14 DAY TRIAL // MegaUpload's founder Kim Dotcom has been released on bail after several weeks in arrest in New Zealand, where he was living. US authorities mounted a huge international operation to arrest everyone involved with MegaUpload, freeze the assets of the company and those involved as well as shut down the site.
Dotcom was deemed a significant flight risk and was denied bail. But, after prosecutors were unable to prove that he still had the monetary means to flee the country, since all of his accounts were seized and no new ones were discovered, the judge decided to set him free under some strict conditions.
The most stringent of which is a ban on internet use, any internet use, for fear of him relaunching the site in a country where it would be much harder to take down.
How exactly would he relaunch a site that had all of its servers seized or blocked, that has no more employees or money to pay them or for hosting, is unclear.
Still, Dotcom can't use the internet and he is to stay confined to his Coatesville home. No helicopters will be allowed to land there and he must notify the police 24 hours in advance of any plan to travel. When he does, he is to stay within 80 km of his home.
It's been going great for the US media corporations so far, though there is still the matter of extraditing those related to MegaUpload's, Kim Dotcom in particular, to the US where they can be tried for their crimes, which are many if you are to believe the US prosecutors.
Dotcom's main attorney argued that the case doesn't warrant a criminal investigation or criminal charges and is a civil matter at most. Still, things are moving forward even as US authorities failed to meet a deadline to file extradition papers. They have until March 2nd to do so. Even then, it won't be until August that the hearings will begin.