Justice minister signs extradition order for Megaupload founder 12 years after FBI-ordered raid over filesharing site

Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, is to be extradited to the US, the New Zealand justice minister has said.

German-born Dotcom has New Zealand residency and has been fighting extradition to the US since 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.

The justice minister, Paul Goldsmith, had signed an extradition order for Dotcom, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial,” Goldsmith said in a statement.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Dotcom said: “The obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload,” in what appears to be a reference to the extradition order.

  • Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com
    12·
    3 months ago

    Completely agree, if you’re going in search of a movie online, even if you can’t find it, you’re not guaranteed to go out and buy it full price, it’s often a matter of both convenience & price. It’s hard to compete with a free download.

      • Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com
        3·
        3 months ago

        Can confirm, since I have almost every streaming service I rarely consider pirating at all, now I don’t pay for any but 1, so if password crackdowns or location based logins become widespread I’ll be motivated to raise the flag again