Simon Denny
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Work from The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom
“The legal issues around Kim Dotcom’s file-sharing site Megaupload, once one of the most popular platforms for data exchange on the Internet, has had unprecedented consequences for international data exchange, international law, and the local media landscape in New Zealand. Following investigations by the FBI and a suit by a US court, Megaupload and Megavideo were closed down in January 2012, according to the indicment “to stop a globally operating criminal organization, whose members were perpetrating large-scale copyright infringements and laundering vast sums of money, with a total damage of more than 500 million US dollars.”
When the New Zealand police raided German-born Dotcom’s Coatesville mansion, arresting him and closing down his file-sharing website, they seized a number of objects in his possession. These included US $175 million dollars in cash, 60 Dell servers, 22 luxury cars, numerous screens, and works of art. The legitimacy of this police operation was later questioned while, in light of the crimes of which Dotcom is accused, there has been much debate about the ownership and transfer of data.”