Kim Dotcom’s extradition hearing begins in New Zealand

The process to extradite Kim Dotcom, the founder of the nowclosed internet portal Megaupload, to the U.S. began Monday in Auckland.

He is sought by the U.S. authorities for alleged internet piracy, among other crimes.

“This case is not just about me. This case is about how much control we allow US corporations and the US government to have over the Internet,” Dotcom wrote on Twitter before the hearing.

Dotcom will be tried at the Auckland district court, along with his companions Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk, who were all arrested in January 2012 from their rented mansion in the outskirts of Auckland.

The operation was part of an extensive international operation led by the FBI.

At the first hearing Judge Nevin Dawson is analyzing petitions by the defendants to suspend or defer the process.

According to Ortmann’s lawyer, Grant Illingworth, if their petitions are dismissed, the judicial system will run the risk of losing the confidence of the people.

What is at stake is not if they have a trial just before extradition, but if they have a fair extradition process, he added, according to local NZN agency.

On the other hand, Christine Gordon, who is representing the U.S., said any hearing would be a long and complicated process and would represent another phase of litigation.

The extradition hearing is expected to last at least four weeks, and will also involve an examination of a U.S. report on the legal bases of the copyright infringements that Dotcom is accused of.

According to FBI investigations, Megaupload had 50 million users and accounted for four percent of the total internet traffic in the world, generating illegal profits to the tune of $175 million.

Until now, of the seven members of Megaupload, its programmer Andrus Nomm is the only one to have been prosecuted.

He was sentenced to little over a year in prison in the U.S. after he pleaded guilty to copyright infringement.