Looks like Megaupload has some more on its head to deal with. Thursday saw new charges filed against the website and its co founder Kim Dotcom, increasing the range of accusations and giving additional details that could damage Megaupload’s defense. The nine new charges add wire fraud to the mix, raising the total number of allegations against the company to fourteen. Megalupload has now also been directly accused of reproducing content from outside sites, including YouTube, and making it available to download.
It is quite a drastic shift from the previous allegations, which accused the company of only encouraging its members to upload pirated media. Examination of user behavior patterns supported the argument that Megaupload was a download only destination rather than a true file-sharing network. Our of the site’s 66.6 million registered users, a meagre 5.86 million has only ever uploaded a file to Megaupload or Megavideo.
Megaupload’s attorney Ira Rothken, who has been serving as the public voice of the defense, continued to sound optimistic in light of the new allegations, telling the Wall Street Journal that ‘those things are short on substance’. and that ‘at the end of the day, Megaupload strongly believes it is going to prevail.” As for Dotcom himself, he remains under New Zealand custody. An extradition request is expected to be filed on February 22nd, however, it might be some time till he reaches US soil.
