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Agence France-Presse

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom suffered a major setback in his epic legal battle against online piracy charges Thursday when New Zealand’s Court of Appeal ruled he was eligible for extradition to the United States.
The German national, who is accused of netting millions from his file sharing Megaupload empire, faces charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering in the US, carrying jail terms of up to 20 years.
Dotcom had asked the court to overturn two previous rulings that the internet mogul and his three co-accused be sent to America to face charges.

Instead, a panel of three judges backed the FBI-led case, which began with a raid on Dotcom’s Auckland mansion in January 2012 and has dragged on for more than six years.
The court said US authorities had “a clear prima facie case to support the allegations that the appellants conspired to, and did, breach copyright wilfully and on a massive scale for commercial gain”.

My statement about the disappointing judgement by the NZ Court of Appealhttps://t.co/7NFqGoSWIl
A judgement in complete denial of the legislative history and intention of the Copyright Act. Therefore it has the value of toilet paper. We will now appeal to the Supreme Court.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 5, 2018

Dotcom is accused of industrial-scale online piracy via Megaupload, which US authorities shut down when the raid took place.
They allege Megaupload netted more than US$175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners US$500 million-plus by offering pirated content including films and music.

2375 days since the raid
2345 days on bail
670 times bail reporting
165 total days in Court
40 million in legal fees
Was all of the above done to me and my family against the law?
We’ll find out in 12 hours.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 4, 2018

“We are disappointed with today’s judgment by the NZ Court of Appeal in the Kim Dotcom case,” his lawyer Ira Rothken tweeted, indicating there would be an appeal to the Supreme Court.
“We have now been to three courts each with a different legal analysis – one of which thought that there was no copyright infringement at all.”

We are disappointed with today’s Judgment by the NZ Court of Appeal in the @KimDotcom case. We have now been to three courts each with a different legal analysis - one of which thought that there was no copyright infringement at all. We will seek review with the NZ Supreme Court.
— Ira Rothken (@rothken) July 4, 2018

Dotcom and his co-accused – Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk – have denied any wrongdoing and say Megaupload was simply a case of established interests being threatened by online innovation.
The website was an early example of cloud computing, allowing users to upload large files onto a server so others could easily download them without clogging up their email systems.
At its height in 2011, Megaupload claimed to have 50 million daily users and account for four per cent of the world’s internet traffic.

Dotcom’s lengthy legal battle has previously seen the District and High Courts find against him.
In its 120-page judgment, the Court of Appeal indicated it wanted the matter resolved swiftly.
“We direct that the District Court should now proceed without further delay to complete its duties under section 26 of the Extradition Act in accordance with the determination,” it said.
Under the Extradition Act, Justice Minister Andrew Little can now sign an order to extradite Dotcom to the United States.
Dotcom can take his appeal to the Supreme Court, New Zealand’s final avenue of appeal, but will need compelling new evidence that he was facing a miscarriage of justice.
Rothken confirmed his client was not giving up.
“We will seek review with the NZ Supreme Court,” he tweeted.
Born in Germany as Kim Schmitz, Dotcom founded Megaupload in 2005.
At one point he lived in a Hong Kong hotel, before being granted permanent residency in New Zealand in 2010. He was arrested in New Zealand in 2012 during a dramatic police raid on his mansion and incarcerated for a month before being released on bail.
Since then, Dotcom has released a music album, started another internet file-sharing company called Mega and launched a political party, which unsuccessfully contested the nation’s 2014 election.
On January 20, Dotcom married Elizabeth Donnelly in a private wedding ceremony in Auckland.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Associated Press


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Kim Dotcom and wife Elizabeth in New Zealand, The Megaupload founder has lost his latest bid to avoid extradition to the US to face criminal charges. Photo: Twitter/Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom photograph at the Dotcom Mansion on the 19th of March 2013 in Auckland New Zealand. AFP PHOTO / Michael Bradley

Tow trucks wait to remove vehicles from Kim Dotcom's house in Coatesville, north west of Auckland, New Zealand Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. Police arrested founder Kim Dotcom and three employees of Megaupload.com, a giant Internet file-sharing site, on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. (AP Photo/NZ Herald, Natalie Slade) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUT

Internet mogul Kim Dotcom with his wife Liz Dotcom. Photo: AFP PHOTO/KATE DWEK

The story behind Kim Dotcom movie about internet millionaire’s journey from Hong Kong to New Zealand and his legal battles

Kim’s personal story is Shakespearean in its ups and downs, says director of government-funded documentary that had its premiere in US this week as web entrepreneur fights extradition to face piracy charges there

Portrait of Annie Goldson, director of the film Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web.

Kim Dotcom re-enacts the police raid on his house in New Zealand and his arrest on its first anniversary, in January 2013.

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The US is seeking Kim Dotcom’s extradition over his now defunct file-sharing website Megaupload.com, which is alleged to have been the vehicle for the biggest copyright infringement in US history


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