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Court rules Kim Dotcom can be extradited to the US
Kim Dotcom, who has been in the news so often that it's hard to believe his company MegaUpload was shut down way back in 2012, is running out of lives. A New Zealand appeals court has ruled that he can be extradited to the US to face criminal copyright infringement charges. Dotcom's lawyer Ira Rothken tweeted that he's "disappointed" with the decision, and plans to make a final appeal to the New Zealand Supreme Court.
Kim Dotcom sues the New Zealand government for $6.8 billion
Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing site MegaUpload, is suing the New Zealand government for $6.8 billion dollars. According to the legal documents provided by the BBC, the claim covers the destruction of his business, loss of reputation, lost business opportunities, legal costs and lost opportunities on the home he was renting.
Supreme Court denies Kim Dotcom petition to keep $40 million in assets
Kim Dotcom, the founder of illegal file-sharing site Megaupload, was arrested in 2012 by New Zealand authorities on behalf of the US. He still has not been extradited to the US, however. In April of this year, the file-sharing maven asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a 2014 ruling that let US authorities keep $75 million in assets seized during the original raid on his house. The petition was denied on October 2nd, which allows the seizure order to remain intact.
Kim Dotcom asks the Supreme Court to hear him out
Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing website Megaupload, is taking his case to the United States Supreme Court. He's petitioned the highest court in the land to overturn a ruling allowing US authorities to keep $75 million in assets seized during a 2012 raid on Dotcom's house in Auckland, New Zealand.
Kim Dotcom will be allowed to stream his extradition appeal
The extradition case for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can be streamed on YouTube, a New Zealand court has ruled. The German internet entrepreneur -- now living in Auckland, the nation's largest city -- and three of his former colleagues began a six-week hearing earlier this week to appeal a December court decision that allows them to be extradited to the US to face conspiracy, racketeering and money-laundering charges.
Kim Dotcom hopes to livestream his extradition appeal
Megaupload creator Kim Dotcom is in the fight of his life as he appeals his possible extradition to the US, and he wants everyone to know it. He's requesting that the Auckland, New Zealand court hearing his case should let him livestream the hearing on YouTube. Dotcom and his lawyer Ira Rothken argue that this is the definition of a "public interest" case. Megaupload's abrupt shutdown over allegedly facilitating piracy, and the resulting criminal action, supposedly had a far-reaching effect on the internet.
Kim Dotcom could face extradition to the US
Kim Dotcom, essentially the Motion Picture Association of America and Digital Millennium Copyright Act's de facto prime target, and his colleagues actually can be extradited to the United States to face copyright charges according to a judicial ruling. However, don't expect the man behind Megaupload to appear stateside anytime soon.As The New Zealand Herald, Dotcom's local news publication, tells it, the internet mogul has 15 days to appeal or apply for a writ of habeas corpus (produce the body) and it looks like his legal defense team is already taking care of that. In addition to copyright infringement, he faces charges for racketeering and money laundering as well. The BBC reports that he owes domestic authorities somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million.
Kim Dotcom promises to launch an open-source competitor to Mega (updated)
Third time's a charm. Kim Dotcom -- creator of Megaupload and Mega file-sharing sites, New Zealand politician, US fugitive -- plans to launch a third cloud-storage company when his existing non-compete clause runs out at the end of the year. Dotcom briefly outlined his plans for a new site in a Slashdot user interview, saying, "I will create a Mega competitor that is completely open source and non-profit, similar to the Wikipedia model. I want to give everyone free, unlimited and encrypted cloud storage with the help of donations from the community to keep things going."
Kim Dotcom's secure chat service is launching 'soon'
Kim Dotcom has been touting development of a secure chat service for more than a year, but it looks like those plans are finally firming up. He now claims that the project will launch "soon," and suggests that it might be named MegaChat. Whatever it's called, it still amounts to a more NSA-resistant alternative to Skype. You'll get a "fully encrypted," web-based chat and video calling service that lets you quickly send large files (through Mega, naturally). That's all well and good, although it'll be better when Dotcom has something you can actually try -- it's easy to make big promises, after all, and this internet mogul won't recover his lost fortunes without a real product. [Image credit: Thierry Ehrmann, Flickr]
Kim Dotcom says he's broke
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom might have been able to reclaim his New Zealand finances earlier this year, but his ensuing legal fight against internet piracy charges has apparently evaporated that. The entrepreneur told the BBC that he' has gone through $10 million in legal costs. His legal defense team stepped down two weeks ago causing Dotcom to initially claim he might have to represent himself at his bail hearing (which began earlier today). While Dotcom was able to reclaim some assets, dozens of bank accounts remain frozen. Dotcom's follow-up online storage service, Mega was valued at $164 million in March, although as the BBC reports, the founder doesn't hold a stake in the company. Financial troubles have also been compounded by his political party, the Internet Party, which failed to claim a single seat in New Zealand's general election two months ago.
Kim Dotcom will celebrate getting his fortune back on the race track
Kim Dotcom's getting his fortune back, and to celebrate, he's throwing a party. The Megaupload founder tweeted this morning that Auckland's High Court will return the cash, vehicles and property that were seized on behalf of the US back in 2012. On hearing the news, Dotcom tweeted that when he gets his stuff back, which should be within the fortnight, he will rent out New Zealand's Taupo race track and invite members of his political party, the Internet Party, over for a track day. We're not sure if it's open to current members only, but we doubt there's any harm in signing up, hell, you might just get a ride in his prized Rolls Royce for your trouble.
Big music labels file their own lawsuit against Megaupload over piracy
The seemingly inevitable has happened: following in the footsteps of the MPAA, the big music labels behind the RIAA have filed a copyright lawsuit against Megaupload. The companies assert that Kim Dotcom and crew both fostered and "handsomely profited from" illegally copied tunes shared through the service before the federal government shut it down. The RIAA is quick to add that Megaupload's death resulted in a drop in piracy across the board -- that's surely evidence that it was up to no good, right?
Daily Roundup: Facebook's visual history, Office for iPad and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud app for iOS now auto-uploads your snapshots
Sure Kim Dotcom recently dropped an album, but that doesn't mean he's leaving his other projects to rot. His Mega cloud storage app for iOS just got a refresh, and it now comes with PhotoSync, which enables the app to automatically upload any new pictures you take, just like Dropbox and other backup services. It's pretty customizable, and you can toggle on cellular data upload in the absence of WiFi, as well as turn on an option that instructs Mega to sync images whenever you change locations. In an effort to protect those images (and other files) from prying eyes, Mega also added a four-digit passcode protection system. It has the power to erase all data after ten failed attempts at guessing the combination, so no nosy friend can see the selfies you took while rocking out to Change Your Life.
Kim Dotcom's Baboom service will hijack web ads to give you free music
Kim Dotcom built his reputation on free services -- much to the chagrin of some people -- and he's revisiting that turf with his upcoming music offering, Baboom. As he explains in an interview with Wired UK, the service will be an "iTunes-Spotify hybrid" that both sells music and offers it for free through ad deals. However, its approach to ad-supported tunes is bound to raise eyebrows -- users will install a browser plugin that replaces web ads with those from Baboom, paying surfers with cash that they can spend on songs. Typical users could earn 10 free albums a year through their browsing habits, Dotcom claims. The tech luminary will demonstrate the concept by soft-launching Baboom with his own music in January, following up with full service a few months later. The business model is intriguing, although it may face stiff resistance; we can't imagine that rival advertisers and website owners will enjoy losing revenue. [Image credit: Thierry Ehrmann, Flickr]
Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud storage exits beta, secure messaging and video chat due next year
The feds may have taken Megaupload to the big cloud storage facility in the sky, but Kim Dotcom's followup Mega is going strong and now out of beta. That official launch includes a new web UI with tweaks focused on making everything faster and more efficient, including local caching that only syncs changes made since the last time you connected. Sharing among friends should also be easier, with user avatars for a visual reminder of who's who plus contact management that shows how many files someone is sharing with you and when they were last updated. The final tweaks mentioned are tree style navigation between folders, the ability to move around the site while continuing file transfers and a custom Firefox extension. So what's next for Mega? Its iOS app has been submitted for review (it's already available on Android), and is expected in the next month along with a Sync desktop app headed for Windows, OS X and Linux. Looking down the road into 2014, the company also previewed encrypted communications services (including file attachments, of course) for text messaging between members and video conferencing built to keep prying eyes locked out.
Kim Dotcom's Mega coming soon to iOS
Kim Dotcom's cloud storage file-sharing service, called Mega, is coming soon to iOS. The service launched earlier this year to mark the one-year anniversary of the US government's seizure of Megaupload.com. Mega works like many other cloud storage solutions, like Dropbox. However, Mega offers users 50 GB of free storage right off the bat. Users have the option to buy more storage up to 4 TB. The news of Mega coming to iOS came from Mega's blog. Mega has launched an Android version of its app and it says the iOS version will follow soon. It's likely the iOS app will have the same features as the Android app, so Mega fans on iOS can probably expect the same camera sync, file sharing and export features found in the Android version.
Kim Dotcom's Mega launches Android app, vows iOS and Windows apps soon
Kim Dotcom launched his Mega cloud storage platform with much fanfare, but few ways to use it. That's finally improving now that the Mega Android app is here. The release won't shock anyone who has used established rivals like Dropbox and Google Drive, but it is reasonably complete with two-way transfers, image previews and automatic camera syncing. It won't be alone for long, either. Mega says that both iOS and Windows apps are in the last stages of testing, which could give us more of an incentive to try what's still a very young service.
Editorial: Kim Dotcom, noisy rogue with a commonplace startup idea
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing has traditionally operated on a narrow ledge between perceptions of legality and illegality. The legitimacy of underlying file-transfer technology is never in dispute, though media companies might hate the unleashing of content that it represents. The narrow ledge is balanced between two activities: directly infringing copyright (what some users do), and indirectly facilitating infringement by providing a platform that makes it easy (what P2P platforms do). One purpose of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is to protect the technology of file sharing, and companies that use it, by inventing a theoretical "safe harbor" that shelters all sorts of user-powered platforms from the consequences of illegal actions by the users. If media companies hate digitization generally, they particularly loathe Kim Dotcom and his entrepreneurial file-transfer platforms. Their revulsion was fulfilled exactly a year ago when the US Justice Department shut down Megaupload.com, a network of shareable cloud lockers focused on music, movies and images. Like a recurring nightmare, and in apparent commemoration of the anniversary, Megaupload's bumptious founder is launching Mega, an evolved version of the same idea. Mega further narrows the P2P ledge and fleshes out its founder's complex ambition.
Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud storage launches for early adopters
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has been promising what's almost a sort of renaissance through his Mega cloud storage service. Now that it's open to the first wave of users, we have an inkling of what that strategy shift entails. Mega is currently just a simple-to-use parking place for data with a relatively large 50GB of storage in a free tier. However, it may grow quickly: there's promises of Google Docs-style editing, instant messaging and mobile access, among other plans. Eventual paid plans will offer considerably more storage of between 500GB for €10 per month ($13) to 4TB for €30 ($40), albeit with a bandwidth cap of twice the storage at any given level. As such, Mega is mostly a bundle of potential -- but it may stand out from the pack if ambition matches reality.