Last week German-born entrepreneur Kim Dotcom returned to the news in dramatic fashion, warning the world to steer well clear of the file-hosting service he once set up, Mega.

Dotcom publicly claims Mega has been subject to a hostile takeover by Chinese investor Bill Liu, whose shares have subsequently been seized by the New Zealand government. As a result, he does not believe Mega customer data is secure anymore -- despite security being the number one reason Dotcom decided to set up the site following the seizure of Megaupload by the FBI in 2012, due to alleged copyright infringement.

Mega has denied Dotcom's claims, responding to each in a detailed rebuttal.


But in a new statement published today on WIRED's Facebook page, Dotcom explained the reasons behind his total lack of faith in Mega. Dotcom said: "I don't trust the new control group of Mega and it saddens me to see Mega in the hands of bad actors like Bill Liu and copyright extremists like Hollywood. And of course the New Zealand Government."

I think they have lost control of the company and they should tell Mega users the truth Kim Dotcom

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Liu, who also goes by the name William Yan, was last year accused of being behind a $129m fraud, and has been accused in the local press of using his influence with government to gain citizenship. Police reports in New Zealand also allege that through various trusts and companies, Yan owned close to a 20 percent share in Mega worth almost $40m when his assets were seized.

Dotcom tells WIRED that when he began to suspect Yan/Liu was using friends and family to buy up Mega stock, he warned the board they should proceed with the stock market listing to raise capital and prevent a hostile takeover. "Unfortunately the two shareholders that could have stopped the hostile takeover decided to sell more shares to Bill Lui. Game over!" Mega has denied any such takeover has taken place.


Meanwhile, Dotcom tells WIRED he believes some of the remaining Mega shareholders are very close to Liu, and under his influence -- again, something Mega denies. "I still wonder how Bill Liu got his New Zealand citizenship considering his Interpol arrest warrant and legal status in China," he said. "I think they have lost control of the company and they should tell Mega users the truth."

Hollywood is like the ISIS of the Internet :-) Kim Dotcom

Dotcom's commitment to his cause -- protecting Mega users and plotting a third, more secure alternative (more on that later) -- comes at a stressful time. Dotcom is estranged from his wife, following the chaos of the numerous court cases brought against and by him. And his Mega shares, placed in a trust for his family, remain frozen after the US announced it would be launching a civil case against Dotcom. "At the time this order was made I was neither a director or beneficiary of the trust. It's fascinating how passionate the copyright extremists try to destroy anything new I create. It's almost religious. Hollywood is like the ISIS of the Internet :-)"

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Beyond the government, Hollywood is most definitely Dotcom's number one enemy -- although he claims both have the means and opportunity to "influence the future of Mega" by using the company's frozen shares. "Hollywood has recently lobbied a Senator who has influenced some major US credit card companies against Mega that resulted in the termination of our Paypal account. That resulted in a real cash flow problem for Mega," Dotcom regales in his statement. "Their agenda is clear," he tells WIRED. "Hollywood wants to destroy Mega just like they destroyed Megaupload. The US and NZ Government are glad to assist."


Nevertheless, he has an immovable faith that the free-data tide is so strong, Hollywood will have to acquiesce one day. "Copyright extremism has to stop. Hollywood needs to adapt to the internet and not the other way around. They need to make their content available globally at the same time, at a fair price and for any device. Twenty years from now people will look back at this whole copyright nonsense and laugh. Hollywood can't win on its current path."

Before he can enjoy that potential future, court cases still continue to plague Dotcom. This week there was more bad news from one of several ongoing cases on his roster. The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) in New Zealand found that a detective inspector had not committed perjury when giving evidence in a High Court case in which Kim Dotcom was involved. The inspector claimed he did not know Dotcom was under any surveillance by police or the government -- back in 2013 a New Zealand judge ruled that Dotcom had the right to sue the country's spy agency for this illegal surveillance, which preceded an unlawful 2012 raid of the entrepreneur's home. Dotcom tells WIRED.co.uk the IPCA ruling is "a joke". "The evidence couldn't be clearer. But everyone has ultimately been cleared of any wrongdoing in my case. Welcome to Zimbabwe."

For now, Dotcom cannot leave New Zealand because of the cases filed against him (or be more than 80km from his home), and he must report to police twice a week. If he could go anywhere, he says, to a country that might offer more protection from Hollywood and its copyright cases, it would be his home country Germany. But "many" New Zealanders have and continue to support him, he adds.

In his brief foray into politics with his Internet Party, Dotcom promised he would deliver a "free, fair, connected and innovative society" in line with the principles of the internet, including new submarine cables that would make connectivity 50 percent cheaper and universally available in New Zealand. However in the 2014 election John Key remained prime minister, with his centre-right party narrowly missing a majority by one seat, and the Internet Party gained no seats.

Dotcom puts this down to people not taking the time to read policies "or do their own thinking". "They let the government controlled mainstream media tell them what to think. And the media over here has done an excellent job for the Prime Minister. They turned me into a Nazi who treats his staff like shit, who doesn't pay his bills, who calls New Zealanders dumbass farmers and who is buying his way into politics to stop his extradition. None of it was true. But if it's on the news it must be true. It was all worth it because again I learned so much. My support has suffered. Everyone warned me it would happen. But I did it anyway because I wanted to see what happens and I had so much fun doing it."

The German entrepreneur seems relentlessly positive despite feeling the weight of some pretty hefty 'enemies' before him, from governments to the Hollywood industrial complex. Hence, Mega 3.0. Dotcom refuses to let his vision for the service -- a fully encrypted and free cloud storage, messaging and email service -- die. In a post-Snowden world, where we are more aware than ever how important privacy is, people still continue to use free internet services in exchange for their personal data. "That's why it just has to happen in the background," says Dotcom, referring to the shift in thinking, and then practice, to a more secure, encrypted online world. "More and more tech companies are implementing on-the-fly encryption by default. And users do appreciate that. Technology will give us our privacy back. And there is nothing governments can do to stop that. Privacy companies will do really well in the next decade."


I will probably not be living in a mansion, but I will sleep well knowing that I make millions of people happy every day Kim Dotcom

Dotcom laid down a teaser for the new file-sharing service at the end of July when he first warned the public about using Mega. Today, he tells WIRED the new incarnation will be a non-profit that will fund itself in the same way Wikipedia does, through donations, making it user-owned. "It won't be a great economic success for me but I am more driven by Internet Freedom, your right to share and the protection of our basic human right to privacy. I want to eliminate all the weak spots in our armour and create a beast that neither Hollywood nor any government can infiltrate or destroy. I had two runs to learn my lessons. The third time will be perfect. You'll see."

The new operation will, he believes, be a success this time because it will be a non-profit. "No shareholders, no seizures, no trouble," he tells WIRED. "I'm working with the best copyright experts and Mega is pretty much bullet proof against legal attacks. The new site will be even better. Hard disk sizes are massively increasing and hardware prices have dropped to all time lows. Bandwidth is getting cheaper too. This new site will cover its operating costs easily from donations. You give users something they love and they will keep you going. "I will probably not be living in a mansion, but I will sleep well knowing that I make millions of people happy every day."