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Ira Rothken says his client Kim Dotcom has done nothing wrong. - Source: Close Up -
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The lawyer for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is confident his client will "prevail".
Ira Rothken, who is one of America's leading technology lawyers, said Dotcom is being charged with something unidentifiable under US law.
"There's no such thing as secondary criminal copyright infringement," Rothken said on TVNZ's Close Up programme from his hometown San Francisco.
"Cloud storage providers are not responsible for the acts of their users."
Rothken said cloud storage facilities such as Megaupload should have the same immunity from prosecution afforded to them that Google and Youtube possess.
"It's going to be statistically likely that both good and bad people are going to use these services," he said.
"And so the New Zealand courts are going to have to grapple with a very important issue, and they may set the standards for the entire world."
Dotcom, a German national, faces extradition to the United States for his role in megaupload.com, which US Federal prosecutors say has cost copyright holders more than $620 million in revenue lost through pirated material.
Rothken said the New Zealand justice system will have to decide in Dotcom's extradition hearings whether or not he violated the laws in this country, and whether they are extraditable.
"We are very optimistic that when the judge takes a good hard look at this he's going to say that these types of cloud storage providers should be immune."
According to Rothken the US government attacked not only Megaupload but also offended millions of consumers worldwide by shutting down the file-sharing website.
"They lost everything from family photos to Microsoft Word documents, things that can never be considered to be infringing. They were all taken down by the aggressive government conduct."
Dotcom was released from prison yesterday on bail after a court judge deemed he no longer posed a flight risk.
As part of his bail conditions, Dotcom must wear an electronic bracelet and is not allowed to use the internet or travel more than 80 kilometres from his North Shore mansion.
Dotcom is preparing to fight the charges against him before his extradition hearing in August.
Kim Dotcom and Megaupload are going to prevail, a confident Rothken stated.
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