Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom gets back online
updated 04:40 pm EDT, Mon April 2, 2012
Kim Dotcom allowed access to web, pool, more
Despite the US trying to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom from New Zealand, a Monday court hearing has given the executive basic rights. Dotcom will be allowed to surf the web and swim daily to help ease back pain, TorrentFreak revealed. He will also be allowed to finish a music album he has been working on.
In the North Shore District Court hearing on Monday, Dotcom appealed to get his bail conditions modified so he could properly prepare his defense. His partners Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk, and Finn Batato were also at the hearing with similar requests. In the US, Dotcom is facing charges of racketeering, money-laundering, and multiple copyright infringement offenses related to his Megaupload file-sharing site.
The album was started before his arrest, and involves a few international artists and Dotcom himself as a musician. Judge David Harvey on Monday granted Dotcom 90 minutes of access to the swimming pool at his former mansion, Internet access, and two trips a week to Roundhead Studios in Auckland to finish the album.
The three other defendants are now allowed to visit Dotcom at his home for up to six hours a week to work on their defense.
The extradition hearing is scheduled for August.
