New Zealand authorities may be forced to return millions of dollars in personal property of MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom that was seized in connection with his January arrest because of a procedural error in court documents, according to the New Zealand Herald. Luxury cars, cash and other property were seized under a specific type of court order which should never have been granted, a judge ruled late last week, declaring the order “null and void” and having “no legal effect.” Police arrested DotCom on January 19 at his mansion outside Auckland at the request of the United States government. U.S officials allege he is the mastermind of a criminal enterprise designed to facilitate massive theft of movies, TV shows and music. Police and government officials acknowledge making the embarrassing “procedural error” in documents filed to authorize seizure of DotCom’s assets. Unless his attorneys can prove authorities acted in bad faith, however, Dotcom isn’t necessarily guaranteed to get his property back. Seizure of those assets have crippled DotCom’s financial ability to fight the charges and his extradition to the U.S., but he was released on bail about a month after his arrest.


Was Megaupload Targeted Because Of Its Upcoming Megabox Digital Jukebox Service?
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/was-megaupload-targeted-because-of-its-upcoming-megabox-digital-jukebox-service/
Dotcom described Megabox as Megaupload’s iTunes competitor, which would even eventually offer free premium movies via Megamovie, a site set to launch in 2012. This service would take Megaupload from being just a digital locker site to a full-fledged player in the digital content game.
The kicker was Megabox would cater to unsigned artists and allow anyone to sell their creations while allowing the artist to retain 90% of the earnings. Or, artists could even giveaway their songs and would be paid through a service called Megakey. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works,” Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak in December. Megabox was planning on bypassing the labels, RIAA, and the entire music establishment.
Sooner or later a service that takes out the middle man will come.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a greaseball like Kim-Boy. He’d probably find a way to rip the artists off and the 90% number would just be some kind of marketing gag.
Kim isn’t important, but his case was interesting enough it created even a conspiration theory.
Interesting.
Criminal mastermind? Did the guy twirl his mustache while sitting at a computer screen too?
Indeed he did, Marc. He then went on to swivel in his leather chair and stroke a white Persian cat while saying, “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!” before giving a maniacal laugh, throwing an underling to the piranhas and using his personal escape pod. Except he was too fat to fit inside, which is how he got caught.
I forgot: he also tied a blond woman to the railroad tracks and swirled his black cape dramatically as he drew the sword from his cane and dueled with police, swinging from the chandelier as he did so.
So does that make him OK? An upstanding citizen now? Lol!
Yes, he and Ryan Braun are perfect upstanding individuals wronged by a corrupt system out to get them for no reason.
The guy’s last name is DOTcom. You can’t make this stuff up.
He legally changed his name, its not his given name, please do some basic level research before you troll
alex – His last name IS Dotcom. No trolling here.
Yeah, and Chad Ochocinco’s jersey number is 85! What a coincidence!
Not sure how the fact that he legally changed it has anything to do with the original comment. He’s stating a fact. What kind of person legally changes their name to dotcom?
I hope New Zealand will find other ways to take the stolen money away from him.
I’d like to see a case study involving people who proudly steal online and the pschology behind the entitlement. There are so many people that viciously defend their position on why they deserve free content it’s mind blowing.