When the MPAA and others got together and pressured the US DoJ to file the suit against Dotcom Mega Upload was becoming a place where independent artists (music, film etc.) were sharing their works to the public without the need of Hollywood or the major recording labels. This prompted Dotcom to look into a music and movie service that would support this growing crowd and cut the big guys out. As you might imagine any competition from something like this was not going to be allowed no matter how much oversight they had. So the MPAA and a selection of others piled together and intended to cut ruin Dotcom, their hosting service and hurt anyone using Mega Upload.
To this end their seized all of Dotcom’s assets, put a hold on all Mega Upload Servers at Carpathia hosting and held personal files for thousands of individuals without any clear method of getting them back. It was a move that was very much intended to send a message and (in our opinion) had nothing to do with any real legal issues. In most cases where there is a clear violation of the law innocent people caught up in the issue are not injured as in the Mega Upload case.
This kind of behavior happens anytime the large established industry is threatened, just look at the issue with Apple and iBooks. However, since the raid and seizure of Dotcom’s assets he has not sat still. Instead he has continued to work on reestablishing himself in the online storage industry and also working to change the political landscape in New Zealand. As you might imagine this has brought money back to Dotcom and is part of what has allowed him to fund his defense (the MPAA does not think he should be able to do that) and also to bankroll a new political party.
It is this new round of money that the MPAA and other copyright guys want to find out about. They feel that they should be able to peer into Dotcom’s finances anytime they want. This is despite the fact that the original seizure order only pertained to assets that were in place at the time of the raid. All assets that were gained after that time are not supposed to be accessible to the group or part of the current legal issue.
The copyright gang does not think that and want to take a look at everything that is going on. It is possible that they would like to get an idea of who is involved in the new Mega service and also that they would like to have a go at seizing the new funds that Dotcom has managed to gain. This all goes back to their plan to starve Dotcom into submission and is part of their siege tactic. In reality they do not have much to use in an open court case and their current arguments are falling apart while they dig and scrape to try and come up with something (anything) to use against Mega Upload and Dotcom.
The copyright gang does have influence though and has managed to push their case through the NZ high courts. Right now a judge has ordered that Dotcom must disclose all of his assets so it can be determined where the money he has is from. Dotcom is not going to lie down and already has an appeal in. unfortunately the date that appeal is supposed to be heard is after the current order’s deadline. He now has to get the courts to put a stay on that date and let him have his day in court to show why the MPAA and the copyright gang has no right to find out where his money comes from.
We can see this one getting very ugly as the MPAA and their friends fight to make sure that Dotcom does not have sufficient funds to continue his legal defense or the ability to push for political change…
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