Kim Dotcom: The Man Behind Megaupload (2014)

Kim Dotcom: The Man Behind Megaupload (2014)

In October 2013, VICE News was invited to visit the infamous tech mogul and creator of Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, at his palatial property in New Zealand. Even though Kim is under house arrest—since he's at the center of history's largest copyright case—he's still able to visit a recording studio in Auckland.

So check out this brand new documentary we made at Kim's mega-mansion and in the studio where our host, Tim Pool, got to lay down some backup vocals for Kim's upcoming EDM album while talking about online surveillance, file-sharing, and Kim's controversial case.

Kim Dotcom is a larger-than-life controversial Internet entrepreneur. It has been reported that he made $175 million dollars with his file sharing website Megaupload. The website provided a fast and simple way to transmit large files over the Internet. However, the U.S Government alleged that Megaupload was being used for illegal purposes such as infringement of copyright laws and as a result Kim’s estate was raided anti-terrorist style by two helicopters and 72 law enforcement agents equipped with machine guns and attack dogs. This happened in 2012, just one day after SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) died in the US Congress.

Kim’s assets continue to be frozen and he is still under house arrest. But he’s fighting back. Kim talks candidly about what he is going through and how he thinks that the government is undermining everybody’s rights and destroying everybody’s freedom. Kim firmly believes that it’s time that somebody stood up and changed the system. He describes himself as a guy who just loves to do new stuff and can’t understand the excessive power that was used to spy on a tech geek like himself. He calls it an invasion of privacy.

In October 2013, VICE News visited Kim Dotcom at his extravagant property in New Zealand to film this 20 minute investigative documentary about the man who is standing at the center of history’s largest copyright case.