

Kim Dotcom has never been shy. And in December 2011, roughly a month before things for Dotcom were set to drastically change, he still oozed with bravado: Dotcom released a song ("The Megaupload Song") in conjunction with producer Printz Board. It featured a number of major pop stars—including the likes of Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, and Serena Williams—all singing that they "love Megaupload." If the star power wasn't enough, Dotcom placed an exclamation point at the end. In the lyrics, he claimed that Megaupload comprised four percent of all Internet traffic. He rapped that the site received 50 million hits daily.

In retrospect, the tune may be more taunt than Top 40. Exactly three years ago, one month following his single, Dotcom was on the tough end of a major raid on his file-sharing empire, Megaupload, and his New Zealand mansion.

"Half a billion in harm"

Today, however, Dotcom still lives large. He remains free on bail and only has to check in with local police twice per week. In fact, the mogul has been quite active since the raid. He started two companies, released an entire album of music, separated from his wife, and founded a political party for good measure. In short, Dotcom doesn't appear to be going anywhere soon. What gives?

On January 20, 2012, New Zealand authorities raided Dotcom’s mansion, complete with two helicopters, as part of the American-led global shutdown of his Hong Kong-based file sharing company. The site made money by charging $260 for a lifetime subscription to access files on its servers. It was an incredibly profitable setup, as the government alleged in its February 2012 superseding indictment:

In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides the fast reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its computer servers located around the world. Premium users of the site, a small percentage of the overall user base, are able to download and upload files with few, if any, limitations. Subscription fees collected during the existence of the Mega Conspiracy from premium users are estimated to be more than $150 million. … For much of its Operation, the Mega Conspiracy offered an "Uploader Rewards" Program, which promised premium subscribers transfers of cash and other financial incentives to upload popular works, including copyrighted works, to computer servers under the Mega Conspiracy's direct control and for the Conspiracy's ultimate financial benefit. The more popular content that was present on Mega Conspiracy servers would increase the number of visitors and premium users that the Conspiracy could monetize. In total, the Mega Conspiracy directly paid uploaders millions of dollars through online payments. Fourth, the Mega Conspiracy spends millions of dollars per month on the infrastructure supporting their businesses, including the leasing of computers, hosting charges, and Internet bandwidth. In contrast to legitimate Internet distributors of copyrighted content, Megaupload.com does not make any significant payments to the copyright owners of the many thousands of works that are willfully reproduced and distributed on the Mega Sites each and every day.

Dotcom still faces over a dozen American criminal charges of copyright infringement, racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. There's also a civil case brought in April 2014 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and US prosecutors brought a July 2014 civil forfeiture case.

In total, American authorities allege that the "Mega Conspiracy…generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and caused more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners." For his part, Dotcom has long maintained that Megaupload was no different from any other cloud storage firm, like Google or Dropbox, and that he made good faith efforts to remove infringing content.



Delay, delay, delay

Since the Megaupload raid and Dotcom’s arrest, the United States has filed a formal extradition request with Crown Law (New Zealand prosecutors, who act here as agents of the US) to get him across the Pacific. US prosecutors want Dotcom to appear before a federal judge in Virginia where the case was filed. So why is he still in New Zealand?

In short, Dotcom’s legal team has done a fantastic job of defending their client. His lawyers have thrown wrench after wrench into the legal process, appealing at nearly every turn and challenging the validity of the warrant executed upon the Dotcom estate.

The man whom New Zealand authorities dubbed "Billy Big Steps" has won some intermediate victories along the way, including recently defeating a bid to get him thrown back in jail. In September 2012, the New Zealand Prime Minister even apologized for the government's illegal spying on Dotcom.

But in the most recent legal showdown, Dotcom’s lawyers came up short. On December 24, 2014, the Supreme Court of New Zealand found in a 5-1 decision that the search warrants served upon Dotcom and his three associates were valid, despite flaws in their drafting. That decision—seemingly exhausting all challenges to the extradition process—finally paves the way for a June 2, 2015 extradition hearing. However, this will almost certainly be appealed to the New Zealand Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The process is likely to take months, if not longer.

The bottom line: Kim Dotcom probably won’t be sent to the United States in 2015, regardless of the outcome.

"Given the size and complexity of the global criminal copyright case of first impression it is possible that the extradition hearing can be delayed further," Ira Rothken, Dotcom's lead global counsel, told Ars via text message.

"For example we are transitioning to a new legal team in New Zealand. We are attempting to unfreeze funds for legal fees and costs in New Zealand to fund counsel. If that application gets delayed or if insufficient funds are made available for a proportionately sized legal team to handle a huge file, it can cause preparation hurdles for a June hearing."

When Ars asked Rothken to clarify whether that means there would be motions to further postpone the June 2015 date, the lawyer responded: "That is under the control of the Government if they oppose a fair procedure by placing hurdles in the way of funding an extradition defense the Government could cause a delay in the extradition hearing."

Listing image by Kim Dotcom