Kim Dotcom United States extradition hearing begins

Dotcom argues that plenty of people used his site for legitimate reasons he can’t be held responsible for those who chose to use it for illegal downloads. To date their extradition hearing has been delayed ten times but this morning it finally got underway.

He was dressed in black, wearing trainers, with his baseball cap resting on the bench.

Dotcom is hoping the hearing is rather shorter, however.

“When the United States applied that his bail be revoked part of its application was that he no longer had access to funds and therefore there was a greater risk he might flee”, said Ron Mansfield, Dotcom’s lawyer.

United States prosecutors do not need to prove the guilt of Dotcom and his co-accused at the hearing, but only show that the four men have a case to answer, known as a prima facie case.

It was the first time Dotcom and his legal team had drawn on this section of the 1994 Copyright Act. His new counsel has only been in place for a matter of months after his old representation inexplicably dropped out.

If the court determined this was correct it would be the end of the extradition trial, Mansfield said.

Dotcom published a recording of the call on SoundCloud in mid-August, and the details are fascinating: Megaupload was working on its own music service dubbed Megabox before it got shut down, and Dotcom was looking to license music from Universal for its venture.

In an expert opinion filed to the Auckland court, Lessig, who has said he will run for the post of U.S. President, argues that the DOJ has not established that the respondents committed crimes of copyright infringement. The merits of that report will be considered later in the hearing.

“This case is not just about me”.

Christine Gordon, QC, on behalf of the USA government, said starting with the extradition eligibility hearing before hearing three different applications for a stay of proceedings was the “practical and rational” way forward.

“The judges on this case can become the champions for billions of Internet users or a handful of U.S. content billionaires”, he tweeted, also saying that the case could impact on Internet freedom.

Judge Dawson reserved his decision on the order of proceedings but what he won’t have to decide is whether or not Dotcom and his co-defendants are guilty.