Kim Dotcom: still under house arrest but now online again

Auckland - Because his behavior has been exemplary, Dotcom is now back on the internet. He can also swim daily and visit a studio in Auckland twice a week.

RT says that Kim Schmitz, the German citizen better known as Kim Dotcom and the founder of Megaupload, is still under house arrest. But he's been behaving. Now a judge has allowed him to get back online. Originally bail conditions prohibited him from web access, however the judge says he can surf again. He can also swim daily and once a week visit a studio in Auckland to record music. His co-accused Megaupload staff are able to meet with the boss weekly until August when the fate of Kim Dotcom will be decided at an extradition hearing. In the meantime the prosecutors of the case against Dotcom for allegedly infringing copyright are pushing to extradite him to the U.S.A. on money laundering and internet piracy charges. They allege that he has inflicted $500 million damages in lost revenue to copyright holders. Dotcom's lawyers, however, pronounced at a court hearing in January that their client's company merely offered online storage and that their client is innocent of the charges. Dotcom's website, megaupload.com was the world's most popular file sharing service and had 150 million registered users including 15,600 accounts held by military users. The website was closed on January 19. The case is still very controversial and digital rights advocates and human rights activists are equally concerned that the charges brought by the U.S. set a dangerous precedent for international intellectual property law.