Kim Dotcom allowed to live-stream extradition appeal

Watch the live-stream on YouTube (20-minute delay).

Kim Dotcom has been granted permission to live-stream his six-week extradition appeal on YouTube by a contracted cameraman, following consultations with local media.

Yesterday, a High Court judge condemned the Megaupload co-founder’s last-minute bid to live-stream the hearing because it was applied for mere days before the trial started but said it could be allowed if media companies supported it.

Mr Dotcom’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield said the stream would allow for a delay to ensure sensitive information could be censored and would adhere to court and media guidelines.

He said the case was of high public interest and the issues being dealt with are significant both locally and internationally.

Mr Mansfield also said live-streaming would ensure balanced and fast reporting, as opposed to the constraints of traditional media such as TV, radio and print.

The US government opposed the application on the basis that Mr Dotcom would not be as accountable for the coverage as other media would be and it could prejudice a trial in the US if he was extradited.

Justice Murray Gilbert allowed it though, as long as live comments on the stream were disabled, there was a 20-minute delay and the footage would be removed after the trial was finished.

The stream will start tomorrow.

Kim Dotcom and the three other Megaupload founders – Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato – are appealing a District Court decision by Justice Nevin Dawson, who said there was an “overwhelming preponderance” of evidence against the men to establish a prima facie case in December last year.

The four men were charged by the US government in 2012 with conspiracy to operate websites used to distribute copyrighted material illegally. All maintain they are innocent but the FBI says they generated $US175 million in criminal proceeds.

The issues in a nutshell
The US alleges Megaupload was a simple fraud scheme deliberately designed to attract, protect and profit from copyright infringing material.

In their defence, Mr Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield said the case amounts to whether an internet service provider (ISP), which he says Megaupload is, can be responsible, or should be responsible, for breaches of copyright by its users.

A provision in the country’s Copyright Act also provides a “bar against prosecution” for dual technologies, Mr Mansfield said, claiming it is no crime to make money from a brilliant idea.

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