Today, John Key, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, announced an inquiry on whether New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) acted unlawfully against Kim Dotcom and three other suspects in the Megaupload case, when assisting the New Zealand police in locating them for arrest.  

According to the New Zealand Government, communication was intercepted by the GCSB, without the required Prime Minister’s authorization. According to the Prime Minister, the GCSB probably acted by mistake when acting without statutory authority. 

Although the GCSB might have acted unintentionally in this instance, this report follows a series of legal questions that were raised concerning the actions by law enforcement authorities leading to the arrest of Kim Dotcom. On the 28th of June, a New Zealand judge ruled that the warrants for Kim Dotcom’s arrest, the search of his mansion and the seizure of certain materials, was unlawful. This new development could further delay the extradition process of Dotcom to the United States, in which he will be prosecuted for copyright infringement. The extradition hearing is now scheduled for March 2013. 

Meanwhile, Kim Dotcom announced the reintroduction of Megaupload, which, according to Dotcom himself, will be bigger, better and with better privacy protection than the previous platform. Dotcom intends to make his new Megaupload platform focus on more applications then just file sharing, and indicates it is almost ready for use. However, as a result of the pending court proceedings against Megaupload in the United States, Dotcom has announced that, even though his intention is to build a global network, US-hosters will be excluded from his services. 

The Megaupload case is a landmark case for filesharing platform hosters. However, with the complications in the procedure, one can wonder to what extent the original object of the case will eventually be addressed in the judge’s verdicts. 

Read more about file sharing platforms on Future of Copyright:

• Hollywood Director Bruce Leddy responds to Kim Dotcom
• Megaupload programmer granted bail on the condition Internet access is blocked
• Takedown of filesharing site Demonoid by Ukrainian authorities causes controversy

Sources: Torrentfreak, Ars Technica

Written by: Nathalie Falot