New Zealand court clears way for Kim Dotcom extradition to US

Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing website Megaupload, can be legally extradited to the US, according to New Zealand’s High Court.

The court held that Dotcom and three co-defendants are eligible for extradition, in a  decision released today, February 20.

Importantly, however, the High Court held that copyright infringement via digitally communicating protected works to the public is not a criminal offence in New Zealand.

“The appellants have therefore succeeded with one of the main planks of their case,” said the court.

Dotcom said in a tweet: “In case you didn’t notice. Today’s judgement in my case clarified that online copyright infringement is NOT A CRIME in New Zealand.”

In another  tweet, he said: “I’ll be watching as the legal profession dissects this extradition judgement in a copyright case that is no longer a copyright case.”

But it’s not all plain-sailing: the court added that a conspiracy to commit copyright infringement amounts to a conspiracy to defraud and is therefore an extradition offence.

The High Court upheld a decision made by a New Zealand district court in December 2015.

It explained that despite the district court’s finding that the appellants are eligible for extradition being “flawed”, the errors in the judgment were “immaterial because there are available pathways for extradition on each count”.

Since 2012, when it shut down Megaupload, the US government has been seeking Dotcom’s extradition to face trial on 13 counts, including allegations of copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.