Mega-Rich New Zealand Copyright Infringer Faces Extradition

New Zealand’s Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling that Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom can be extradited to the United States to face racketeering and criminal copyright charges. The legal battle, which has been underway for six years, is seen as a test for how far the reach of U.S courts extends in protecting American firms’ intellectual property rights. New Zealand’s Supreme Court could still reverse the ruling, and Dotcom, a chubby, smiling gazillionaire famous for his lavish lifestyle as much as his computer skills, professes confidence that it will. According to U.S. prosecutors, he and three executives of his company, Megaupload, have cost American film studios and record companies more than $500 million and generated more than $175 million in revenue by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material. The Court of Appeal, agreed, ruling that the U.S. had presented “a clear prima facie case that the appellants conspired to, and did, breach copyright willfully and on a large scale, for their commercial gain.”