Megaupload founder released on bail

A court in New Zealand ruled to release on bail the founder of Megaupload, Kim Dotcom. He was released under several conditions: he doesn’t have the right to use the Internet, will not travel 80km from his home except in emergency cases and no helicopters are allowed to fly to his property.

Dotcom was released on bail because the investigators claimed that he had no resources to flee New Zealand. He is said to be “highly disorganized” in his funds, as his main resources had been seized.

Still it is not clear how a person, who is owning a site the size of Megaupload, living in a $30 million estate and having contacts all around the world, wouldn’t have any kind of backup plan, being in the situation like this.

After his being granted bail, Dotcom met a lot of reporters, who asked him different questions. He answered only that he is glad to come back to his wife and children and that he plans to fight his extradition.

U.S authorities have time till March 2 to prepare all extradition papers, but the extradition hearing for Dotcom and his employees will not be until August 2012.

The situation with Megaupload is still unclear because the site contained not only copyright infringement content, but also perfectly legal files, access to which was blocked. Users want to get access to their own files, but the American government is not really concerned about this fact.

Dotcom and four employees of his were arrested January 20, 2012 after their homes and business in New Zealand were raided by police. U.S. authorities are accusing Megaupload.com of providing illegal access to films, music and other copyrighted content.

(c) Naked Security