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MegaUpload extradition case reaches New Zealand Supreme Court
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 11 June 2019
The long, long, long running MegaUpload extradition case has now reached the New Zealand Supreme Court.
US authorities are still trying to extradite MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom and his former colleagues to face charges of criminal copyright infringement in relation to the file-transfer service they used to run. This has been ongoing ever since said authorities shut the site down back in 2012.
Lower courts have said that there are sufficient grounds to extradite Dotcom et al, but the appeals process is yet to be exhausted. The NZ Supreme Court agreed to hear the case last December and has set aside five days for both sides to present their arguments, a process that began yesterday, albeit without Dotcom in attendance.
If the case ever does reach an American courtroom it will put the spotlight back on the pesky copyright safe harbour which, Team Mega will argue, protects them from liability for all the infringement that occurred on the old MegaUpload site.
Though don’t expect that anytime soon. Supreme Court judges will likely take months to make a ruling after this week’s hearing. Plus, even if they concur with the lower courts, any extradition will still need to be approved by New Zealand’s justice minister Andrew Little, and his decision could also be appealed.
So plenty more appealing to go yet. For the full MegaUpload story so far check out this Setlist special here.
