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Lobbying in full swing in Megaupload case

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Lobbying in full swing in Megaupload case

3News NZ

Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom

Lobbying is continuing unabated ahead of the hearing of a bid to have copyright, money laundering and racketeering charges thrown out in the Megaupload case.

Marc Miller, the Motion Picture Association of America's senior vice President for internet content protection, has labelled Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom a career criminal.

He was speaking ahead of a hearing expected in Alexandria, Virginia, on Saturday NZT to deal with a motion brought by Dotcom's defence team to dismiss Megaupload Ltd as a defendant in the case.

Mr Miller says that even if the court accepts the motion to dismiss the charges against the company, the individual defendants, including Dotcom, will still face copyright, money laundering and racketeering charges, the New Zealand Herald reported.

"This is a criminal case involving a criminal enterprise that was conducted on a large scale as detailed in the indictment by the government," he said.

Dotcom has been using social media to rally public support and has released a new music video, Mr President, which alleges Hollywood is working in tandem with the US government to stifle innovation.

Reuters reported that Megaupload was actually among the more law-compliant of the major sites that allegedly facilitated piracy, citing a memo penned for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

NZN

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Comments

28/07/2012 8:37:41 a.m.

Mike wrote:

YouTube has resources pulling stuff off the internet which Megaupload saved money by not doing. In some places Megaupload even advertised they didn't police their servers in an effort to drum up more business.

Megaupload operated in the US with US based servers, and their biggest customer base was in the US, paying into US accounts in US $'s. Thats operating in the US and subject to the US legal system which Megaupload chose to ignore.

The US legal system views internet companies much like a private post/customs office. While they are not liable for any contraband package that goes through that they were not involved in they are liable to a duty of care to check for some contraband and remove it. Megaupload had about 4 years to clean up their act, and chose not to. After multiple warnings dotcom chose moving to NZ to move away from US justice - think of it like a bank robber moving out of the country they robbed a bank in to escape justice.

As for NZ police handing info to the FBI, all they needed to do was post on the internet, and if the FBI obtained a copy by downloading, nobody had done any wrong, as this is exactly the problem Megaupload chose to do. If it is okay for Megaupload in the US, then its okay for NZ police who weren't subject to US law here in NZ.

27/07/2012 1:51:51 p.m.

adam macdaddy wrote:

The leaked IFPI report shows evidence that Megaupload is innocent of media-piracy!!! The report shows 'FileSonic' & 'MediaFile' competitors of more piracy than Megaupload. !!!!????!!!! WTF is going on in govt? how deep is this rabbit hole?

26/07/2012 6:46:17 p.m.

Greg wrote:

Most people I know steal their music from YouTube. Not a single person I've ever met has used a Kim Dotcom product to pirate steal anything. I call for the immediate shut down and surrender of assets of YouTube.