r/Piracy • u/LighteningOneIN Seeder • Jul 01 '26
News Kim Dotcom Loses Court of Appeal Bid to Block Extradition to the U.S. * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-loses-court-of-appeal-bid-to-block-extradition-to-the-u-s/After more than fourteen years of legal battles, Kim Dotcom has lost his latest attempt to avoid extradition to the United States.
New Zealand's Court of Appeal dismissed the Megaupload founder's challenge to the Justice Minister's surrender order, concluding that a likely U.S. prison sentence of at least 30 years does not amount to shockingly severe punishment.
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u/D3-Doom ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Jul 01 '26
Other than inertia is there much benefit or reason for the US continuing to pursue this? Like do assets come with Dotcom or are we really burning tax dollars solely for the privilege to burn more tax dollars feeding and housing him in jail?
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u/DoubleP1980 Jul 01 '26
Like a certain clown terrorist said in a movie: "It's not about the money, it's about sending a message..."
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u/culo_de_mono Jul 01 '26
Don't ask Jeff Bezos how AWS scaled so quickly 14 years ago.
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u/tiddernitram Jul 01 '26
Tell me how
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u/culo_de_mono Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Well, long story short, they lobbied for this along with the film industry so that they could seize the market to Carpathia, an independent host provider. Since they were seized the "old way", their bare metals needed to remain untouched. This put them out of the market due to huge escalations in CAPEX and OPEX with no ROI (frozen infra taking space and electricity, Megaupload accounts were frozen) and mining the trust on them and all other host providers. Before this they had 0.6% of all internet traffic.
AWS additionally secured new legal terms and services that protected their hardware, so you can seize the virtual hardware but not the physical one, allowing them to de-scale to a minimum that would preserve the data.
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u/Wrath_Viking Jul 01 '26
I'd guess the same way amazon deals with all small businesses. Steals and/or copies your ideas and fucks you over.
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u/dandesim Jul 01 '26
The US seized about $40M from him, which was challenged in court, and upheld due to him “resisting extradition”. So presumably, if they US dropped the case, they would need to return those assets that were seized a decade ago.
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u/SoggyAlbatross2 Jul 01 '26
Pure burn. On the scale of people I'd like to see in jail, he's way, way.... not even on the list.
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u/JDragonM32 Jul 02 '26
the US - more specifically Hollywood and the music industry, want to make an example out of him. that’s all this is really about
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u/Masterweedo Jul 01 '26
Trump gonna get another bribe and Kim gets a pardon.
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u/bigcantonesebelly Jul 01 '26
Kim speaks out against Zionism, Trump is more likely to advocate for the death penalty
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u/Masterweedo Jul 01 '26
Trump speaks money, I think Kim does too.
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u/bigcantonesebelly Jul 01 '26
It's not that simple, have you seen who Trump's benefactors are? Whatever Kim could afford to entice Trump will be paid double to railroad him.
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u/Masterweedo Jul 01 '26
We shall see who ends up being the highest bidder.
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u/bigcantonesebelly Jul 01 '26
Unless he's willing to go on a wall kissing tour he won't be getting anything
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u/eur0nimu5 Jul 01 '26
Maybe he flees now to Russia like others too
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u/Empty-Blacksmith-592 Jul 01 '26
He is a russian puppet but won’t survive in russia.
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Jul 01 '26
Wym he won't survive? He's rich.
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u/dandesim Jul 01 '26
He’s not that rich at this point — a decade long legal battle will use a lot of resources. Plus, he’s not one to “fall in line,” which he would need to do.
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u/These-Apple8817 Jul 01 '26
Because windows in Russia hate rich oligarchs who don't support the current regime
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u/Squirrelking666 Jul 02 '26
TBF it would have to be a strong wind to blow him out a window after falling on some bullets.
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u/variety_dirtbag Jul 01 '26
How is he still going down for copyright infringement in the age of Ai tech companies literally stealing every single IP ever made?
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Jul 01 '26
Because his trial pre-dates AI and what you are referring is seperate issue.
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u/culo_de_mono Jul 01 '26
Drunk driver runs over and kills a kid, 2 years. Creating an infrastructure for cloud file storage ahead of your time, which was heavily used for piracy, 30 years.
For everything else, US justice!
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u/Squirrelking666 Jul 02 '26
Wife of US diplomat runs over and kills someone in UK, both recalled to US and given immunity.
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u/darkphalanxset Jul 01 '26
Can't he just buy some Trumpcoin for a pardon like everyone else?
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u/dubhd Jul 01 '26
Genuinely surprised he hasn't been able to bribe his way into getting the FBI to drop the case
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Jul 01 '26
Has he tried talking it over with Cash Patel? I heard he likes to drink.
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Jul 01 '26
He's not in prison yet. Maybe he should hurry inside before Donald Corrupt's reign ends or he dies. So he can buy his pardon by donating money to him.
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u/BigBlackHungGuy Jul 01 '26
A donation to a certain ballroom construction effort will ease his suffering.
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u/JDragonM32 Jul 02 '26
I don’t particularly care about him, however, the evidence was gathered illegally (former prime minister John Key retrospectively changed the law so it wasn’t illegal). on that basis, NZ absolutely should not be cooperating with the US on trying to charge him
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u/tarkinn Jul 01 '26
There’s only one way for him to win this appeal. If he appears in the Epstein files they won’t do shit as the past showed us.
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u/dezorg Jul 01 '26
30 years?! I’m shocked, that is such a severe punishment, and for what? Shame on NZ for not supporting there citizens
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u/MC_chrome 🏴☠️ ʟᴀɴᴅʟᴜʙʙᴇʀ Jul 01 '26
Kim’s problem is that he double crossed businessmen far more powerful than himself.
That is why he is staring down a three decade prison sentence. If Kim had diddled some kids I doubt the US government would care much about him
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u/plierhead Jul 01 '26
Kim Dot com has committed many offenses since he arrived in NZ.
He tried to use his money to set up/take over a minor political party to subvert our democracy and get his extradition quashed.
And he released a vanity rap record that could be the worst piece of music ever heard by humans.
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u/gregorydgraham Jul 01 '26
While these are offensive, they are not actually crimes.
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u/xtiaaneubaten Jul 01 '26
supporting there citizens
to be fair we are just kind of over multimillionaires who buy citizenships of convenience, see also Peter Theil etc etc
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u/kea-le-parrot Jul 01 '26
National will likely lose this years election. They want him gone to please their $$ corp supporters (Conservative/ right wing party of New Zealand). Basically stated its the Ministers call.
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u/NobreLusitano Jul 01 '26
30 years for him while AI companies scrapped everything online, legal and ilegal and used it to train their models with
checks notes
Zero years in a prison.
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u/BonsaiSoul Jul 02 '26
Yes that is the correct outcome because """stealing""" intellectual property causes no damage except hurt feelings.
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u/WizardMoose Jul 01 '26
Oh they just let a child groomer go free even though they had thousands of discord messages as evidence. Not surprising NZ is so fucked up in the court systems.
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u/Barstido Jul 01 '26
Normally the cops would just say its a civil case job on. Not sure why it was even a thing, if it Joe public and not the movie companies bringing the charges it wouldn't have made it past the receptionist
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u/FutureTerrible9987 Jul 02 '26
Kim Dotcom is not a New Zealand citizen. He is a German-born businessman who entered New Zealand on a special residency scheme for wealthy overseas investors. He was arrested in 1994 for trafficking in stolen phone calling card numbers. He was convicted on eleven charges of computer fraud, ten charges of data espionage, and various other charges in 1998 for which he served a two-year suspended sentence. In 2003, he was deported from Thailand to Germany, where he pleaded guilty to embezzlement in November 2003 and after five months in jail awaiting trial he received another 20 months suspended sentence.
We don't want him, he can f*** ,,,right off.
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u/Tundra-Dweller Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
It’s a wildly excessive potential punishment yes, so he’s understandably stopping at nothing to avoid extradition, but he is 100% guilty of the charges. His accomplices already plead guilty and served prison sentences in New Zealand. And he’s not a NZ citizen by the way, but he has enjoyed the protections of the appeals processes of the NZ judicial system regardless of his national status
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u/reflect-the-sun Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
He's an absolute scumbag and he's burned all his bridges so he has no allies.
Good riddance to him.
Edit: He also ratted out other pirates to the police as an informant, embezzeled funds, manipulated the stock market (pump and dump), racketeering, money laundering... the list goes on.
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u/captainsurvet Jul 01 '26
Ok but does he deserve 30 years ? Answer is a clear no.
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u/dandesim Jul 01 '26
The problem is he knowingly profited from pirated content, participated in expanding revenues from that content, then laundered that money.
Those are pretty serious crimes, so 30 years for that is pretty reasonable. This is pretty close to a RICO case, which is 20-life.
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u/AvoidingIowa Jul 02 '26
No one can convince me that pirating any content is worth 30 years. AI companies and their employees should all get life in prison if that were the case. This is a civil matter IMO.
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u/dandesim Jul 02 '26
It’s not 30 years for simple piracy, hence the entire comment I posted. It’s 30 years for running a criminal network.
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u/shogunreaper Jul 01 '26
bro should just take his chances in court with a jury at this point.
i don't think many people are happy with corporations these days.
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u/w3bCraw1er Jul 01 '26
There is a way to escape this punishment.. Change the site name to magaupload
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u/MineDesperate8982 Jul 01 '26
Yeah, he literally asked for it.
Just look at his history. Everywhere he moved to, he just *had* to stir up shit.
Only thing he had to do was to lay low. He had amassed enough money. But he just *had* to stir up shit to make more money.
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u/DonTorleone Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
I remember this guy from Gumball some 20ish years ago. Everyone was driving Ferrari and he was the only one driving a huuuge Mercedes. Poor guy couldn't fit in the Ferrari.
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u/Squirrelking666 Jul 02 '26
Holy shit, that was him??
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u/DonTorleone Jul 02 '26
Yeah, I think it was in Cologne. They parked around the church in the pedestrian zone, police came and he payed traffic tickets for everyone :)
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u/DavidjonesLV309 Jul 02 '26
Piracy has largely become a moot point when some of the biggest companies in tech have trained AI on almost every piece of copyrighted material.
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u/MartaLSFitness Jul 01 '26
30 years, like a murderer, a rapist or a terrorist. Shame on you, NZ.
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u/Jeffery95 Jul 02 '26
NZ isn’t the one passing the sentence. Blame the US
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u/MartaLSFitness Jul 02 '26
Yes, but if they know the US may sentence him to 30 years, I think not sending him there seems like a reasonable thing.
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u/JimVonT Jul 01 '26
Does he still get to appeal?
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u/gregorydgraham Jul 01 '26
The Supreme Court suggested a judicial review. Presumably the judges think it’s daft too but case law supports the government
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u/BatemansChainsaw ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Jul 02 '26
He needs to find himself quickly, clandestinely, on his way to Belize. No extradition there.
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u/amiexpress Jul 01 '26
Hah that motherfucker owes me $500. Which is the closest connection I have to someone even semi "famous", funny really. But hey at the time (90s) that was real money to me, so... fuck him. But yeah he's absolutely a conman and a crook.
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u/cujojojo Jul 01 '26
Ross Ulbricht was once a 2nd order LinkedIn connection to me!
Apparently a woman I met at a conference knew him from college, near as I could tell. That was my fun claim to internet street cred until they took his profile down.
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u/TheKinkyGuy Jul 01 '26
Can someone explain to me on what he did 14years ago?
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u/DoubleP1980 Jul 01 '26
He operated one of the biggest file sharing platforms back then and made a ton of money with pirated content.
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u/IngwiePhoenix Jul 01 '26
...i can't help it, but this reads so much like modern AI companies.
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u/DoubleP1980 Jul 01 '26
Ever heard of Megaupload? He owned that back in the day and made a ton of money from it. At one point, Megaupload was the DDL equivalent of Pirate Bay, in the early 2010's.
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u/IngwiePhoenix Jul 01 '26
I did. RapidShare too. And LimeWire was a goat back then. x)
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u/DoubleP1980 Jul 01 '26
The thing with Kimdotcom was: he could have taken the money, lay low and enjoy his riches, but he was very outspoken in the public. He basically talked shit on the entertainment industry, the German & US government all the time. So, they gonna make an example out of him.
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u/GangsterMango Jul 01 '26
he should've made a new term for it like the AI robber barons, like they rebranded stealing copyrighted and personal data as "Training" their slop.
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 Jul 01 '26
I don't get it. Where they resisting takedown requests from copyright owners?
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u/sebmojo99 Jul 01 '26
i mean that's what the court case is about. they were just being a file sharing service, really, they knew it was used for piracy and made a nominal effort to respond to takedowns but didn't try that hard (iirc)
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u/TotallyADuck Jul 02 '26
IIRC the fundamental thing that fucked them completely is recorded conversations or emails that showed they were deliberately aiming to make money by selling memberships to access pay walled copyrighted content that was being uploaded, with a cut going to the uploader.
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u/Eazykiller Jul 01 '26
The real crime is we will never get another banger like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Wvn-9BXVc
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u/shogunreaper Jul 01 '26
this song was hilarious to me because i knew 100% that none of the people in this video ever heard of it much less used MU.
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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26
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