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The U.S. government, in its indictment, alleges that Megaupload was more than a neutral bystander to the illegal conduct of its users. The government alleges that the whole structure of Megaupload was designed to facilitate copyright infringement and reward users who uploaded popular movies and TV shows for public consumption. Before it was shut down in January, Megaupload was one of the world's most popular websites, with millions of users who stored data with the site, either for free or by paying for premium service. The cache of data stored on Megaupload is roughly equivalent to half of the entire Library of Congress, according to court records. While the government does not dispute that some users of Megaupload were perfectly legitimate, prosecutors and lobbying groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America believe that the vast majority of the 25 million gigabytes stored on Megaupload's servers is content that was copied and shared in violation of copyright laws. The flamboyant Dotcom made a particularly high-profile target. Dotcom, a German who was born as Kim Schmitz and convicted of computer fraud and manipulating the stock price of an Internet startup but never served jail time, moved to New Zealand and lived something of a playboy lifestyle from his $24 million mansion. He even became the world's highest-rated player of the popular video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3." A judge in New Zealand this week ordered the U.S. government to share its evidence against Megaupload and Dotcom so he can evaluate whether the U.S. request for extradition is valid. The extradition hearing is set for August.
[Associated
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