Megaupload's Kim Dotcom faces more charges

 

More charges of copyright infringement and fraud have been brought against Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and several of his associates.

The German national, who is also known as Kim Schmitz, faces extradition to the United States for his role in megaupload.com, which US Federal prosecutors say has cost copyright holders more than $620 million in revenue lost through pirated material.

Dotcom and three others were arrested in January after police raided his rented mansion in Coatesville, Auckland, at the request of the FBI. Police cut Dotcom out of a safe room he had barricaded himself in.

Dotcom was remanded in custody until February 22 after a bail hearing this month.

In revised US court documents additional charges of criminal copyright infringement and wire fraud have been made.

The document filed in Eastern District of Virginia court alleges that the defendants reproduced copyright works directly from third-party websites, including from YouTube, and made them avaliable on Megaupload.

They are now also accused of creating a false impression that Megavideo.com hosted primarily user-generated content instead of copyright-infringing content.

It's the latest in a series of charges brought against Megaupload and Dotcom.

The original charges include conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two substantive counts of copyright infringement.

Mathias Ortmann, Bran van der Kolk and Finn Batato have been granted bail, leaving only Dotcom in jail.

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