Hong Kong a key battle ground in US copyright case: Kim Dotcom
Megaupload founder plans to try to prove in HK that US had no jurisdiction to freeze his assets
Renegade internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom says Hong Kong is a key battleground in his fight to stop the US government extraditing him from New Zealand to face charges of mass copyright infringement.
Dotcom's now-defunct file-sharing platform Megaupload, which is at the centre of the case, never had a subsidiary in the United States, Dotcom said. That means US prosecutors have their hands tied as they can not indict an exclusively foreign company.
"If we can establish this fact in Hong Kong courts, then the entire destruction of Megaupload Limited and 220 jobs was unlawful," said Dotcom, who once lived in a luxury penthouse at the Grand Hyatt in Wan Chai.
"Customers, former employees and shareholders of Megaupload could then seek damages from the US Government. But one step at a time,'' Dotcom told the .
Earlier this month, German-born Dotcom won the right to renegotiate a restraint order on millions of dollars seized in January 2012 when Hong Kong customs raided offices and homes linked to Megaupload.
In the Court of First Instance, Deputy High Court Judge Mr Justice Garry Tallentire said the US government made a "serious and demonstrable error of judgment" when it failed to tell its Hong Kong counterpart about the legal hurdles it faced in pursuing Dotcom. Key among the errors was the inability to serve him with a summons.
