A couple of days ago, the team of lawyers who represent US Government filed a request in New Zealandese court for the extradition of MegaUpload founder and his associates. KimDotCom and his associates Mathias Ortmann, Bran van der Kolk and Finn Batato have been accused of breaching copyright laws and causing damages in value of half billion US dollars.
The four MegaUpload founders face multiple charges, such as charges of conspiring to commit racketeering, conspiring to commit money-laundering, copyright infringement and aiding and abetting copyright infringement. The Crown Law, the firm representing the US Government in this case of “mega conspiracy”, told the media that the extradition papers have been filed in the North Shore District Court at the beginning of this month. The group has to wait until summer for a decision as the extradition hearing has been set on August.
Kim DotCom and his associates have been arrested on January 19th and released on bail afterwards with the condition not to access the Internet. After the arrest, his accusers had 45 days to file the extradition papers and to submit reports on the raids of his house and other premises belonging to the MegaUpload founders. Analysts believe that the process is going to take a while, as many interests are involved.
The 38 year old Kim DotCom was born in Germany as Kim Schmitz and is also known as Kimble, Kim Tim Jim Vestor. He officially changed his surname to DotCom in 2005, when he founded MegaUpload Limited, a Hong Kong based file hosting and sharing business. Eventually MegaUpload became the 13th most popular website with $ 175 million revenue and 50 million visitors daily. According to statistics, 80 files were downloaded every second from MegaUpload and the affiliated websites.
Web observers believe that MegaUpload accounts for 4% of all Internet traffic until the US Justice Department shut it down. Aside form copyright infringement, there are many analysts that believe that the US Government is going to use the case as an example and officers employed excessive force during the armed raid at Kim DotCom’s $30 million mansion.
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