImConfused]

01:59 PM on 02/29/2012

I wish the US went after the crooked Bankers with the same zeal!

[planetjeffy]

04:05 AM on 03/01/2012

Bankers steal hundreds of billions, tank the economy and ruins lives...and the US is completely hands off
this is the real crime

[MjaFla]

01:46 PM on 02/29/2012

R.I.A.A. can take a flying leap if they think that they can enforce ANYTHING using our tax dollars and government against us. Fascists. If you don't want something copied, then don't make it into 1's and 0's to be copied.

[SeniorMoment]

01:38 PM on 02/29/2012

It will be interesting to see this man's case play out in the news. I believe it is almost certain that New Zealand will extradite him to stand trial in the USA, but only time will tell. After all he is governed primarily by laws in New Zealand, unless he physically cross a national border. Other nations are generally not sympathetic to U. S. justice being applied outside the U. S.

[R Andrew Ohge]

01:33 PM on 02/29/2012

This is a good outcome...the "case" against him was tenuous, at best, was initiated by the US on Foreign soil. How is that NOT an act of war-and when do the reparations kick in?

[Jim281]

01:33 PM on 02/29/2012

Back in the late 70's or early 80's, Beta, VHS, and "movie disks"(?) were waiting with bated breath to see how the Supremes would rule on consumers rights to purchase Video Cassette Recorders. Copyright holders were concerned that if folks could record braodcasts, they would infringe on the copyright. The Supremes ultimately ruled "if you don't want people to record your broadcasts, then keep it out of their living rooms. (Although, that did not give people the right to sell copied programs; just to have them.)

Oh, yeah. BTW, Beta lost that p..ssing contest, obviously! (Somehow, Sony survived!)

[TashaDK]

02:13 PM on 02/29/2012

Funny thing about BETA was that while it lost out in the Consumer Market. It became the Standard for the Professional market. It wasn't till Digital Video Tape cameras really caught on that Sony stopped making BETA camcorders, and editing equipment. So Sony actually made a ton of cash on BETA products.

[Jim281]

02:39 PM on 02/29/2012

Thanks! I didn't know that!!

But I swear by sony's products!! they make great stuff!!

[Tkevan]

11:40 PM on 02/29/2012

BetaCam Sp. Super stuff for broadcast folks.

[Jim281]

01:27 PM on 02/29/2012

What I don't get is this: It is illegal to download copyrighted materials, right? But you can go on Facebook, search for just about ANY song you've ever heard, and PLAY IT, without downloading it. (As a legal internet usaer, I am simply searching for what is available. If I'm not supposed to listen to songs on Facebook, why are they there?)

[SeniorMoment]

01:45 PM on 02/29/2012

If you say is true you could face heavy fines personally, unless the songs you downloaded were licensed for that purpose. Individuals don't have the right to simply copy and distribute copyrighted songs, and the music industry targets easily identified people to collect penalties as examples, so you may in your comment have made yourself a target.

This doesn't mean I agree with the copyright law. I would rather that music performance rights be broadly available with payments from a tax or assessment, which I think is done already as part of the cost of copy machines and ink or toner for writers and publishers, since otherwise little except per page copying costs would stop people from copying entire books and magazines or taking your own hand scanner with you to the library to do that task. I may be wrong since all I heard about long ago was the proposal to reimburse printed books and publications that way. The proposal may or may not have passed.

[Jim281]

02:47 PM on 02/29/2012

Fav'd

i understand about illegal downloads of copyrighted materials. (Usually, if they are to be found, there is a warning downloading copyrighted materials, and I do not do it.)

But this is what confuses me. I do not download the songs. I just search Facebook, and if I find something I like, I simply PLAY the file, but I do not download or keep a copy of it. Sometimes I will find an alleged link, but when I go to it, I get the message "...been removed..." So what's the story on that scenario? If a file exists on Facebook, can it actually be illegal to view it?

[Sh00Fly]

11:36 AM on 02/29/2012

Kim Dotcom was ranked number one in the world at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. He uploaded the video of him reaching the achievement to his YouTube account.

CoD:MW3 is the best-selling video game of all time and is played by millions of people around the world, so it’s a pretty big achievement. By the time he had uploaded the footage of his climb to the No.1 position on the global leader board, he had amassed over 150,000 kills and a steady 2.05 K/D Ratio. He played under the gamertag of MEGARACER

Here's the link that shows the video of him obtaining the no.1 rank
http://www.kimdotcom.co.cc/2012/02/kim-dotcom-call-of-duty.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+KimDotcom+%28Kim+Dotcom%29

[Quincy Renfroe]

12:37 PM on 02/29/2012

#2 now.. i just logged on.. hahahaha

[Sh00Fly]

01:28 PM on 02/29/2012

Hardyharhar

[Runey]

02:14 PM on 03/01/2012

too bad he chose such a poor game to become masterful at.

[Sh00Fly]

02:52 PM on 03/01/2012

I don't think that the best selling video game of all time and is played by millions of people around the world is a poor game.

[Sh00Fly]

11:30 AM on 02/29/2012

Campbell Live to speak exclusively to Kim Dotcom

Tomorrow night Campbell Live will have an exclusive interview with Kim Dotcom.
Released from court again today on bail, Dotcom faces a barrage of FBI charges relating to the operation of his file sharing company Megaupload.
It is a fascinating discussion about the charges – which include racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering – the internet, his time in jail and the whole business model surrounding Hollywood.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Campbell-Live-to-speak-exclusively-to-Kim-Dotcom/tabid/817/articleID/244696/Default.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter