14 DAY TRIAL // The MegaUpload case, perhaps unsurprisingly, is not going well for the FBI and the lobbying groups behind it. The extradition hearing of Kim Dotcom, who has been labeled as the "kingpin" of this allegedly illegal business, has been pushed back from August to March 2013, at the earliest.
This may look like a victory for Dotcom, in that he avoids jail for a while longer, but it's not really since it means that his business is on freeze for several more months along with most of his money.
He's also limited in what he can do outside of MegaUpload, though there have been some rumors about Megabox, a new music service.
The New Zealand prosecution, which is trying to get Kim Dotcom and several other extradited to the US, has been having some problems lately as the court found that the search warrant for Dotcom's mansion was illegal. This left the question of what happens to the evidence collected there.
The court also decided that handing over some of the data collected from the raid to the FBI was also illegally acquired and is asking for that back as well. The evidence may end up being shared with both the prosecution and Dotcom's layers and Dotcom will get back what the court finds as irrelevant to the case.
All of this has to be decided, which means more court hearings. The court decided that there was no time to get all of this settled before the August extradition hearing so it pushed those back. March next year is the earliest date now, but it could be pushed back further if the court finds it's needed.
Dotcom wasn't happy about the news, understandably. "Extradition hearing delayed til March. Dirty delay tactics by the US. They destroyed my business. Took all my assets. Time does the rest," he tweeted earlier.