Kim Dotcom says he's launching a Bitcoin payments system for users to sell content uploads, or charge for streaming live video. Read the rest

In a huge victory for press freedom, New Zealand’s High Court has ruled decisively in favor of independent journalist Nicky Hager in his case against the New Zealand government for raiding his house and seizing his family’s possessions in 2014. Read the rest

Dotcom claims he has emails between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Warner exec Kevin Tsujihara in which Tsujihara explains that Dotcom was followed by private security in Hong Kong and that Key had made the extradition promise to Warner as part of the deal to shoot The Hobbit in NZ (the MPAA, Warner and Key's office all dispute the email's authenticity). Read the rest

GCSB, New Zealand's secret police force has admitted to illegally deleting key evidence related to the raid on Kim Dotcom over his Megaupload service. The spies agree that the evidence was illegally deleted, but claim it was an honest mistake, because the data "aged off" their retention system. Read the rest

A lawsuit filed by technology entrepreneur and hacker Kim Dotcom against the government of New Zealand demands NZ $6 million (roughly USD $5 million) over an "excessively aggressive and invasive approach" by police who raided his mansion 18 months ago. The raid was ordered by the FBI, which sought to extradite him to the US on copyright violation charges. Read the rest

Kirtsy Johnson:

A judge has ordered the police to sift through all digital material taken illegally from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and to return anything irrelevant to their investigation- at their own cost.

By "at their own cost", she presumably means "at the New Zealand taxpayer's expense." Read the rest

Mega Search is the first third-party index of Kim Dotcom's resurrected Mega file-sharing service. At Ars, Megan Geuss analyses the legal implications: 'Clearly, not all of this content is infringement (there are plenty of links to personal files and public domain items, Italian-language Agatha Christie books for example). But a quick glance at the front page reveals many files that probably are.' Read the rest

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, a German national formerly known as Kim Schmitz, is seen at court in Auckland, New Zealand in this still image taken from video shot on January 23, 2012. The file-sharing website founder was ordered to be held in custody by a New Zealand court on Monday, as he denied charges of internet piracy and money laundering and said authorities were trying to portray the most negative picture of him. (REUTERS/TV3 via Reuters Tv) Read the rest