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MEANWHILE BACK IN THE STATES: A DIGRESSION ON COPYRIGHT LAW AND THE INTERNET

As Megaupload grew, so did its profile. Gradually, Dotcom became aware his business was not as popular offline as it was online. In some quarters, he was the enemy.

Increasingly, Hollywood executives were firing criticisms at file-hosting websites and cyber lockers. Dotcom’s lawyers assured him it was the copyright holders’s responsiblity to identify infringements.

“It’s not your obligation to police the internet,” they said, and he believed them. “We always relied on that advice,” says Dotcom. Follow the rules by the book.”

The DMCA was US president Bill Clinton’s gift to the internet, said Dotcom.

“There will always be some piracy and congress knew that and Bill Clinton knew that. There will always be people not willing to pay for content. You can’t chill the most important future industry — technology and the internet — because of the interests of one group.”

That group, he said, was the copyright industry: the Motion Picture

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