1
[Dotcom] It's really like a Hollywood
script. That's how I see it.
This whole thing is a live movie
that's playing out for, like,
four and half years already,
and I'm the main act.
Ridiculous.
[Annie] So what about the notion of
being innocent until proven guilty?
Yeah, exactly,
where did that go?
You know?
Guilty until we say he's guilty,
you know, which is now.
I mean, it's crazy.
[indistinct murmuring
through radio]
[birds chirping]
[ducks quacking]
[horse whinnying]
[Alan] As local people, we just
knew there was a very large house.
Because the house itself
was not easily seen,
it became more noticeable
when they started building
the stone wall,
which pretty much surrounds it.
[France] And there were
all sorts of rumors about
who was gonna move into it,
and our favorite one was
that it was Tom Cruise
who was gonna put
a Scientology center there.
We thought that would be
kind of exciting.
[electronic beeping]
[computer keys clacking]
[Alan] This person turned up who
had changed his name to Dotcom,
and we just thought, well,
that was fascinating,
but otherwise, I mean,
it's not as if we saw him
walking along the street.
[Wendy]
Then the cameras went up.
I don't know whether there were
listening devices on the end,
but I always wondered
whether we were being
listened to or watched.
It didn't mesh very well
with the community.
And then, there was a little bit
more digging into the background.
And then it was, "Oh, my God, who's
just landed in Coatesville?"
So I started looking into who
our new neighbor was gonna be,
and I went onto
all sorts of websites.
And the more I looked into it,
the more frightened I became
of what kind of person was gonna
be coming into our community.
[indistinct murmuring]
[computer keys clacking]
[helicopter engine running]
[man through radio] Ground unit,
gates are opened.
[reporter] Top story this hour.
New Zealand is at the center of one of world's
biggest Internet piracy investigations.
Police conducted dawn raids
on behalf of the FBI.
Kim Dotcom, the founder
of massive file-sharing site.
Megaupload was...
[woman] The notorious Dr. Evil
of the information highway.
[speaking Danish]
[man] Some say
he's a criminal master mind,
others, an online innovator,
but he has to be
the most wanted man online.
[computer keys clacking]
[man speaking German]
[Dotcom] I was a hacker.
Hackers were wizards.
Any kind of system,
any kind of network,
you know, a hacker right away
identifies weaknesses...
[electronic beeping]
And I'm really good at that.
[speaking German]
[Fisher] Kim Schmitz wasn't the
only identity that he assumed.
He became Kimble,
styling himself after Richard
Kimble from The Fugitive.
He claimed that
he'd hacked into the Pentagon,
that he had reduced the credit ratings
of world leaders down to zero.
[Mike] You know, there were
all these stories,
and some people
didn't believe them.
They did seem sort of
very fantastic in some ways.
They seemed sort of, you know,
the sort of Hollywood version
of what a hacker must be.
My impression was that,
you know, it was someone
who seemed to be
bragging quite a bit
for someone who's clearly breaking
the law in certain cases.
[sirens wailing]
[Fisher] All the other things
that he did were about reputation
and learning how stuff worked.
The thing that
he was convicted for,
that was a very obvious
criminal enterprise.
It was a scam using phone cards
that would then generate cash
that would be Dotcom's.
[dial tone lingering]
And he got caught.
[bells chiming]
[footsteps]
[Dotcom] The judge rightfully
ruled that, you know,
I should get a two-year
probation sentence,
and he also said that
there was an important factor
which was
my youthful foolishness.
Not understanding enough
at my young age
you know, that
I shouldn't have done this.
But it actually
launched my career.
[keyboard keys clacking]
[Sean] That arrest actually
helped him boost his reputation.
[speaking in German]
[Sean]
He set up this whole business
around the idea of
protecting companies
from hackers like him,
and when you're dealing with
businesses that really don't have
any sort of computer security
expertise internally,
that's a really good
business to be in
because you can say anything.
[man speaks in German]
[laughing]
[computer keys clacking]
[Sean] He used his hacker
mythos to build his credibility
as this security guy.
I do know that his reputation
that he built up
by the things he said he did
allowed him to get
investment from people
and to build up his company.
[Dotcom] All my life,
I've been an innovator,
and all my life, I've
been a little bit ahead
of what everyone else was doing.
In the data security space,
we were one of
the first companies
to create firewalls that
alert you of a hacker attack.
[distorted male voice]
MegaCar.com.
[Dotcom]
When no one was thinking
about computers and cars,
I created the MegaCar,
real time video conferencing
from a car,
that was driving on the
highway at 200 miles an hour.
You know, all these things
I thought about early on,
you know, and again
patented it and sold it.
[speaking in German]
[Schmidt] Kim Schmitz.
[audience clapping and cheering]
[Sean] He did everything he could
to exude this new image of himself
as this hyper successful hacker
to really turn everything
about his personal life
into a promotion for
his professional life.
[speaking in German]
[audience laughing and clapping]
He has this weird appearance
of the big guy
with this black suit,
and then, he is just nice,
nice like a nice bear
to cuddle with.
He wrote me
an email and asked me,
"Well, I see you like
motor-sports."
Why don't you come? We're
having a weekend in Monaco,
Formula One race weekend.
Why don't you come?
I invite you
and your girlfriend,
"and let's have a party,
and I can meet you."
He likes the music
we do with the band,
and me as a character,
and I said, "That's interesting,"
and he got me there.
[car engine running]
Yeah, pump
Pump, pump a little
Pump, pump
Pump, pump a little
[man speaking German]
Pump, pump Pump a little
Pump, pump Pump a little
[singing in a foreign language]
[continue speaking German]
[camera shutter clicking]
[camera shutter clicking]
[Michael] He uses all
these status symbols,
cars, girls and being together
with celebrities like myself,
but he is not. He himself
doesn't really act like that.
Everybody is having champagne.
"Hey, have champagne,"
and all the girls,
but there is no girl on his lap,
and he doesn't drink alcohol.
And he probably feels that
it makes himself likable
when he's in this picture 'cause people
like girls and champagne and stars.
[speaking German]
[man speaking German]
[Dotcom] I was
a complicated child.
My mum and I
went through hard times
with my father,
who was an alcoholic.
This guy broke my mother's bones
and hit me many times
and was just evil
when he was drinking.
He's the reason why
I've never drank any alcohol
'cause I saw firsthand
what that stuff can do to you.
[ship horn blowing]
[fishing cord whirring]
[Dotcom] After the divorce, my
mum, even though times were tough,
she tried to find ways
to get me my first computer.
Once I had my computer,
for me, school was
a waste of time.
I wanna learn about computers.
I wanna learn about the future.
[Fisher] LetsBuylt.com is
an online marketplace,
very early version of
Amazon, if you will.
Dotcom had talked of his plans
to invest a large amount
of money into LetsBuylt.
When he said
he was going to do that,
the share price took off.
It was ramped massively,
and then he sold his shares.
[indistinct voice over PA]
[Dotcom] I was in Thailand
because I was on a holiday...
[camera shutter clicks]
And it didn't take long
for some people
that didn't like my attitude,
my lifestyle,
to make allegations that
there's something fishy here,
and then the government started an
investigation around insider trading.
And they arrested me,
and they took me
to a Thai prison,
the worst living conditions that I
have ever experienced in my life.
And the embassy people arrive,
"and they say," Look,
if you want to leave,
we can give you
a travel document.
"You can fly back to Germany."
[indistinct murmuring]
And of course I agreed.
[murmuring]
[camera shutters clicking]
[Fisher] The way that
German authorities recast it,
they had to go to
Thailand to drag him back.
Dotcom would have it that
he came back willingly
to face the charges.
[murmuring]
[Dotcom] In the end,
I agreed to a plea bargain.
[people speaking German]
[Dotcom] I simply didn't want
to deal with it anymore.
I wanted to leave Germany behind
and start a new life
somewhere else.
[Sean] If there is any
place in the world
that is left as sort of
the edge of business,
of finance, of legality...
It's a wild west sort of town.
Hong Kong is
all about capitalism.
Companies start there daily
and disappear the next day.
It was both at
the center of the world
and on its edge.
He felt it was
really easy to restart
what he was trying to do in Germany,
there, without much oversight.
[robotic voice]
Welcome to the Kimpire.
Using a PC to download music
is one of the hottest of
today's computer trends,
and that has the recording
companies up in arms
and heading to court.
Members of
the entertainment industry
are fighting new websites
like Napster
which allow you
to download music
off of the Internet
free of charge.
[man]
It's a surprisingly simple idea
known as file-sharing.
Napster is providing
a service that give people
the opportunity to
steal our music.
[Greg] It started
with the music industry.
They were no longer in charge
of how they
distributed their wares
because we had Napster.
If it was digitized,
then you could copy it and
send it across the globe.
Any one person could do that.
When I wanted something
special, a certain song,
I couldn't find it. I couldn't
buy it in a record store,
and I couldn't order it.
I just went online
and got it from Napster
or from some other dark
corner in the Internet.
It was a little en vogue.
It was a little radical.
Everybody did this in
this transition times
when the legal market,
legal online market,
started to establish.
In that time,
everybody did this.
[Moby] Every aspect of
music has changed,
how it's consumed,
how it's disseminated,
how it's marketed.
It's this shifting climate,
and the old guard's
trying to hold on
and penalize anyone who impedes
their revenue streams.
So they had these crazy lawsuits
against suburban housewives
who had downloaded
illegally 20 songs,
you know, trying to like sue
them for millions of dollars.
Well, I don't think this
is about record companies.
I think this is about
whether or not people
who create music,
and invest in music,
have a right to get paid.
The record companies
never gave a damn
about the artist anyway.
95% of them have problems
retrieving their money
from the major corporations
anyway.
Four major corporations,
four of them,
and Hilary is fighting
to protect them.
[man] Ms. Rosen, isn't this strictly
about your profits and your money?
[Hilary] Well, it's about
everybody's profits and money.
[siren ringing]
[Lawrence] Originally the
film industry was quite naive
in believing that
they were immune
because they thought, you know,
we've got two gigabyte,
three gigabyte files,
and if you're sharing those,
you know, on dial-up modems,
it would take days to download.
But, of course,
in the current state,
it's trivial to download
that kind of content.
And so that industry
is threatened as well,
and the business model
of that industry
is very different from music.
You know,
when you get access to music,
you want a song
that if you like it,
you're gonna listen to it
a thousand times.
If you watch a movie,
it's not likely you're gonna
watch it two or three times.
So they had a stronger
reason to be anxious
that people not get access
to their movie
and to bleed
the potential revenue.
You can copy on a digital
format 10,000 copies,
and the ten thousandth copy
is as pure and pristine
as the original.
If you allow that,
you don't have copyright
to protect you on the Internet,
we're dead.
[Greg]
They had no understanding.
The music industry
had been decimated.
The film industry
had the same problem.
They didn't understand
what was coming
until things had already
gotten out of hand.
[yelling]
As you can see, 250,
this is the Gumball speed,
ladies and gentlemen.
[car engines running]
[Fisher] Gumball Rally is where
the richest car nuts in the world
get together to cover thousands
of miles across Europe.
Dotcom treated it
like it was a race
because he likes
to win everything.
This is the winner.
This is the winner.
I've been a hacker
in my early years,
and then I started...
[Dotcom voiceover] You know,
always when I was there,
there were videos made about it,
and I wanted to share them
with my friends.
And I could not because
the files were too big
to send via email.
And I was like, well,
let's create a site
where you can upload a file,
and then instead of
emailing the file,
you just email the link.
And no matter
how large the file is,
people can download it,
and problem solved.
That's how it started.
[camera shutter clicks]
At the time Megaupload
really took off,
we were a relatively small team
of developers.
There are not many people
that I know
that I can call
a genius, but Mathias is.
He was the brains
behind the code.
He is really a genius.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Finn] Bram was kind of
a fan of Kim
because of his Gumball racing,
and I think that way they met
because he said, "You know,
I can... I'm a coder too."
Can I do something for you?"
I was not part of
the founding members.
I met him at a club in Munich.
[camera shutter clicks]
Kim got in touch with me
because Megaupload grew,
and there was a need for
marketing and advertising.
So because we knew each
other, and he trusted me.
[Aram] There was this boom in
remote storage locker services
that people were using
for both infringing
and non-infringing purposes
to store information in
what we now call the cloud.
I guess you could really say
that Megaupload was
among the innovators
of consumer cloud services.
Certainly the interface design
was dead simple.
[Julie]
As we talk about Megaupload,
we're gonna be talking
a lot about music and films,
but it's not just that.
Academic research, data sets...
This is the promise of
the Internet, right?
That across the globe we can share
access to all of this stuff,
and build upon it and share it,
and that's really,
really amazing.
And that's
the underlying technology
of cloud computing
that Megaupload used
that's really so exciting.
[Finn] There was a high demand.
We had crazy rates of growth.
Say you have a million
visitors on your website,
and every user
that came to our website
is potentially
advertising income.
[Dotcom] It doubled in size
almost every month,
and we needed to
get new servers,
more bandwidth, new servers,
more bandwidth.
I was surprised.
I was so surprised
that something simple
would grow into
such proportions,
but I also immediately
understood its potential.
Now, whether Dotcom ever envisioned
what it was gonna turn into,
I don't know, but users did.
Once users could see
the latest Hollywood movies
on Megaupload,
the use of the site exploded.
[Jonathan] They would Google
a movie they wanted to see
or a song they wanted to hear.
It would be one of the top hits.
They'd click on the link,
and, oh yeah, I guess
I'm at Megaupload,
and by the way, if you want
it to go faster, pay here.
Then they would pay there,
and get a premium account
and have it go faster.
So it actually,
it was very well designed
to attract people who
weren't even thinking
one way or the other
about legal, illegal.
They just wanted
to see the movie
and were happy to pay
somebody for the privilege,
and a company like Kim Dotcom's
was cashing the checks.
[keyboard keys clacking]
A girlfriend, I saw her watching
Mad Men on her computer,
and I'm like,
"Where did you get that?"
And she's all like, "Megaupload,"
and I'm like, "What is that?"
And she told me that
Megaupload was the in place
at the University of Kansas,
where she had just
graduated earlier,
to find free movies.
How did you hear about it?
She said
her 63-year-old professor
at the University of Kansas
turned her on to Megaupload.
And then I was like,
this is big.
They're essentially
streaming to you,
and it was easy.
If they make this
this simple to do,
this means
it could go mainstream.
[Dotcom] I was traveling
a lot in Asia,
and I was in
the Philippines at a disco,
and I saw Mona dancing
on the dance floor.
And she immediately
caught my eye
because she is
so incredibly beautiful.
I was a bit shy,
so I sent my PA to go to Mona
and ask her if
she wants to join us.
He was just this guy
sitting alone in the corner.
So it's like, why is
no one talking to him?
I thought we really connected.
We both grew up in a tough life,
but, yeah, we were just friends.
[Dotcom] I just knew that
I wanted to be with her.
Look at me. [Laughing]
I'm not a supermodel, right?
And now we are going
to the Tower de Eiffel.
So I have to spend
extra time and extra work
to get someone to fall for me,
but she ultimately did,
and we were really
happy together.
[birds chirping]
We went on a holiday
to New Zealand,
and we just fell in love
with the place.
Run for your lives.
[indistinct murmuring]
[child] Bye bye.
[man] What's happening?
OK, we are up here
on the hill at Coatesville.
This is our house.
We found that house
in Coatesville
and we just made that
our second home.
Yeah.
[Fisher] Megaupload was huge,
and there were tens of
millions of dollars coming in.
At that time, he was largely
unknown in New Zealand.
He was a reclusive, wealthy
foreigner who was living
in the grandest house
in the land.
[helicopter engine running]
[man] Now for
the biggest fireworks display
ever seen in New Zealand,
a gift from Mr. Kim Dotcom
as he hovers up here
over our beautiful harbor.
Happy New Year, Auckland.
Happy New Year.
[rockets whistling]
[Fisher]
Dotcom had a very slow entry
into New Zealand life,
but then, he spent about
a half million dollars
on that fireworks display.
[cheering]
That was a celebration
of getting his residency.
[cheering]
[newsreader] These thieves
are now migrating offshore,
locating themselves in places
that're beyond
the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.
And so we need to come up
with a mechanism
to protect our jobs
and protect
the intellectual property
by going after those sites
or those search engines
that allow these illegal
criminal foreign sites to exist.
[birds chirping]
[Fisher] Dotcom had a plan
to list Megaupload.
He wanted to float the company,
and he reckoned it was worth
about two billion dollars.
This is next level stuff.
[Dotcom] We wanted to
launch several new sites.
One of them was Megamovies,
which was a Netflix competitor,
and the aim was
to license content
from the big studios.
We have Megabox.
It would give the artist
90% of the earnings.
It would give them
an online platform
where they can sell
directly to their fan base.
Because we were thinking about how can
we reinvent this whole copyright model?
How can we make it work
for the artists
and creators directly?
[man] Kim was definitely talking
about new business models
that he was working on and new
services that he was working on.
And you got this idea that
like many other platforms
that started out
as being very focused on
kind of infringing uses,
a legitimate and authorized
business model
might actually come out of it.
[man] This technology is live
and in place now, correct?
[Dotcom] Yes, that's correct.
[man] I will happily do
a deal with you guys,
not an issue.
[Dotcom] Amazing, great,
I'm happy to hear that.
We have gotten a lot
of fire from everyone,
you know, in
the content industry for,
you know, Megaupload.
[man] There are certain people
I can have conversations with
where you'll be moved
onto a different list
- as opposed to a bad list.
- [Dotcom laughing]
If it would be
from evil to neutral,
and then later from
neutral to good,
I think that would be fair.
- [man] That, we can do that.
- [Dotcom] OK, good.
[Masnick] One of the things
that I thought was,
maybe this was the sign
that Megaupload was making
that sort of shift
to a legitimate platform.
The movie industry
did not react that way.
I think they sort
of freaked out.
They don't go past this whole,
"There's infringement.
It's bad. End it."
[Steve] Megaupload was
effectively a copy cat
of some pirate services that
already existed at the time,
so there was no creative
innovation in what they did.
They just did it
better in the sense
that they bested
their pirate competitors
in terms of growing.
So the entire
business model was based
on distributing content
that Megaupload didn't own.
This guy is becoming
a multi, multi millionaire,
and dual use, this is not people
sharing their vacation photos
and then others paying a premium
to download them
a little faster.
This is just movie
after movie after movie.
[Robert] Kim Dotcom made a
lot of money for himself.
Did he make a lot of money
to fund all of the art
that he was
distributing for free?
No way.
Also remember that like
creators have rights.
I mean, in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
which was signed by
the UN, not the MPAA,
you know, you have the right
to moral and material
interests of your work.
That's a big deal.
You wanna give it away for
free? Give it away for free.
You wanna stream it? Stream it.
You wanna put it on LaserDisc,
beam it into space,
show it on airplanes?
That's your choice.
But Kim was violating
the rights of a lot of people.
[cheering]
[Taplin] When someone like
Kim Dotcom put up a site,
and he collects
millions of dollars
of advertising income
off that site
to pay for his yachts,
his mansions,
and his private jets,
that's, to me, parasitical.
He is a parasite,
and he is sucking the blood out
of the artist's corporate body.
[man] Just one more time,
are you ready?
[cheering]
[Jonathan] So he's a criminal,
and it's just that simple.
You know, he deserved,
he should be in jail.
I'm not done
I've just begun
Kim Dotcom
Kim Dotcom
I'm not done
I've just begun
I've just begun
Kim Dotcom
That wasn't right.
Let's do it again.
[man murmuring]
And then the other one.
[Dotcom] I was working on a
music site called Megabox.
Megabox was actually
a real threat
to the music labels because
it empowered the artists,
and cut out the middlemen,
these monopolist labels that are
just stealing money from them,
and the artists loved that.
Hey, we have our hit, man.
And they were all excited.
They wanted to be
a part of that,
and that's why they decided
to promote Megaupload
in the way they have done.
And when I gotta send files
Across the globe
I use Megaupload
[voice whispering]
Mega Megaupload
And when I gotta send files
Across the globe
I use Megaupload
Mega Megaupload
I use Megauploads, man.
I like to use Megaupload.
I like Megaupload.
I like Megaupload.
I love Megaupload.
[Fisher] A whole bunch of
A-listers, well-known faces
singing a Megaupload jingle,
suggest that I might be.
I mean, that was really
sticking his fingers
up the noses of the record
companies and Hollywood.
Send me a file
Megaupload
But it was surprising
because I'm sure
that many of the labels that
represent these celebrities
were incredibly unhappy to see
that promo because
their message was one
that does not align very easily
with the copyright industry's
message,
that any kind of copyright infringement
hurts them, not helps them.
[Greg] Like, what is this?
Here are the artists
backing Kim Dotcom
and Megaupload at
a crucial time.
Listen, Kim Dotcom
is a PR genius.
He knows what
really makes impact.
He knows what people wanna see.
He knows
what's gonna affect them.
The guy's a genius
when it comes to that,
and Hollywood had no idea that he'd
be able to do this kinda thing.
That came out of nowhere.
Hey, I'm Alicia Keys,
and I use Megaupload.
Hi, I'm Naomi Campbell.
What up, doe? Megaupload.
I am Demi Moore.
Hey, what's up?
It's Kim Kardashian,
and I love Megaupload.
These people are whores.
They're... they're, you know,
wave a little check
in front of them.
They'll show up anywhere,
and that's what's so sad,
you know.
I mean, the music business
didn't use to be that way,
but now whether
it's brands or Kim Dotcom,
people are so anxious
to get some cash
that they'll do anything.
[Greg] He seemed to them
he was rubbing their nose,
that he was living
in this huge mansion
with all these cars,
living this high life,
and to them, he was doing
that with their money.
It was like, he had to go.
So he kinda, in a way,
he invited some of this.
[Glenn] He has long been viewed
as an adversary of the film and
entertainment industry in Hollywood,
and that industry wield
enormous political power
inside the United States,
and therefore it wields
great influence
within the halls of
power of Washington.
[reporter] Top lobbyist
for Hollywood told FOX
his industry is threatening to
cut off money to the President.
Don't make
the false assumption this year
that because we did it
in the years past
we're gonna do it this year.
This industry is
watching very carefully
who's going to stand up for them
when their job is at stake.
[Lawrence] Chris Dodd, the head of the
Motion Picture Association of America,
the most powerful lobbying group
for Hollywood in America,
was very explicit about the fact
that if you're not gonna
give us what we want,
we're not gonna give you what you
want when it comes around time
for you to raise money
to fund your campaigns.
Now that was more explicit
than he should have been
'cause it just
sounded so grotesque,
but what he was saying was
understood by everybody to be true.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Greg] I've heard
a lot of suspicion
about whether Hollywood
really did put pressure
on the President
to take down a site
that they believed was
pirating music and films.
And I would say,
"Yeah, absolutely."
That's what we do. He shouldn't
be surprised by that.
That's what happens.
You get in between
America and its money,
and you're gonna have
big problems.
[indistinct announcements]
[police officers
speaking indistinctly]
[computer keys clacking]
[security camera whirring]
[sparrows chirping]
[cackling]
[helicopter engine running]
[police officers talking]
[helicopter blades whirring]
[dog barking]
[security camera whirring]
[computer keys clacking]
[Grant] They've been arrested
on warrants relating
to breach of copyright
offenses in the United States,
money laundering
and racketeering.
Within New Zealand,
we have seized an excess
of six million dollars worth
of top-end motor vehicles
and over $10 million in cash
from several New Zealand
finance companies.
[man] More details of Kim Dotcom's
actions during the raid have emerged.
Police say when they arrived
in two helicopters,
Dotcom retreated into an
electronically locked panic room.
[man 2] They found him
clutching a sawed-off shotgun,
and they had to cut him
out of the room.
The firearm that was found,
sir, was illegal.
Here's a photo of it,
and it was loaded.
[speaking indistinctly]
[woman] The FBI claims that
Kim Dotcom made $175 million
in criminal proceedings
and that Megaupload cost half a billion
dollars in harm to copyright owners.
[Steve] He was put into
the criminal category
because he was a criminal,
and he is a criminal,
and he was
a pretty significant criminal.
Just because he is not violent
doesn't mean
his conduct isn't criminal.
People go to jail for
securities fraud every day
without ever having taken a bat
to the side of someone's head.
So the harm that
Kim Dotcom causes
really does affect real people.
It affects those 1.9 million
people that go to work every day
trying to earn a living in the
film and television industry.
It affects the small businesses
that are trying to start up
new legitimate online platforms
and that are playing
by the rules.
So the conduct that
Kim Dotcom engaged in
was criminal,
and it had real victims.
- [woman] Hi, Kim.
- Hello.
[indistinct murmuring]
Well, I'm relieved to
go home to see my family,
my three little kids
and my pregnant wife,
and I hope you understand
that that's all
I want to say right now.
[woman] How have
you been treated?
I just want to go home,
and see my family.
Gentlemen, just... Excuse me.
[woman] What about
the extradition hearing?
You will obviously
be fighting that one?
Yes, I will be fighting that.
[newsreader] And in New Zealand,
Megaupload tycoon Kim Dotcom
was released on bail today
after 31 days in prison.
A hearing will be held shortly
to determine whether
the Megaupload co-accused
will be sent to
Washington to stand trial.
If found guilty,
the men could face
up to 80 years in prison.
Hi!
[woman]
Yeah, but they didn't say no.
[screaming and laughing]
[speaking indistinctly]
[Dotcom] We were living
in this happy bubble, ya know?
Everything was perfect...
until the raid.
Yay...
it's happening.
Oh, I'm scared.
Oh, what's that?
Oops.
- [baby crying]
- [man] Hello.
[indistinct murmuring]
[Dotcom]
Number one is out, baby...
- [Doctor] Number two.
- [Dotcom] ...and number two.
- Babies are super pretty.
- Super healthy?
Super good, baby,
don't worry, all good.
Today I'm a daddy again.
Two more kids, two tiny girls,
two beautiful little pirates.
That was really good
that I was able
to be outside to watch
the twins get born.
[camera shutters clicking]
You know,
that gave me a lot of energy.
It reminded me that I really
need to fight for them.
I knew we were innocent.
I knew these
allegations were wrong.
I actually read the indictment
on the day we got arrested,
and I had to laugh.
I said to my co-defense,
this will be over really quick.
This is such a nonsense.
It will be so easy to discredit
and show that they got it
all wrong, you know?
While I was remanded,
I got all these press clippings,
and they were saying
that I was found
with a sawn-off shotgun,
you know, that they had to use
this kind of force
because I had
weapons in the house
and, you know, the whole
description of the case,
and who I am was just completely
unrealistic and not true.
- Speak with... [indistinct]
- Mm-hmm.
So I decided that I want
to set the record straight.
Of course, everybody knows
that the Internet is being used
for legitimate
and illegitimate uses,
and I think every
online service provider
has the same challenges
that we had.
YouTube, Google, everybody
is in the same boat,
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 U.S.
that is protecting
online service providers
of liability for
the actions of their users.
[Cyrus] Kim's legal team would
argue that they're no different
than any other
cloud storage service.
They are not responsible
for what the users do.
They have no liability.
End of story as far
as they're concerned.
What the government alleges, what
the entertainment industry alleges
is that, well, no, the website
was set up to give incentives
for people to
upload valuable material,
meaning, you know,
newly released films,
newly released music,
things like that.
[indistinct murmuring]
[Dotcom] That's also
very important to mention.
I shouldn't ever have been
in a situation
to defend myself
against extradition
because there is
simply no basis in law
in New Zealand to extradite me.
[Greg] They have to prove
to a New Zealand court
that the treaty between
the United States
and New Zealand, extradition
treaty, covers copyright.
And from what I've seen,
there's nothing in there
about copyright.
[Dr. Ira] They're concocted,
and they're piling them on
to figure out a way
to make out a case
where none should exist.
But like a house,
you know, like dominoes,
if there is no criminal
copyright infringement,
all the others will fall.
[keyboard keys clacking]
The whole
Dotcom Megaupload process
turned out to be
far more than New Zealand
ever bargained for.
Anything that we could
get wrong, we got wrong.
The New Zealand authorities managed
to pretty much screw up every step
of the process along the way.
The search warrant that was
used to execute the raid,
it has to be directed towards
whatever the alleged
criminal enterprise is.
This document didn't do that.
It was
an incredibly vague document.
The authorities in New Zealand
cloned Dotcom's laptops,
which had been seized
during the raid.
The court had effectively said
this evidence remains
in New Zealand.
The FBI took the clones
and sent them back
to the United States.
It's extraordinary.
Dotcom's rights, the process
of law had been thwarted,
and there needed to be
some sort of redress for that.
[woman] The Internet millionaire
has been back in court
for a three-day hearing.
Police were quizzed about
what level of threat he posed
and whether the elite
special tactics group
was needed to execute the
search warrants in January.
[man] The police
are not every day
going into domestic houses
armed to the teeth
with automatic weapons,
bashing down doors,
quartering the household
in a paramilitary fashion,
shouting orders at one another.
That's not ordinary police
practice in New Zealand, is it?
Or have I missed something?
I think you've missed something.
If the risk assessment is that there
are firearms in the property,
the police will not execute
that search warrant
without armed police.
[Andrew] When one reads
the indictment of Megaupload,
I notice that there
were references
to child pornography
and terrorism.
They do not have any relevance
to a claim
of copyright infringement,
but that is part of the effort
to paint the defendants
as extremely dangerous
and ugly and nasty persons.
And that, Your Honors,
one that I referred to.
[Greg] They had a message.
The guy is dangerous.
He has weapons,
and so everybody thought
this Kim Dotcom guy
is not just into piracy.
They gave the impression that
he was much more dangerous
and there were other things
that he might be into,
and of course, that
turned out to be a lie.
[Dotcom]
One was taken at a resort
called Cape Kidnappers
in Napier,
and I was there
with my family for holiday,
and we had an afternoon
where we had clay shooting,
and the other event
was a similar occasion
in Ireland over 10 years ago.
[Mona] I was almost
seven months pregnant.
I was having contractions,
but that was not my focus.
I just thought to myself,
"Oh, my God, the kids,"
'cause I could see
the guys with their weapons,
with their guns.
How silly is that?
So I was just like, "Can you
please let me go to my kids?"
They're like, "No,
you just have to stand there."
You have to stand there."
I'm like, "I need
to go to my kids."
I need to see my kids.
"Those are my kids in there."
It's 'cause I was just
worried that, you know,
they're gonna come in
their room with their guns.
[man] So you were relying upon
the intelligence information
which the FBI
were providing to you?
- Is that right?
- Yes.
[Ron] The FBI and
the Department of Justice
were involved from
the very outset,
and that's perhaps
not surprising.
What's surprising is how keen
the New Zealand authorities were
just to adopt
what we assume to be
the recommendations
from the FBI.
[Fisher] When they
went in fast and hard,
it was because the police were
under the impression
that there was
this Doomsday device
that was in the mansion
somewhere that would,
if activated, destroy evidence
of wrongdoing
anywhere in the world.
[man] What destruction devices?
Well, the laptop and the iPhone
or the PDA, whatever
it was that was found.
[man] They were not
destruction devices, were they?
What do you expect?
A box with a red button on it?
[dog barking]
[Dotcom]
The mission was to arrest me
as quickly as possible
so that I could not use
any Doomsday device.
In actuality,
it took them 15 minutes
to find me in my own house.
There's never been any such
device, and it was never found.
It was all bullshit.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[man] I think that
the rationale is clear.
It was meant to send
a message around the world.
Don't mess with the United
States on copyright issues.
The only other raid
that I can think of
that sounds similar was the
raid on Osama Bin Laden,
and these are vastly different
levels of importance.
[Jimmy] You know, it
sort of looked like
you were taking down
a South American dictator.
[dog barking]
I thought it was bizarre,
and I thought it was
also quite symptomatic
of how we've gotten into
such an extreme position
around some of these issues.
Things that I might
not even agree with
that Megaupload was doing,
I think warrant proper address
in court and so forth.
It doesn't mean
you need to send helicopters
and masses of teams
with machine guns and so on.
[Dotcom] That's it.
You just made history, man.
It's fucking huge, man!
[cheering]
Later.
[indistinct murmuring]
OK, bye.
Oh man, this is good shit.
[man] They fucked up!
They fucked up.
They fucked up.
They fucked up.
They fucked up. They fucked up.
First tonight,
a ruling in the past hour
on the Kim Dotcom case
as he fights FBI attempts to
extradite him to the United States.
[woman] A high court judge
says search warrants
for the Internet entrepreneur's
Auckland mansion were illegal.
[man] Justice Helen
Winkleman has decided
the warrants used were invalid.
New Zealand police
seized bank accounts
on behalf of the FBI
and took away property
worth millions.
Now they may have
to give it all back.
It's a damning judgment,
illegal,
unlawful, invalid.
Justice Winkleman
doesn't hold back.
[man] Embarrassed about this?
I am, a wee bit.
[woman] Ah, absolutely.
[man] That we appear to
almost be puppets of the FBI.
[Fisher] There was a feeling
that the machinery of state
had been exercised
against Dotcom
in a way that was
unjust or unfair.
[Bryce]
Suddenly, New Zealanders saw
that there was
two sides to the story...
[man] I love you, Com!
[Bryce] ...and maybe this was
the U.S. state bullying someone
that was a spanner in the works
of Hollywood productions.
[camera shutter clicking]
[Bryce] Suddenly, people wanted
to fight against injustice.
Suddenly, he became
a cause celeb.
The war for
the Internet has begun.
Hollywood is
in control of politics.
[Gabriella] There is huge
contradictions in Kim Dotcom.
Even in the face of these
huge legal battles he faces,
he seems to have
a huge sense of humor
and likes to taunt
the U.S. government.
What about free speech,
Mr. President
Say hello to my little friend.
[people screaming]
[Gabriella] I think that
playful attitude is one reason
that a lot of people
who might otherwise be
really skeptical
of what he's done,
knowing that, you know,
the primary driving force
behind many of these companies
is to make money,
nevertheless, kind of,
can appreciate him.
We will make history
It starts with you
[Dotcom] It's quite interesting
that a lobby group
around entertainment content
can get the White House
to move against
an Internet nerd
with military force.
I mean, think about
that for a moment.
Isn't that... It's funny.
And none of it
will change anything.
None of what they have done
has changed anything
to alter the way
the Internet works
or the levels of piracy.
When Megaupload shut down,
in the 18 weeks
following that shutdown,
sales through legitimate
outlets went up six to 10%,
and that's just one site.
It was one of the major
sites at the time,
but that's just one site,
and you saw an uptake of
use of legitimate sites
by an amount of six to 10%.
So that's a really
significant amount
of impact on
the legitimate market.
[Jimmy] You can't really
trust the industry numbers
on that problem,
and you certainly can't trust
the industry's analysis
and understanding
of the operation
of the Internet.
One of the strongest
drivers for piracy
is when people are hearing
all this buzz
about something that
really is fantastic,
but they can't get it legally
in their country,
and then they turn illegally
to download it.
Well, we may disapprove
of that behavior,
but we can't stop that behavior,
and there's actually
a very simple solution
that doesn't involve
sending out S.W.A.T. teams.
It involves, "Hey, change
your business policy."
Everything that you are
selling in one country,
sell it in every country,
and if you don't, don't be surprised
if people are pirating it.
[guns firing]
[Dotcom] I'm an avid gamer.
I play Modern Warfare on Xbox,
and I noticed that
my speed, my Internet speed,
went down by about
20, 30 milliseconds.
[laughing]
And a normal Internet user
would never ever identify that,
but me being a competitive
gamer, I noticed it,
and only after the raid did
I figure out what happened.
They rerouted all my traffic
in a way that
they could capture all my data
that went through my connection.
[man] During
the high court hearings,
Grant Wormed
was being cross examined,
and he was being asked
about his notebook,
and he looked extremely awkward.
On the 14th of December, 2011,
was there a further meeting
that you attended
to plan this operation
where there was
a range of people there?
Someone from
the Justice Department, was it?
[Grant] Yes.
[Paul] And was there
another group of people
represented as well
at the meeting?
[Grant] Yes, there was.
What field of activity
were they involved with?
They worked for the government.
Right.
Are you not able to
tell us who they were?
I'd rather not.
[Paul] Reason?
Just because of the nature
of the organization.
[indistinct murmuring]
[Fisher]
It was clear that something
had gone horribly,
horribly awry.
The intelligence agencies
had somehow become involved
in the Megaupload case.
The GCSB, the Government
Communication Security Bureau,
New Zealand's equivalent to
the National Security Agency,
was spying on Dotcom.
It's also a part of
the what's called
the Five Eyes arrangement.
The five eyes between them
spy on the world.
The power that they have
is immense.
[Glenn] Once Kim Dotcom
was in New Zealand,
the U.S. began exploiting
the relationship that they had
with the GCSB
and the New Zealand Government
to ensure that
getting Kim Dotcom
became one of
their principal priorities
to the point where they engaged
in illegal surveillance
to do so.
The GCSB is controlled by
quite specific legislation
that says
you're not allowed to spy
on New Zealand residents
or citizens.
[Dotcom] There's something I'd really like
to point out that is important for me.
When they tapped into my iPhone.
Because if that happens to you,
it alters the way
you think completely.
You realize that it wasn't
just my emails that they read.
They were there when
I was private with my wife.
They were right there.
They have no business
doing that, to anybody, at all.
[Sean] I find that more than
a little bit disturbing.
[bleating]
Is that a way the government
is supposed to act
with communications monitoring?
Are you supposed to be
turning the antennas
that are meant to protect your
country from outside threats
back on yourself
for the prosecution
of what I'm not even sure
in New Zealand
is necessarily a criminal act?
[man] Tonight,
the Kim Dotcom affair
is leaving John Key's government
increasingly red-faced.
[woman] The boss of the Intelligence
Bureau, Prime Minister John Key,
has ordered a probe into illegal
bugging of the Internet millionaire.
Of course, I apologize
to Mr. Dotcom.
I apologize to New Zealanders
because every New Zealander
that sits within
the category of
holding a permanent residency
or a New Zealand citizen is entitled
to be protected from the law.
This is really a matter of
mistake and human error,
not one of a great conspiracy.
[Dotcom] I wish you
A Mega Christmas
I wish you A Mega Christmas
I wish you A Mega Christmas
From Santa Dotcom
Shutting down the Internet.
[distorted male voice] Truth...
integrity...
knowledge...
independence.
[helicopter engine running]
[officer] This is a crime
scene, an illegal gathering.
- [sirens wailing]
- You are all being detained.
Nobody move.
The four Megaupload accused
did a remarkable thing
in the year after
they were arrested.
They built
a business called Mega.
[Dotcom] It is
the launch of Mega.
- [audience applauding]
- You are all upgraded.
[Dotcom laughing]
[Fisher] Dotcom says that
he was motivated
by a desire to create
an encrypted cloud storage site
so that nobody could be spied on
in the way that
he had been spied on.
The U.S. government
is investing billions
into massive spy-clouds
to capture all your data
and communication.
By using Mega,
you say no to governments
that want to spy on you.
[Fisher]
Lord knows what's on there.
It could be copyrighted files.
It could be ISIS planning documents.
It could be child porn.
It could be
whatever it might be.
They've built it so that
nobody can see inside.
[Dotcom] That, by the way, is also what's
going to beat the surveillance state.
I will be one person
that will be remembered
as somebody who has fought
mass surveillance
with technology that gives you
your freedom back.
[woman] The innermost workings
of our top spy agency
have been exposed
in a damning report.
Police have found
the GCSB breaks a law
by spying on Kim Dotcom
and 85 other New Zealanders.
[woman] Prime Minister Key's
solution to the debacle
is to change the law,
giving more power
to our top intelligence agency.
If passed, the law
will permit the GCSB
to now spy on
all New Zealand citizens.
[people shouting] Kill the bill.
[crowd chanting]
Kill the bill...
Thank you all for coming today.
[murmuring]
The U.S. government is the most
power-hungry government out there,
and GCSB is one of the puppets
on the strings of
the U.S. government,
and the biggest puppet
of them all is John Key,
your Prime Minister...
[crowd cheering]
And I will never settle my case.
I will fight until
we know the truth,
until we know
every single detail.
[crowd cheering]
[man] There were fireworks
today at Parliament
as the Prime Minister John Key
went head to head with Kim Dotcom.
The Internet tycoon was
making a public submission
on the proposed changes
to the country's spy laws.
[man] You feel that the...
or do you know or believe
that the Prime Minister
was aware
of what you were doing
before the raid took place?
He knew about me
before the raid.
I know about that.
[Prime Minister Key]
I didn't, no.
[camera shutters clicking]
You know I know.
I know you don't know.
I know you don't know,
actually, but that's fine.
Why are you turning red,
Prime Minister?
I'm not. Why are you sweating?
- [Dotcom] It's hot.
- Oh, OK.
- [people laughing]
- I have a scarf.
The question was if the Prime Minister
knew about me before the raid,
and answer to that is yes.
[camera shutters clicking]
They gave me residency
in New Zealand
for the purpose of extradition.
Warner Brothers was
already in talks
with the New Zealand government
to shoot the Hobbit films here,
and we're talking about you know,
triple digit million dollar budgets,
lots of opportunity
for New Zealand.
So the Prime Minister has seen this
as a double strike opportunity.
Number one, we can make
these Hollywood studios happy
so they will shoot
more movies here,
and on top of that,
we can please the White House,
because on the highest levels,
they wanted me shut down.
[Bryce] Certainly,
there's a lot of evidence
that suggests that that
conspiracy theory is true.
He was allowed to stay
in the country
despite having a criminal past
which would normally preclude
him from getting residency.
[camera shutters clicking]
This occurred at the same time
that the New Zealand
Prime Minister John Key
was meeting with
Hollywood officials.
[interviewer] Can I go through
the list of people we believe
- knew about Kim Dotcom?
- Yeah, sure.
- Simon Power and some officials.
- Yep.
Jonathan Coleman
and some officials,
the Solicitor General's office,
Crown Law, New Zealand Police,
the Attorney General,
the Organized and Financial
Crime Agency of New Zealand,
Nigel Bickle and an unknown
number of people under him
at Immigration New Zealand,
your electorate office,
Hillary Clinton,
the U.S. Department of Justice,
the FBI, the U.S. Attorney
General's office,
senior members of the U.S.
police force, but not you.
Correct. I mean, look, I hate
to tell you the bad news.
There's no great conspiracy.
The facts of life
are that Dotcom
is someone the United States
thinks had broken the law.
He's somebody that
they're trying
to extradite to
the United States.
That's where
it starts and finishes.
[man] Kim Dotcom has failed
in a last ditch attempt
to have the 2012 raid
on his Coatesville mansion
ruled invalid.
The Supreme Court's found the
search warrants were legal.
[man] The police
won't be charging anyone
at the GCSB
in relation to a complaint
about spying on Kim Dotcom.
[Dotcom] Every time
we win, they appeal.
It's a default.
We win. They appeal.
And, you know, every time
they appeal, they win.
It's all very political.
[birds chirping]
[indistinct murmuring]
Hello, good morning.
Thank you all for coming.
Today is a big day.
We're launching
the Internet Party.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Fisher] I couldn't believe it.
"I said to Dotcom," Are you
really gonna do it, then?
Are you gonna go into politics?"
And he said, "Yeah."
And I thought,
"God, you've lost it.
That's completely mad."
[Dotcom] I couldn't care less about
politics. Are you kidding me?
Why would I get involved,
you know?
And then I found out
all these things.
Firsthand, being abused,
being subject
to the abuse of power.
Yeah, of course. I wanted
to replace the government.
Why else would
I do it, you know?
[Fisher] For Mathias Ortmann,
Bram van der Kolk,
Finn Batato, I think
that Dotcom's involvement
in politics was a sideshow
and a distraction.
They struggled to see
how it was going to stop
an extradition process
that was under way,
how it was going
to change the charges
that they might face
in the United States.
[indistinct chatter]
We are a part of this Five
Eyes global spy network.
Thank you, guys.
[Mona] Kim is always
the super confident,
and I'm always the one worrying.
But still, I'm a woman.
I would worry, of course.
That's my thing.
I'm a worry wart.
[indistinct chatter]
[Mona] You're still
kinda, like, left hanging.
Like, I don't even know what's
gonna happen six months from now.
Like, Kim's hearing
is still going on.
I just don't know.
I think the whole stress
really got to me,
and, you know, the raid,
of course, was part of it.
We were really happy
before, you know. Yeah.
[Dotcom] Mona had great
difficulty dealing with the raid.
She struggled with it,
and it affected
our relationship.
That's probably
the most regrettable outcome
of this whole case against me,
that our relationship
fell apart.
She was the love of my life.
[Bryce] It became apparent
as the election year of 2014
was rolling on that the Internet
party was not going to succeed,
so Dotcom started
to look around for alliances.
The party that was willing
to work with him
was the Mana party,
which had a more
left wing and activist base.
[woman] Kim Dotcom
has told One News
he's now forked out
a whopping $4 million
for the deal
with the Mana party.
Kim Dotcom has
a particular legal interest
in not being sent back
to justice elsewhere.
[Prime Minister Key] Everybody
knows that Kim Dotcom
is putting money behind
the political party
to try and stop himself
from being extradited.
[child] Is Kim Dotcom
that big fellow?
[Fisher] It was important
for the Mana party
to be able to introduce
its new political partner
to its constituency.
[speaking in foreign language]
[Fisher] Town by town...
[yelling]
Marae by marae,
they would go down the country.
[crowd cheering]
[Bryce] Everyone was quite surprised
at how successful they were.
People took them seriously and
wondered whether they would play
an important part
in a new government.
And the media reported
everything they did.
I'm not sure that Internet Mana
handled that scrutiny very well.
You work in news.
You puffed-up little [bleep]
You're a thief!
You're a thief, John Key.
[yelling]
[Fisher] The Internet Mana
road show had aspects
that appeared to be targeting
John Key personally.
Are you ready for a revolution?
[crowd cheering]
Are you ready
to extradite John Key?
[crowd cheering]
[all chanting] Fuck John Key.
Fuck John Key.
Fuck John Key.
[man] Attacks on John Key have
hit new heights this campaign...
[crowd cheering]
This effigy burning
the latest online outrage.
[man] Fuck John Key.
[Fisher] It was probably
the nastiest election
that New Zealand has seen if not for
many, many decades, then forever.
[man] Fuck John Key!
[man] Kim Dotcom has promised
to drop a number of bombshells
that could topple
the Prime Minister John Key
at an upcoming event
billed "The Moment of Truth."
[Fisher] The day that the
Moment of Truth was to be held,
I'd received an email
which purported to show
that everything Dotcom had said
about the conspiracy was true,
that New Zealand
served him up on a plate.
So I rang Dotcom, and I said,
"Is this what you're gonna be pulling
out at the Moment of Truth tonight?"
And he said, "Yes, it is."
[man] So what kind of impact could
there be from all this tonight?
[man 2] Well, it is... these
are extraordinary revelations
to be laid out
five days before a campaign.
John Key is fighting really
for his political life.
Remember, he has said
he would resign
if there was any evidence
to show mass surveillance,
and of course we also have this
email on the Hollywood links.
[indistinct] Come on,
give him a kiss, ladies.
[Fisher] The Moment
of Truth for John Key
would've been
a high risk scenario
because the two things that
Dotcom had promised to produce
were things that
he said he was gonna resign
if they turned out
to be the case.
[Dotcom laughing]
[woman] Tonight,
we welcome the world
and to extend
the welcome of Aotearoa
to Glenn Greenwald...
[crowd cheering]
Julian Assange.
[crowd cheering]
Welcome, Edward Snowden.
[crowd cheering]
[Snowden] Hello, New Zealand.
[Fisher] The U.S. has this war
for control of the Internet,
and it is a war.
They don't feel that there should
be an organization like Wikileaks.
They believe that the spying that
they do should be kept secret.
They believe that
when it comes to copyright,
the approach that they have
should radiate out
across the world.
What we saw there
in that town hall,
that was the resistance.
[Snowden] You've got this network
of sensors around the world,
so I can see everything.
I can see what book
you looked at at Amazon.com.
I can see who you talk to.
I can see who
your friends on Facebook are.
I can see
the text messages you sent.
I can read the emails you
wrote, and I can set up things
[Glenn] ...exactly the
kind of mass surveillance
that Prime Minister Key not only
vehemently denied was being done,
but which he promised
he would resign
if it were determined his government
were actually engaged with.
[Julian]
Further, intelligence agencies
by definition
are designed to operate
outside the law,
and so they cannot be trusted.
[Fisher] No matter what Assange
or Snowden were gonna say,
Dotcom was still
the emperor with new clothes.
He hadn't produced the thing that
he had pledged that he would,
that he had been talking about
for ever so long...
and that was
a real problem for Dotcom
and for pretty much anybody
that had backed him up
until that point.
[man] What people have been
waiting for tonight
is when Kim Dotcom
came to the parliament
and said that he would prove
that John Key was a liar,
- tonight, we're, excuse me...
- [man 2] Which he did.
[Dotcom]
Which I did, absolutely...
No, about knowing
about you before the raid.
And let me
just reply to this, OK?
I think, and I want to address
all media here tonight.
You have an obligation
after what you have
learned tonight
to take the information
that you were told here
by Glenn Greenwald
and Edward Snowden
to the Prime Minister
and this government
and hold them accountable.
We have focused on
the much bigger lie,
which is not about my case,
which is about
every single New Zealander
who is subjected
to mass surveillance.
That is the story that
you should focus on.
Get your priorities right.
[Patrick] We will. We will...
I hope you will,
because in the past, Patrick,
you have let
New Zealanders down.
I don't understand
how you let the Prime Minister
get away time and time again
with his lies and his spin.
You need to do your job,
and everyone here
needs to do their job.
[Patrick] I'm doing
my job by asking you.
Kim Dotcom, what's gone wrong?
Kim Dotcom, what's gone wrong?
Why couldn't you front
the evidence tonight?
- What's gone wrong?
- I think that's it.
Thank you, thank you very much.
[indistinct murmuring]
[Dotcom] That email, I know
it comes from hacker circles.
You know about
the famous Sony hack.
The same people who were
responsible for that
were responsible for this hack.
I was assured that that
email would contain headers,
which is what allows you
to identify all the details.
You know,
what mail server was used,
the date stamps that
would have allowed anyone
to verify the contents,
but unfortunately
the email was not leaked
with that information, so it
became useless for me. Yeah.
And I regret that I could
not use it in the event.
[man] [murmuring]
and welcome to Decision '14.
The campaign is over.
The voting is over,
and the counting has begun.
Now, politics is
very serious business.
This has been a fairly serious,
and at times thoroughly
unpleasant, campaign.
[indistinct chatter]
Now will be hoping that they've got
something to celebrate tonight.
[crowd cheering]
[Bryce] Right at the start,
there was quite a swelling
of support for Dotcom
because they saw him as someone
that had been the victim
of the big Goliaths
of the U.S., FBI,
the New Zealand Police,
but suddenly he was seen
as a more aggressive player,
and it was John Key
that was the underdog.
[man] The Internet Mana
party is in trouble.
[woman] Oh, my goodness,
in the last 20 minutes,
it's all completely
changed out here.
[man] This is phenomenal. What we are
seeing here is the Internet Mana alliance
is not in Parliament,
and Kim Dotcom's millions and millions
of dollars goes down the drain.
[camera shutters clicking]
[crowd whistling]
[cheering and clapping]
Good evening, everybody.
We lost tonight because of me.
[crowd] No. No! No.
I take... I have to say this.
I have to say it. I am sorry.
[woman] It's how
the media portrayed you!
I'm... I'm really sorry
I have to say this.
I have to say this.
I take full responsibility
for this loss tonight
because the brand... the
brand Kim Dotcom was poison
for what we were
trying to achieve,
and I did not see that before,
and it only became apparent to
me in the last couple of weeks.
So to all of you
who have worked so hard,
I say, thank you very much.
[crowd cheering and clapping]
[man] Three more years.
[crowd cheering]
[bird chirping]
[fluttering]
[machine whirring]
[Dotcom]
The day after the election,
the Solicitor General
of New Zealand
has approached
my lawyers and asking
if I was willing
to leave New Zealand,
the case would be resolved.
There wouldn't have
to be an extradition,
and this whole thing
could go away.
You don't do a raid like this
and destroy a man's family
and his business
and cause so much pain
and get away with it
with some piece of paper
that says, "Yeah,
I've done something wrong",
but now I am free.
Thank you very much."
Well, fuck them.
[metal clattering]
[reporter] After four
and a half years of delays,
the extradition hearing
against Kim Dotcom
and the Megaupload co-accused
starts in Auckland,
New Zealand today.
The Judge will determine whether
the four men will be free
to remain in New Zealand
or whether
they will be sent to the U.S.,
where they could face
decades in prison.
This is cited as
the largest copyright case
that our world has ever seen.
We still think we should win,
and we are hopeful that we will.
We are.
Are you worried about
what the decision might be?
Please don't fall, OK?
Be careful there.
[Dotcom] I am very confident
in my legal team.
All our submissions
are excellent.
Any unbiased legal mind
is going to see
what has happened here.
[Ron]
The case is really important
because it raises
important legal issues
in relation to
the extradition process,
but first, they've got to show
that the conduct they complain of
is, in fact, a crime.
We say, look, what you allege
on the facts is not a crime.
And Your Honor will see that there
is a specific piece of legislation
called the Copyright Act,
and it provides protection
for Internet Service Providers.
Simply providing that technology
to its users
does not expose a company
to civil or criminal liability.
[Greg] They seem very confident.
They always point
to the same things.
There's nothing in New Zealand-U.S.
treaty that covers copyright,
and they think that
they're gonna win.
OK. Miss Gordon.
The dishonesty at the core
of Megaupload's operations
may be expressed in
straightforward terms.
The evidence boils down
to a simple scheme of fraud,
not a passive dumb pipe
service provider,
but a massive hard drive
of infringing material.
[Greg] Christine Gordon represents
the United States of America.
She has to be, I'm sure,
tutored by the DOJ,
and the United States has gotten
every ounce of
effort out of her.
We have some good glimpses
of how the respondents
thought and acted
behind the scenes.
We have some highly revealing
communications between them.
As Mr. Ortmann privately put it,
copyright owners would find,
and these are his words
that now follow.
"We are not the dumb pipe
we claim to be."
Bram van der Kolk marveled at
the position they had attained,
and these are his words:
"If copyright holders would really
know how big our business is,"
they would surely try
to do something against it.
They have no idea that
we are making millions
"in profit each month."
Ortmann told van der Kolk,
and these are
Mr. Ortmann's words:
"We did some things right.
We allowed fraud for a long
time, fueling our growth."
[Greg] I was startled.
I mean,
the whole court shuts up.
Everybody stops
because they're startling.
[Christine] On or about
August 16, 2010, via Skype,
Dotcom told Ortmann in
German, Mr. Dotcom's words:
"At some point, a judge will be
convinced about how evil we are,
and then we're in trouble."
[man] Objectively translated,
it should read,
"Because at some stage,"
a judge will be talked into
how bad we allegedly are,
"and then it will be a mess."
The United States had
the ability to select
what evidence
it wanted to present,
and we sat and cherry-picked it.
It was very selective and biased
about the evidence it picked
and placed before our court,
and a lot of the conversations
were also in a foreign language.
They were in German,
and as a result, the United
States relied on translations
which we were able to show were
incorrect and, in fact, misleading.
Your Honor should also
have received this morning
a bundle that looks like this.
Part of section 101(B) is set out
in the submissions at page 65.
[man] It's the 21 October
red bundle, sir.
[Dotcom] And you need to understand
that this judge was spammed
with thousands of
pages of submissions
by the U.S. government.
They basically
drowned him in material,
and I knew he didn't understand
anything about the case.
He had no clue about
the Internet, about copyright.
At one point in one hearing,
he asked if Mega
was cow storage?
Not cloud storage, cow storage.
[Ron] It was
a pretty frustrating hearing.
We had prepared over many hours,
and we had committed significant
human and financial resources
into mounting
what we thought was
a very credible defense
to extradition,
and most of our arguments
were marginalized
or not even considered
by the court.
[Judge] The overwhelming
preponderance of evidence
produced by the applicant
in the Record of Case
and its supplements
establishes a prima facie case
to answer for all respondents
on each of the counts.
The decision has found
that all four respondents
are all eligible
for extradition.
Therefore, the sentence...
[indistinct]
[man]
Time has passed by Megaupload.
There's always gonna be people
who wanna pirate,
and there's always gonna be
these services,
but are they
gonna be mainstream?
I would argue no.
Piracy is in decline.
But, they told us
all along, the tech side said,
"Hey, if you make it easy"
to get our hands on
at a cheap price,
it's easily accessible,
"there's not gonna be any piracy,"
and that's what they did.
They've gotten the message.
[Greg] What good is it
to throw him in jail now?
Find out what the guy knows.
Make a partnership with him.
You got his money,
and I'd say the smart move is,
right, like the godfather.
Keep your friends close
and your enemies closer.
They should be doing that.
While we have
perfectly good reason
to want to prevent
piracy of content
and allow artists and the
companies that support them
that make a profit
off of what they do,
the mechanisms that we're using
to try and enforce these things
are also mechanisms
for censorship
and for oppression of
freedom of thought,
and it's a slippery slope.
That's a dangerous thing.
[seagulls squawking]
[Dotcom] It's not about
what's right any more.
It's about winning at all cost.
They wanna drag me down.
To win, that's all
that matters to them,
but they picked the wrong guy
because you can't drag me down,
and I will win.
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
I know you don't love me
But you don't have
To be so cruel
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so cruel
Treat me like
A lowdown stupid fool
Treat me like
A lowdown stupid fool
Was letting go
Just sing a song
And now it's over
Call off the line
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so bad
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so bad
Treat me like
The worst thing You ever had
Treat me like
The worst thing You ever had
I'm so alone
Like I'm gonna die
Just so sad
I cry
I cry
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
Oh sweetness
My love and more
Please don't go
Oh please don't go
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
I know you don't love me
Well you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
to be so mean
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
Treat me like
The worst thing
You ever seen
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
to be so mean
I know you don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know you don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean
I know You don't love me
But you don't have
To be so mean