Tweet
Megaupload's Kim DotCom caused a political uproar last week when he accused Vice President Joe Biden of ordering the takedown of the now defunct cloud hosting websitel.
In an interview with TorrentFreak, DotCom cites, in his opinion, a "credible source" that revealed the instrumental role Biden played in the takedown of Megaupload. Discussions on the takedown took place last June, DotCom claims, when Biden met with the head of America's most powerful movie studios, and one Mike Ellis, a former superintendent of the Hong Kong police with a background in extradition law, who also later met with New Zealand's minister of justice. DotCom was living in New Zealand when he was arrested in January, and is now fighting extradition to the United States.
However, the MPAA has issued a statement denying these allegations. Instead, the MPAA says the meetings was to talk about an upcoming trip to China by the VP, and issues related to trade and movie imports into the country. As for the presence of Ellis, the MPAA says that he was present due to him being the head of MPAA operations in the Asia Pacific, and also his expertise on China.
The timing of the Megaupload takedown has also been questioned. Coming just days after the widespread Internet protest against the film industry's favoured SOPA/PIPA legislations, sources within Hollywood claimed that industries heads were considering pulling financial support for President Obama due to his wavering support for SOPA/PIPA. But as the indictments against Megaupload and DotCom were filed weeks before the SOPA/PIPA protests, any link would seem coincidental at this stage.
But with all that said, Vice President Biden's support for tougher copyright legislation has always been a well known fact, even before his nomination to be the running mate for Obama.
In an interview with TorrentFreak, DotCom cites, in his opinion, a "credible source" that revealed the instrumental role Biden played in the takedown of Megaupload. Discussions on the takedown took place last June, DotCom claims, when Biden met with the head of America's most powerful movie studios, and one Mike Ellis, a former superintendent of the Hong Kong police with a background in extradition law, who also later met with New Zealand's minister of justice. DotCom was living in New Zealand when he was arrested in January, and is now fighting extradition to the United States.
However, the MPAA has issued a statement denying these allegations. Instead, the MPAA says the meetings was to talk about an upcoming trip to China by the VP, and issues related to trade and movie imports into the country. As for the presence of Ellis, the MPAA says that he was present due to him being the head of MPAA operations in the Asia Pacific, and also his expertise on China.
The timing of the Megaupload takedown has also been questioned. Coming just days after the widespread Internet protest against the film industry's favoured SOPA/PIPA legislations, sources within Hollywood claimed that industries heads were considering pulling financial support for President Obama due to his wavering support for SOPA/PIPA. But as the indictments against Megaupload and DotCom were filed weeks before the SOPA/PIPA protests, any link would seem coincidental at this stage.
But with all that said, Vice President Biden's support for tougher copyright legislation has always been a well known fact, even before his nomination to be the running mate for Obama.