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NEW ZEALAND’S HIGH Court has ruled that Kim Dotcom is eligible for extradition to the United States over online piracy allegations linked to his now-defunct Megaupload web empire.
But defence lawyers immediately vowed to appeal the decision and maintain the long-running battle to stop Dotcom being sent for trial in the United States.
“We are far from defeated,” Dotcom’s barrister Ron Mansfield said in a statement.
Dotcom himself lashed out at the judgement on Twitter, arguing he had proved his central legal point that copyright is not an extraditable offence.
“It’s a political case. It’s a political judgement,” he tweeted.
“I told you I can’t be extradited for copyright and I was right. What is this? Sharia law?”
The FBI alleges Megaupload netted more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than $500 million by offering pirated content.
Dotcom has denied any wrongdoing and accused US authorities of pursuing a vendetta against him on behalf of politically influential Hollywood studios.
He argues Megaupload was a genuine file-sharing site that did its best to police copyright infringement but had 50 million daily users and could not control every aspect of their activity.
Dotcom, a German with permanent residency in New Zealand, faces decades in jail if convicted in the United States of piracy.
He was first arrested more than five years ago when armed police staged a dawn raid on his mansion near Auckland as the FBI shut down Megaupload’s servers in the United States.
Since then, the fight to avoid extradition has become a war of legal attrition, resulting in numerous court hearings and appeals.
‘Extremely disappointing’
In the decision, High Court judge Murray Gilbert upheld an earlier District Court ruling that there was “overwhelming” evidence to extradite Dotcom and his three co-accused.
Gilbert accepted Dotcom’s argument that copyright infringement was not a criminal offence under New Zealand law, so he could not be extradited for it.
But he said there was enough evidence to put Dotcom on trial for criminal fraud, meaning he could be sent to America.
Mansfield said the extradition decision was “extremely disappointing” but the copyright finding was a crucial legal point that could overturn the ruling.
“The last hurdle to what we say is the correct outcome — no extradition — will now need to be determined by the Court of Appeal,” he said.
“We remain confident that this last point, which would prevent extradition in this complex and unprecedented legal case, will be resolved in Kim’s favour.”
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 4% of the world’s Internet traffic.
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“Those with the most to lose in Ireland, Messrs Quinn, Fitzpatrick and Drumm, for example, are all taking very different approaches.”
Lets not kid ourselves. These people are not the one with the most to lose. Ordinary people are. NIck might well feel he has done his bit in prison and therefore the world was set to right. But he make no mention of the companies gone bust, people out of work, people who had to choose to to pay to health care or feed their kids becuse of the actions of people like those mentioned above or indeed his own.
Do i think these folks should se the inside of a prison? For sure. But we shouldnt be under any illusion that justice is being served (rather than some social blood letting is underway) when the very system that Nick was involved in 13 years ago is exactly the same financial system on place today that gives power to Quinn, Fitzpatrick and Drumm etc to completely mess up our futures. Real justice demands real structural changes to how power and democractic control over our own futures.
Nice comment. well put.
The humility you so obviously display after what can only be described as the pits of hell in that prison is an education. I cant even for a minute contemplate what you went through but you know you paid your price faced up to your massive mistakes and acknowledged you did wrong it takes an intelligent person to do that – thank you for the article this morning
I honestly don’t think Ireland can move on until people like Sean Fitzpatrick are sentenced to long prison sentences! People’s confidence first and foremost has to be restored! However when no apparent action is ever likely to be taken against the likes of Mick Wallace, Ireland can never move on! The Fine Gael/ Labour government are proving to be just as culpable as their predecessors when it comes to turning a blind eye to crimes committed by their own kind! Jailing these people won’t solve our immediate problems, but it will inspire confidence and belief that this country can become a great place to live in once again!
Nick, that sounds like a seriously tough prison. Do you think you would have the same outlook now if you had served time in an Irish prison? I know its not luxurious but do you think that having TV’s, reasonable food, plenty of activities/exercise might not give you the time and space you need to come to terms with why you’re actually there?
Well if not I’m sure we can get a few sadistic volunteers to beat that “time and space” into their lives.
Read human rights reports on our prisons. They’re not pleasant, only recently has reasonable food come in and they’re are most definitely not getting plenty of activities/exercise in any of the prisons I’ve read of.
Now theres a thought, Quinn, Fitzpatrick and Drumm drinking from the prison toilet bowl
I appreciate the very candid and insightful article. It’s a shame that the correctional services don’t have this kind of successful rehabilitation more often. It takes a lot of courage to suffer the level of humiliation that Nick suffered and come out looking people eye to eye.
Mike
I enjoyed your opinion piece. Thank you. It is the clear thesis of the piece that time spent in prison allowed you to progress.It is not so clear why. Could you possibly elaborate on this?
Brilliant article. When you have to honestly face up to your own crap more than you ever imagined the permanent freedom you get from it afterwards is amazing.
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