Kim Dotcom, the flamboyant German-born internet entrepreneur facing extradition to the US for alleged piracy, has put forward a plan to give all householders in his new home of New Zealand free broadband access, financed by suing Hollywood studios and the American government.
The 38-year-old, better known to his mother as Kim Schmitz, made a fortune reputed to exceed $154 million with his hugely popular Megaupload file storage site, which US prosecutors allege was involved in the distribution of copyright-protected films, music and other material.
Originally based in Hong Kong, Dotcom has had New Zealand residency for two years. In January this year dozens of police raided his mansion in Auckland and other addresses on behalf of the FBI. Six months later New Zealand’s high court ruled that the operation was illegal, casting doubt on the 6-foot 6-inch entrepreneur’s extradition. Dotcom has been on bail since February.
Dotcom nonetheless faces an extradition hearing in March, and has engaged in a concerted campaign to court public opinion. The latest salvo involves resurrecting a planned second fibre-optic web cable across the Pacific to the US, which would have doubled New Zealand’s available internet bandwidth. A New Zealand company, Pacific Fibre, hoped to build the $386 million link but announced in August it could not secure the funding.
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