Kim Dotcom & Megaupload

The controversial internet entrepreneur, Megaupload founder and New Zealand resident Kim Dotcom has had his bail conditions relaxed again – it’s a long way from his incarceration in Mount Eden in January.

Here is a selection of significant moments along the way.

Date	Event
January 5	Indictments are filed in the US against Kim Dotcom and six others MegaUpload associates citing alleged criminal copyright infringements, racketeering and money laundering related to the cyberlocker site.
January 20	Kim Dotcom is arrested at his mansion in Coatesville, north of Auckland, in the most dramatic of a series of police raids involving more than 70 New Zealand officers, in cooperation with the FBI. The Megaupload site is disabled by the US Department of Justice, who declare a “mega conspiracy”. Millions of dollars of assets are seized in subsequent days. Dotcom is held at the Auckland Central Remand Prison. “Every two hours, they would wake me up,” he would later say. “I was deprived of sleep. I wrote a complaint. I said, ‘This is torture, this is sleep deprivation.’”
January 25	In the North Shore District Court, Justice David McNaughton rules that Dotcom is a flight risk, and denies bail. “With sufficient determination and financial resources, flight risk remains a real and significant possibility, which I cannot discount, and bail is declined,” he says.
February 3	The High Court refuses an appeal against the District Court decision to deny Dotcom bail. Justice says he backs the earlier decision, and does not see sufficient ties to New Zealand to persuade him that Dotcom is not a flight risk. He stays in the slammer.
February 22	Dotcom is granted bail by the North Shore District Court, with conditions including the wearing of an electronic bracelet for monitoring, keeping within a 50 mile radius of his home and staying away from helicopters. Other requirements include living in the smaller house beside the main Chrisco mansion, and a ban on use of the internet. Justice Nevin Dawson says Dotcom has “every reason to stay to be with his family and fight to keep his assets” but that he isn’t to get on the internet because he has “the ability to use it for wrong purposes”.
March 1	In his first major TV interview since his arrest, Dotcom tells the Campbell Live programme that he is no “piracy king”, saying the US attempt to extradite him are buillt on “fabrications and lies”. He adds: “It’s kind of like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, you know? If you want to go after someone and you have a political goal you will say whatever it takes,”
April 2	Dotcom’s bail conditions are relaxed to allow him to spend time in a recording studio making an album, to access the internet and to use his swimming pool, following a hearing before Justice David Harvey in the North Shore District Court.
April 27	The story spawns a political scandal subplot, centring on anonymous donations made by Dotcom to rightwing MP John Banks during an earlier campaign for the Auckland mayoralty. Banks makes it crystal clear that he not travelled on a river in a cabbage boat.
May 7	Dotcom releases “The John Banks Song”, lampooning the ACT MP.
May 23	Dotcom’s lawyers claim that digital material has been cloned by the FBI and taken to the US in contravention of an undertaking by prosecutors. Paul Davison QC tells the Auckland High Court the process was “off the rails” and his client’s rights had been “subverted”.
May 29	Dotcom is permitted to remove his electronic tag and move back into the main Chrisco mansion after district court judge David Harvey rules that there is no serious flight risk. Dotcom has abided by all the requirement of his bail to date, says the judge. The court also rules that Dotcom’s legal team should have access to information gathered by the FBI in the copyright case against him.
May 31	Dotcom’s lawyer’s ask US courts to throw out charges against Megaupload, saying that the US government has no jurisdiction over the Hong Kong-based cloud-storage service.
June 13	The US Attorney’s office says the Megaupload request to dismiss charges is “premature” and should be denied.
June 15	The NZ High Court grants an urgent judicial review of an earlier ruling that Dotcom’s legal team should have access to files held by the FBI, but orders US lawyers to begin copying the data from seized computers immediately.
June 21	Dotcom uses his newly created Twitter account to announce that his music-streaming project Megabox will go ahead.
June 24	#Swimatkims happens.
June 28	In the High Court, Justice Helen Winkelmann rules that the raid on the Dotcom Mansion (see January 20) was illegal, and based on invalid search warrants. She additionally finds that it was unlawful for clones of digital material seized to be sent to the FBI.
June 29	The Virginia federal court is scheduled to hear the Megaupload argument that charges should be dismissed (see May 31, June 13).
August 6	Extradition hearing scheduled to begin (though many expect this to be delayed).