US Officially Requests Extradition of Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom and three of his associates have been indicted and formal extradition requests have been filed with the New Zealand government to bring the previous owners of Megaupload to the United states to stand trial. The three have been charged with charges their website facilitated millions of illegal downloads off the internet.

New Zealand justice officials say papers were filed Friday in Auckland’s North Shore District Court.

Federal prosecutors are alleging that the trio used their website to facilitate the theft of millions of dollars from American songwriters and movie makers. The three are charged with a whole host of crimes racketeering, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

As well as Dotcom, prosecutors are seeking the extradition from New Zealand of Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk. The three were the senior management of Megaupload before the feds shut it down in January.

Dotcom and the other three have been under house arrest at Dotcom Mansion for the last few months. Extradition hearings are currently being scheduled.

Dotcom, who was born in Germany and legally changed his name from Kim Schmitz, has said U.S. authorities used selective emails and other evidence in a way that was “misleading and malicious.” He said some Megaupload workers were hired specifically to take down any material that might infringe copyright, but U.S. authorities say they only deleted individual links, without removing pirated material.

The United states has also filed charges against others in Germany in connection with MegaUpload.

Do you think that Kim Dotcom should be sent to prison for 20 years?