Kim Dotcom - Dotcom's Perspective

Dotcom's Perspective

In a lengthy article in TorrentFreak, Dotcom claims he was not guilty of insider trading in Germany. He said the judge and prosecutor offered him a suspended sentence if he pleaded guilty. "I took the deal and moved on with my life instead of spending the next few years in court rooms defending my innocence." Commenting on his business activities in Hong Kong, he said: "Hong Kong, what an awesome place to do business and to host my new phantom persona. I should write a book about doing business in Hong Kong, that’s how good it is."

Dotcom also wrote: "I made mistakes when I was young and I paid the price. Steve Jobs was a hacker and Martha Stuart is doing well after her insider trading case. I think over a decade after all of this happened it should NOT be the dominating topic. I am 37 years old now, I am married, I have three adorable children with two more on the way (twin girls – yeah) and I know that I am not a bad person. I have grown and I have learned. Making this into an issue about my past is unfair to everyone else working at Mega. Our business is legitimate." "We have spent millions of dollars on legal advice over the last few years and our legal advisers have always told us that we are secure and that we are protected by the DMCA which is a law in the US that is protecting online service providers of liability for the actions of their users."

In regard to Megaupload, Dotcom believes the company had actively tried to prevent copyright infringement - its terms of service forced users to agree they would not post copyrighted material to the website. Companies or individuals with concerns their copyright material was being posted on Megaupload were given direct access to the website to delete infringing links. Megaupload also employed 20 staff dedicated to taking down material which might infringe copyright. Dotcom also explained that Megaupload was responsible for 800 files being transferred every second and that it would be impossible to police all that traffic. In addition, US privacy laws, such as Electronic Communication Privacy Act, prohibit the administrators from looking into the accounts of the users.

On 1 March 2012 Dotcom gave his first interview to New Zealand media after his arrest to John Campbell of Campbell Live. He said the services offered by his Megaupload site were not significantly different from comparable services using cloud technology such as Rapidshare or YouTube, and he has just been used as a scapegoat because of his hacker past. He explained the close ties of his case to that of Viacom vs YouTube in which the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) shielded YouTube from the infringement of its users and described his surprise when he was arrested without trial or a hearing.

Dotcom claims to be a legitimate businessman who has been unfairly demonized by United States authorities and industry trade groups such as the RIAA and MPAA. He blames US President Barack Obama for colluding with Hollywood to orchestrate his arrest and has spoken out against his negative portrayal in the media. In regard to the illegal spying conducted by GCSB, Dotcom said they were not spying to find out where he was. "The GCSB was utilised to surveil all my communication in order to give the U.S. Government full access to all my communication, without the requirement of a warrant," he said.