Internet cartoon villain Kim Dotcom won’t be extradited to the U.S over charges of mass copyright infringement until at least February 2015.
That means that the German-born Megaupload and Mega founder can stay at his estate in his adopted home of New Zealand for at least another seven months.
Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that Dotcom’s extradition hearing, scheduled for later in July, had been delayed again while he fights other charges.
The U.S. seized Dotcom’s previous baby, the file-locker site Megaupload, in January of 2012, claiming it encouraged users to share copyrighted files. Dotcom, in turn, has blamed the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a powerful, piracy-hating Hollywood lobbying association, for his woes. He’s repeatedly indicated he thinks the MPAA’s vendetta against him has infiltrated the Obama administration through Vice President Joe Biden. Stripped of his finances and cash cow, Dotcom vowed revenge, and has built a similar, and similarly successful site simply called Mega, which is still operational.
Dotcom’s legal complications don’t stop with the U.S.’s Mega bust. The MPAA and its music industry counterpart, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), filed their own civil suits against him in April. Dotcom won a major victory the following week, however, when a New Zealand High Court ruled that his assets were seized illegally, and had them returned.
Dotcom didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment. He did, however, tweet a prediction that his native Germany would lose in their World Cup semifinal match against Brazil 1-2, tweeting in Portuguese that “Today I am Brazilian my heroes: Senna, Pele, Gracie.”
As of press time, Germany is up 5-0, so his prediction against his fatherland seems unlikely.
H/T Wall Street Journal | Illustration by Jason Reed
