The name of Kim Dotcom became widely known to the public in 2005, when this Internet entrepreneur founded the file-sharing network Megaupload, which very quickly gained popularity among Internet users all over the world. Ironically, it was this project that later became the main source of problems for its creator.
Childhood and youth
Dotcom was born in 1974 in the German city of Kiel in the family Schmitz. Due to the fact that his father was German and his mother was a Finn, Kim had been a citizen of two countries right from birth.
While still a minor adolescent, Kim showed outstanding abilities in dealing with computers and, without straining at all, hacked into the security systems of such serious institutions as NASA, the Pentagon and Citibank. Kim Schmitz was known in hacker circles under the pseudonym of Kimble - that was the name of the protagonist of his favorite American television series The Fugitive.
In 1994, Kim Schmitz fell for the sale of stolen telephone card numbers and was taken into custody. He was in prison for a month, and immediately after his release, he was again arrested for hacker activity. Schmitz was conditionally sentenced to two years for 11 cases of computer fraud, 10 cases of identity theft, as well as several other minor offenses. The judge regretted the defendant and called his illegal actions "teenage folly." As you know, the young hacker was not going to stop there.
Start of business activities
In 2001, Kim Schmitz acquired shares of the company LetsBuyIt.com, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, in the amount of EUR 375,000, and after that announced its intention to invest another 50 million euros in it. Such a statement led to a rise in prices for the company's shares, and Schmitz simply sold his shares, earning about 1,500,000 euros.
After that, Kim moved to Thailand to avoid litigation, where he was arrested by order of the German government and sent back to his homeland. After serving five months in prison pending a hearing on his case, he was released, but again received a suspended sentence of 20 months. After he escaped a real prison sentence for the second time, Schmitz moved to Hong Kong at the end of 2003.
In Hong Kong, an enterprising German received a residence permit and founded his own company, Kimpire Limited, within which a network of interconnected hedge funds managed by artificial intelligence was created. But even here he violated a couple of local laws when issuing papers, for which the Hong Kong court fined him $ 8,000.
Dotcom and Megaupload
During his stay in Hong Kong, Kim Schmitz decided to change his native name to Dotcom. So he became the first person in the world, whose first and last name are also the address of his site kim.com (kim dot com).
Here in 2005, Kim Dotcom creates his largest project Megaupload (originally called Data Project Limited), a file sharing service that instantly gained popularity among millions of Internet users. With this service, people could share any information: music, movies, television series, pornography, applications, video games and other materials. It was one of the first such services in the history of the Internet. The file sharing site confidently occupied the 13th line among the most popular Internet resources in the world. It is this incredible popularity that attracted undue attention to the activities of the entrepreneur.
Dotcom himself always spoke of his projects very simply:
“When you create something popular, when you come up with a solution, if you are an innovator, solve people's problems and like what you can offer, of course, you automatically earn money.”
In 2008, Dotcom moved to permanent residence in New Zealand, where he received a residence permit, or to be precise - just buys it, through investment in the economy of the country.
Arrest and trial
In 2012, the FBI, under the auspices of the fight against online piracy, closed Megaupload. At that time, the Megaupload service stored about 50 thousand terabytes of information, generated approximately 4% of global Internet traffic, and served an average of 50 million users daily. Megaupload was served by 150 employees, and the profit it brought to its creators is estimated at $ 175 million.
Against Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues, they were charged that their service caused losses to copyright owners in the amount of $ 500 million. All four were arrested by the New Zealand police two weeks after the decision of the American court. During the detention of criminals, 76 law enforcement officers and two helicopters were involved. The arrest was also imposed on all property of Kim Dotcom, which is estimated at $ 17 million and includes 18 expensive cars, a giant TV and numerous works of art. All bank accounts of the entrepreneur were frozen, and he was literally penniless.
From the outside, all these attacks by the right holders looked rather strange, especially considering that a commercial appeared shortly before the web, where famous American musicians admitted to love Megaupload: Jimmy Fox, The Game, Alishia Kees and Kanye West.
After serving about a month in prison, Dotcom was released on bail. The judge considered that once all the assets of the accused were frozen, he would not leave the country anywhere and would defend his right to property.
Subsequent court sessions revealed gross violations during the execution of documents for the arrest of Kim Dotcom and his property. The raid on his house was declared illegal, which in turn did not cancel the accusations of copyright infringement. He was allowed to remove about $ 5 million from the frozen accounts, and also sell nine of his eighteen cars. Dotcomu's money was enough to pay lawyers and rent their home in New Zealand.
All this time, the US government demanded the extradition of the Dotcom from New Zealand, so that it could be judged to the fullest extent of American law. Attempts by the United States to get the accused were unsuccessful, and in 2013, Dotcom had already begun to sue its accusers. He also published a document on the Web that links the criminal case against him to the largest Hollywood film studios. Film studios sponsored the US government and President Barack Obama personally in exchange for declaring a large-scale Dotcom hunt.
Recalling this difficult time for his family, Dotcom shared with journalists:
“Every time you hear the sound of a helicopter, you immediately think:“ Oh, another round-up, this is never forgotten. ”
A little later, information emerged that the Dotcom was set up illegal surveillance, for which the special services of New Zealand had absolutely no rights. The country's prime minister even offered Dotcom the personal apologies for violating his rights. Such mistakes and violations by the government and special services attracted media attention and provoked a real national scandal.
Further activities
After the events with Megaupload, Kim Dotkom didn’t stop doing what he loved.
Dotcom has always occupied a very active social position in life. Back in 2001, after the events of September 11, he declared a personal war on terrorists and created the organization Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism. With the help of his supporters, he found on the Web and hacked bank accounts owned by Osama bin Laden, and also announced a reward of $ 10 million for any information that could help seize the well-known terrorist.
In 2012, Kim Dotk, together with a familiar producer, will release his own music album containing 20 tracks.
In January 2013, Dotcom launches Mega file sharing service, which is the spiritual successor of Megaupload. This time, all files are stored simultaneously on two servers in a fully encrypted form, and the key is issued only to the person who uploaded these files. The receiving party has no idea what the users are uploading to the servers for the files. Dotcom describes his new project as follows:
“Legally, this is perhaps the most thoroughly thought out Internet startup in history. Every pixel on this site has been checked for all kinds of violations and potential legal problems. We have a great team of very talented lawyers who are experts in the field of intellectual property and Internet law, and they have worked with us to create Mega. ”
Kim Dotcom invented two-step authentication on sites, and he does have a patent for this technology, despite the fact that AT & T had also proposed a similar idea two years earlier. He could easily put a patent into action and sue such large companies as Google, Facebook or Twitter for using his intellectual property, but, in his own words, he believes in the need to share knowledge and ideas for the benefit of society. After all, it is for this that he created Megaupload in due time.
"In the Middle Ages, the enemies of progress burned books, now they burn websites."
By the way, Dotcom once gathered the Megacar, the first car with access to broadband Internet, inside which 16 GSM receivers were installed in a special way. Now a well-known entrepreneur has gone into political activity and even created his own political party, with the help of which he wants to get into the New Zealand Parliament. And he is the world champion in the popular first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Kim Dotcom can be called extravagant for his love of video games, high speed and risky projects. But its contribution to the development of the modern Internet cannot be underestimated. The life of this person is reminiscent of an action-packed film with incessant chases, surveillance, trials, expensive follies and adventures. But whatever happens to Dotcom, he always finds the strength to survive the hardships and boldly move on. Go to your new goal.
The article is based on materials .
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