Kim Dotcom founder of Megaupload was originally know as Kim Schmitz but has had a few name changes leading to Dotcom. The various alias has made prosecution consider him a threat to skip town and pushing for the denial of bail. Full story after the jump.
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The founder of file-sharing site Megaupload — which was shut down last Friday after the New Zealand police raided the man’s home at the request of the U.S. FBI — is still in custody Monday after a judge said he would decide by Wednesday whether or not the man would get bail.
Kim Dotcom, a German citizen also known as Kim Schmitz, appeared in court on Monday to face charges he was the leader in a conspiracy to infringe on the copyrights to the tune of $175 million.
Prosecutor Anne Toohey said Dotcom was an “extreme†flight risk, particularly since police confiscated three passports and 45 credit cards in his various names at the time of his arrest.
Paul Davison, Dotcom’s lawyer, argued there would be no chance he could get out of the country since his passports had been seized, his funds frozen and his distinctive appearance (Dotcom is reportedly 6’6″ tall and weighs 285 pounds). He also said Dotcom merely “collects†credit cards, and that many of them were out of date.
Judge David McNaughton said he couldn’t rule on bail right away since the application was too complicated. He promised a written decision no later than Wednesday.
When Dotcom was arrested, he was apparently holed up in a panic room, according to Reuters. Police had to forcibly cut him out of the room in order to arrest him. Dotcom’s country estate is vast, reports say, with several luxury cars, works of art and a custom heated lap pool.
When Megaupload was shut down last week, it came only a day after widespread online protests against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Those protests helped lead to legislators withdrawing the two bills.
Some have pointed to the Megaupload case as evidence that new legislation isn’t needed to act against flagrant copyright infringers.
In response to the raid, hacker group Anonymous attacked the websites of the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Copyright Office as well as the sites belonging to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
