Justice minister signs extradition order for Megaupload founder 12 years after FBI-ordered raid over filesharing site

Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, is to be extradited to the US, the New Zealand justice minister has said.

German-born Dotcom has New Zealand residency and has been fighting extradition to the US since 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.

The justice minister, Paul Goldsmith, had signed an extradition order for Dotcom, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial,” Goldsmith said in a statement.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Dotcom said: “The obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload,” in what appears to be a reference to the extradition order.

  • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de
    1583·
    3 months ago

    the whole math of “stole $500 million” is stupid. That is hypothetical money. It is just not true that all people would have purchased instead without megaupload.

    “Which generated $175 million for the site” that’s more like it. Making money with other people’s content is shitty and Kim knew it was happening.

    I don’t think he should be extradited but that is at least a decent reason.

    • thericofactor@sh.itjust.works
      551·
      3 months ago

      “Making money with other people’s content is shitty”

      What reddit, xitter, meta and pretty every big corporation is doing right now with A.I.?

            • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
              5·
              3 months ago

              I think it only makes sense to criminally charge the CEO’s of AI companies if the same thing is being done to Kim Dotcom

              —Regardless, my initial post was meant to be satire

              —Personally speaking I don’t think all laws on the books are ethical, nor do I think everything that’s unethical is against the law. With that in mind, I don’t care if Kim Dotcom was an asshole because I can’t earnestly argue on behalf of our Intellectual Property laws in the first place. I think they create a framework that is so far beyond reasonable, that my only response is to condone piracy as I have done since long before they raided his mansion.

      • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
        122·
        3 months ago

        Except that when you post to Reddit, you grant them “a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content and any name, username, voice, or likeness provided in connection with Your Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed anywhere in the world. This license includes the right for us to make Your Content available for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication by other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Reddit.”

        ~ Sauce

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          62·
          3 months ago

          oh its written somewhere, that makes it totally ok to steal content then, carry on

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
            2·
            3 months ago

            Yeah seriously. The whole idea that people can be fucked by fine print in some one sided agreement specifically designed to discourage people from reading is one of the dumbest things our species collectively goes along with.

    • Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com
      12·
      3 months ago

      Completely agree, if you’re going in search of a movie online, even if you can’t find it, you’re not guaranteed to go out and buy it full price, it’s often a matter of both convenience & price. It’s hard to compete with a free download.

        • Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com
          3·
          3 months ago

          Can confirm, since I have almost every streaming service I rarely consider pirating at all, now I don’t pay for any but 1, so if password crackdowns or location based logins become widespread I’ll be motivated to raise the flag again

    • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
      26·
      3 months ago

      Aye, me too. But does it not make you think… Is there anything we can collectively do to help?

      I know he’s had his issues, but man, he gave us access to do many things back in the day