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shrewdsheep [soylentnews.org] writes:

The high court in New Zealand has ruled Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can be extradited to the United States to face a multitude of charges including money laundering and copyright breaches.

US authorities had appealed for Dotcom’s extradition to face 13 charges including allegations of conspiracy to commit racketeering, copyright infringement, money laundering and wire fraud. The German national, who has permanent residency in New Zealand, faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted in the US of piracy, which authorities say cost copyright owners hundreds of millions of dollars. It is nearly five years since Dotcom, a self-described “internet freedom fighter”, was arrested in a dramatic police raid on his mansion near Auckland after the FBI shut down Megaupload’s servers.

ISP liability charges were dropped. However, fraud chargers were instated.

“The High Court has accepted that Parliament made a clear and deliberate decision not to criminalise this type of alleged conduct by internet service providers [promotion of copyright violation], making them not responsible for the acts of their users,” the statement read.

Also at pcworld [pcworld.com].

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