Kim Dotcom Accuses FBI of Illegal File-Sharing

Cloned computers sent to the US without approval of NZ authorities
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 7, 2012 12:25 AM CDT
Kim Dotcom Accuses FBI of Illegal File-Sharing
Kim Dotcom speaks to reporters after being released on bail earlier this year.   (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Brett Phibbs, File)

Kim Dotcom, the MegaUpload chief fighting extradition to the US from New Zealand, says the FBI did some illegal file sharing of its own. His lawyer claims agents committed an "illegal act" by sending cloned copies of Dotcom's seized computer to the US via Fedex without a judge's consent, Wired reports. The agents, he says, "gazumped" New Zealand authorities by sending the information while assuring the government nothing would be sent.

Dotcom, currently free on bail and making ends meet on an allowance of $49,000 a month, is accused of making hundreds of millions of dollars by letting MegaUpload users share copyrighted files online. If a judge agrees with Dotcom's lawyer and orders the FBI to return the cloned data, it might make it harder to prosecute him in the US, "but it will not have any impact on the extradition proceeding here in New Zealand," an intellectual property expert says. (More Kim Dotcom stories.)

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