AfterDawn: News

Kim Dotcom sues government for billions

Founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload is suing the government of New Zealand for billions of dollars.

Megaupload allowed users around the world to upload files to its service which could be later downloaded by others with the same link. In January 2012, New Zealand police raided the home of founder Kim Dotcom while investigating alleged copyright infringement offenses.



In the six years that has passed since the raid, the Kim Dotcom saga has dragged on as he has fought extradition to the United States on copyright infringement charges.

Kim is now suing the government of New Zealand, claiming up to $6.8 billion in damages due to all lost business opportunities since 2012, his legal fees, the damage to his reputation and more.

At the core of his defense is the assertion that the warrants used for the raid on his mansion in January 2012 were based on Section 131 of the 1994 Copyright Act of New Zealand. Technically, under that copyright act, online copyright infringement is not a crime.

Source: BBC News

Written by: James Delahunty @ 22 Jan 2018 10:24

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• 8 comments

• gDavid

  I hope that he wins.

  22.1.2018 12:26 #1

• Bozobub

  Quote: Technically, under that copyright act, online copyright infringement is not a crime.
  Ouch. Technically, NZ's government is hosed =x.

  22.1.2018 15:23 #2

• scorpNZ

  What he wants & what he gets if anything are two different stories.This isn't like the U.S where massive ridiculous amounts are awarded.Down here he'll get a pittance
  

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  23.1.2018 19:24 #3

• ivymike

  Take NZ to the cleaners, Kim.
  

  24.1.2018 02:24 #4

• Bozobub

  Originally posted by scorpNZ: What he wants & what he gets if anything are two different stories.This isn't like the U.S where massive ridiculous amounts are awarded.Down here he'll get a pittance
  Perhaps so. But he'll also gain security for both his own person and for his new company, "Mega", which is invaluable.

  24.1.2018 10:24 #5

• KillerBug

  I'd love to see him sue the US government. These days services like Megashare are commonplace; offered by companies like Microsoft and Google...they don't do it as well, but same concept. While some were using Megashare illegally, others were using it for cloud backup.
  
  Personally I lost my cloud backup the same week my raid controller freaked out and destroyed both halves of a mirror. Just think if they did that today...when using the cloud for backups is common.

  26.1.2018 08:26 #6

• Mr-Movies

  I hope he wins too! The amount he is suing for seems low ball to me for the time & factors involved.
  

  27.1.2018 21:10 #7

• isamu159

  I hope he wins in both courts (US and NZ).

  31.1.2018 17:23 #8