Biography: Kim Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, born January 21, 1974, also known as Kim Tim Jim Vestor and Kimle, is a German-Finnish computer programmer and businessman who rose to prominence during the Dot-com Bubble. , was convicted of insider trading. In addition, Kim Dotcom is known as the founder of the Megauload file sharing service, as well as a number of related sites. He legally changed his last name to Dotcom in 2005. On January 20, 2012, New Zealand police took him into custody on charges of illegally distributing copyrighted information on his Megaupload website.

Kim Dotcom - Biography: The Early Years

As a teenager, Dotcom, then living in Germany, became famous by hacking into the website of an American PBX company and stealing secret information. A similar prank resulted in the arrest of the young hacker. Subsequently, paradoxically, he founded a company dealing computer security DataProtect. In 2000, during the so-called Dotcom Bubble, Schmitz managed to very profitably sell 80% of the shares of DataProtect to the German corporation TÜV Rheinland. However, a year later, when the financial bubble burst, he former company was declared bankrupt. In addition to his activities, Kim Dotcom is known for his large dimensions: height - 1 m 98 cm; weight - 129 kg.

In 2001, Dotcom acquired a controlling stake in LetsBuyIt.com, which at that time was on the verge of bankruptcy, for $375 thousand, and announced that it intended to invest 50 million euros in it. However, in reality he did not have such a huge amount, but the news led to the fact that LetsBuyIt.com shares immediately jumped by more than 300%. Dotcom quickly sold his shares, which allowed him to earn $1.5 million.

Founding of Megaupload
On March 21, 2005, Kim Dotcom founded Hong Kong-based file hosting company Ltd. Recent studies showed that the Megaupload portal was one of the 13 most visited sites on the Internet, with a share of global traffic of 4%. Dotcom's company had 150 employees and annual revenues of $175 million.

However, on January 19, 2012, the American government stopped the operation of the Megaupload file hosting domain and servers, accusing its owners of unwillingness to combat the presence of pirated content on the site.

Arrest in New Zealand
On January 5, 2012, an indictment was filed in Washington against Kim Dotcom, where the owner of the Megaupload website and his six colleagues were accused of copyright infringement. On January 20, 2012, Kim Dotcom, Finn Bateito, Matthias Ortman and Bram van der Kolk, who were then in Auckland, New Zealand, were arrested by local police, who made the arrests at the request of their American colleagues from the FBI. Eyewitnesses of the arrest note that the operation to detain Megaupload top managers was incredibly grandiose and involved huge forces of local special forces. On January 25, 2012, the court refused to release Kim Dotcom's defense on bail, citing the fear that the accused would flee to Germany.

Kim Dotcom short biography:
Born: January 21, 1974
Nationality: German
Other names: Kimble, Kim Tim Jim Vestor, Mr Dotcom
Citizenship: German, Finnish
Occupation: Executive Director of Megaupload Ltd. (2005–11)
Hometown: Coatesville, New Zealand
Spouse: Mona
Children: 3

Other activities
Dotcom took part in several Gumball 3000 rallies. And in 2001, driving a Mercedes Brabus SV12 Megacar, he managed to take first place. The billionaire has a passion for expensive sports cars, which is why his fleet includes brands such as Mercedes, Porsche, Rolls-Roys, etc.

Kim Dotcom's luxury car fleet

In 2010, Kim Dotcom moved to New Zealand, where he rented a luxurious mansion near Auckland for $30 million. These apartments were and are considered the most expensive housing in the entire country.

In addition to Megaupload Ltd, Kim Dotcom owns the rights to several other companies starting with the word Mega - for example, Megatronic Ltd.

Kim Dotcom has repeatedly stated that the image created for him in the United States is not true, and that in fact he is a decent and law-abiding businessman. In addition, the billionaire insisted that the services provided by Megaupload were not much different from other popular resources, such as Rapidshare or YouTube, and associated the negative attitude towards himself with his hacker past.

New Year's fireworks cost Kim Dotcom half a million dollars

Dotcom is also known for his philanthropy. For example, after the devastating earthquake in southern New Zealand in 2010, a German man donated a large sum of money to help rebuild the hard-hit town of Christchurch.

In addition, he became the sponsor of a grandiose fireworks show on the eve of the 2011 offensive in Oakland. Moreover, Dotcom himself, together with his wife, fashion model Mona, watched all this action from a helicopter hovering nearby. According to experts, if Kim Dotcom's guilt is proven, he faces at least 20 years in prison.

P.S. Kim Dotcom is a cybercriminal, but this is a real-world criminal with more than one human life on his conscience.

Kim Dotcom, one of the craziest and most eccentric entrepreneurs in the computer industry. The Internet activist, public critic of the American government, and fighter against media monopolists announced that he spent all the money on lawyers in the typical manner of a computer geek - from his office via Skype in front of an audience at a London IT conference. According to Kim himself, they began to persecute him at the behest of the heads of the largest record companies and Hollywood film studios. “I’m German, and in Hollywood, ever since the James Bond films, they don’t like villains of my nationality,” the entrepreneur grins with his characteristic humor.

We remember how a disgraced businessman made a name for himself, earned his first million and a dozen of his worst enemies, which cost him his freedom and fortune.

While still very young, Kim had already set out on the path of hacking, hiding under the pseudonym Fugitive. Even then, he thoroughly frayed the nerves of representatives of the Pentagon, NASA and other serious organizations. In 1994, 20-year-old Kim Schmitz was put on trial for the first time for theft. confidential information and went to jail for a month. Who would have thought then that courts would now become part of his everyday reality, a familiar background of an Internet activist.

Before founding his own company called Kimvestor, Kim lived exclusively through hacking. In 2001, he sold the investment company for 200 million euros and bought LetsBuyIt.com, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. The hacker purchased shares of the company in the amount of 300 thousand euros and started a rumor that he had found investors who were ready to part with 50 million euros. The shares skyrocketed, and Kim successfully got rid of them, making about 1.5 million euros on a fake insider.

It is worth noting that Kim not only spent his money down the drain, but also was involved in socially oriented projects. In 2001, immediately after the September 11 attacks, the businessman founded the Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism foundation, whose members searched for the presence of terrorists on the Internet and hacked into servers that contained the criminals’ data and accounts. Kim promised 10 million euros for information about terrorist No. 1.

The police of one or another state, or even all of them together, were constantly looking for Schmitz. To avoid being imprisoned for fraud with the LetsBuyIt.com papers, Kim flew to Thailand, where he was, however, arrested and extradited to Germany. The hacker found himself back on the bunk, now for five months. After his imprisonment, Kim flew to Hong Kong, where the story of his main brainchild began - the company that first made him incredibly rich and then bankrupt - Megaupload.

The file sharing service created by Kim and his team was a platform for the free and open exchange of information. It is immediately clear that the concepts of “free” and “free” cause nervous tremors not only among producers of music and video content, but also among intelligence agencies. “The die is cast,” a young entrepreneur, very symbolically changes his name: Kim Schmitz became Kim Dotcom and the first person whose personal website matches his first and last name to the point (pardon the pun) - kim.com.

By 2012, when the FBI became interested in the Internet entrepreneur, Dotcom's file-sharing site was visited by almost 50 million people a day, and the site generated approximately 4% of global Internet traffic. Kim could afford a luxurious life and did not miss the opportunity to arrange it. Dotcom owned an estate worth 30 million euros in Auckland, New Zealand, where he repeatedly held expensive and noisy parties. 18 cars in the garage, including a pink 1959 Cadillac.

Dotcom is a Formula One enthusiast who once chartered a 240-foot yacht for $1 million to arrive in luxury at the Monaco Grand Prix. Kim himself is not averse to being behind the wheel of a car with a powerful engine: since 2001, he has repeatedly taken part in rallies in his Mercedes Brabus SV12 Megacar. In his house there was a special room equipped with five plasmas, sound system and chairs where Dotcom played XBox. Avid Gamer, He for a long time was number 1 in the global Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 rankings.

In 2012, he released a video clip for his own track “Mr. President." The video, in which the businessman criticizes modern reality, monopolists in the media sphere and American laws, has become a real Internet manifesto. “Mr. President, are you going to change anything?” - Dotcom asks politely, as if hinting at Obama's 2008 motto.

Having actually purchased New Zealand citizenship (Dotcom invested about 600 thousand dollars in the Auckland economy), the businessman settled there, hiding from persecution by German and American authorities. Here he drove golf carts in the mornings (to speed up and not be distracted by the annoying beeping of speed limiters, Kim simply tore the speedometers out of the cars), driving around the 25 hectares of his estate. When in 2013 it became clear that Kim was unlikely to succeed in court (he was extradited by the New Zealand authorities), the US authorities froze all Dotcom assets. He was entitled to 20 thousand euros a month, which the disgraced businessman was allowed to withdraw from his blocked account. Do you think Doctom has stopped throwing fancy parties and sipping expensive wine from his vineyards? Of course not. “It would allow them to justify all their dirty tricks. Staying here, I tell them: “Hey, you!” You will never defeat me!’”

The end of the rock 'n' roll entrepreneur and activist's story in his current capacity appears to be in sight. Living on a grand scale, fighting with politicians, big businessmen and controversial anti-piracy legislation turned out to be a defeat for Dotcom. When a Forbes correspondent asked Kim if this was the end, the “president of the Internet” replied that not all was lost and there was definitely a way out somewhere.

“This is my God's gift. I always find my way."

Kim Dotcom, one of the craziest and most eccentric entrepreneurs in the computer industry, has announced his own bankruptcy. The Internet activist, public critic of the American government, and fighter against media monopolists announced that he spent all the money on lawyers in the typical manner of a computer geek - from his office via Skype in front of an audience at a London IT conference. According to Kim himself, they began to persecute him at the behest of the heads of the largest record companies and Hollywood film studios. “I’m German, and in Hollywood, ever since the James Bond films, they don’t like villains of my nationality.”“, - the entrepreneur grins with his characteristic humor.

We remember how a disgraced businessman made a name for himself, earned his first million and a dozen of his worst enemies, which cost him his freedom and fortune.

While still very young, Kim had already set out on the path of hacking, hiding under the pseudonym Fugitive. Even then, he thoroughly frayed the nerves of representatives of the Pentagon, NASA and other serious organizations. In 1994, 20-year-old Kim Schmitz was put on trial for the first time for stealing confidential information and went to prison for a month. Who would have thought then that courts would now become part of his everyday reality, a familiar background of an Internet activist.

Before founding his own company called Kimvestor, Kim lived exclusively through hacking. In 2001, he sold the investment company for 200 million euros and bought LetsBuyIt.com, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. The hacker purchased shares of the company in the amount of 300 thousand euros and started a rumor that he had found investors who were ready to part with 50 million euros. The shares skyrocketed, and Kim successfully got rid of them, making about 1.5 million euros on a fake insider.

It is worth noting that Kim not only spent his money down the drain, but also was involved in socially oriented projects. In 2001, immediately after the September 11 attacks, the businessman founded the Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism foundation, whose members searched for the presence of terrorists on the Internet and hacked into servers that contained the criminals’ data and accounts. Kim promised 10 million euros for information about terrorist No. 1.

The police of one or another state, or even all of them together, were constantly looking for Schmitz. To avoid being imprisoned for fraud with the LetsBuyIt.com papers, Kim flew to Thailand, where he was, however, arrested and extradited to Germany. The hacker found himself back on the bunk, now for five months. After his imprisonment, Kim flew to Hong Kong, where the story of his main brainchild began - the company that first made him incredibly rich and then bankrupt - Megaupload.

The file sharing service created by Kim and his team was a platform for the free and open exchange of information. It is immediately clear that the concepts of “free” and “free” cause nervous tremors not only among producers of music and video content, but also among intelligence agencies. “The die is cast,” a young entrepreneur, very symbolically changes his name: Kim Schmitz became Kim Dotcom and the first person whose personal website matches his first and last name to the point (pardon the pun) - kim.com.

By 2012, when the FBI became interested in the Internet entrepreneur, Dotcom's file-sharing site was visited by almost 50 million people a day, and the site generated approximately 4% of global Internet traffic. Kim could afford a luxurious life and did not miss the opportunity to arrange it. Dotcom owned an estate worth 30 million euros in Auckland, New Zealand, where he repeatedly held expensive and noisy parties. 18 cars in the garage, including a pink 1959 Cadillac.

Dotcom is a Formula One enthusiast who once chartered a 240-foot yacht for $1 million to arrive in luxury at the Monaco Grand Prix. Kim himself is not averse to being behind the wheel of a car with a powerful engine: since 2001, he has repeatedly taken part in rallies in his Mercedes Brabus SV12 Megacar. There was a special room in his house, equipped with five plasmas, a sound system and chairs, where Dotcom played XBox. An avid gamer, he has long been number 1 in the global Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 rankings.

In 2012, he released a video clip for his own track “Mr. President." The video, in which the businessman criticizes modern reality, monopolists in the media sphere and American laws, has become a real Internet manifesto. “Mr. President, are you going to change anything?” - Dotcom asks politely, as if hinting at Obama's 2008 motto.

Having actually purchased New Zealand citizenship (Dotcom invested about 600 thousand dollars in the Auckland economy), the businessman settled there, hiding from persecution by German and American authorities. Here he drove golf carts in the mornings (to speed up and not be distracted by the annoying beeping of speed limiters, Kim simply tore the speedometers out of the cars), driving around the 25 hectares of his estate. When in 2013 it became clear that Kim was unlikely to succeed in court (he was extradited by the New Zealand authorities), the US authorities froze all Dotcom assets. He was entitled to 20 thousand euros a month, which the disgraced businessman was allowed to withdraw from his blocked account. Do you think Doctom has stopped throwing fancy parties and sipping expensive wine from his vineyards? Of course not. “It would allow them to justify all their dirty tricks. Staying here, I tell them: “Hey, you!” You will never defeat me!’”

The end of the rock 'n' roll entrepreneur and activist's story in his current capacity appears to be in sight. Living on a grand scale, fighting with politicians, big businessmen and controversial anti-piracy legislation turned out to be a defeat for Dotcom. When a Forbes correspondent asked Kim if this was the end, the “president of the Internet” replied that not all was lost and there was definitely a way out somewhere.

“This is my God's gift. I always find my way".

We want to immediately cool the ardor of strawberry lovers: this movie is not about Kim Kardashian, although she was also often caught doing something hot online. The reality show star, by the way, will appear in the presented documentary, like many other American and world celebrities - Kylie Minogue, Moby, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg, Ronaldo, Naomi Campbell, Richard Brunson. There is no escape from the cinema on the theme of grandiose scandals and criminally provocative activities from Julin Assange and Edward Snowden - the viewer will also see odious Internet revolutionaries. But among all the celebrities, the key figure here is Kim Schmitz, better known as Dotcom, a hefty two-meter Finnish-German mug with the habits of a fearless Viking and an impudent pirate, who challenged the copyright system.

In the territory of the former Union, this issue arises more acutely every year, but in the West, the powerful international financial colossus, guarding the super-profits of the film and music industries, has long been unable to pity or forgive anyone. That’s why the slogan of the documentary is “The Story of the Most Wanted Man on the Internet.” This is exactly the status that Dotcom achieved by launching the Mega file sharing service. Corporations don’t like it when every jerk can get their films, music and other creative products for free, so Egyptian executions rained down on the pirate’s head, that is, lawsuits, trials, arrests and other tricks from the arsenal of copyright holders.

Who is right and who is wrong - we will not delve into the details of the entrepreneurial activities of the scandalous Internet businessman, because director and screenwriter Annie Goldson conducted a remarkable investigation, which can be found below.

In recent years, the company has gained global scale: in Hong Kong itself (and later in China), access to Megaupload was closed out of harm's way, its servers were located in the USA and Holland, and Schmitz himself took the surname Dotcom and moved to 2010 year to New Zealand.

The service also grew and developed, although it remained in its original direction: separate hosting appeared for photos, videos, video broadcasts and, of course, for pornography. Megaupload made money on paid accounts and placing advertisements on its pages, removed illegal materials at the request of copyright holders and, in general, did not differ from many of its competitors.

But what stood out was his confidence in his own rightness and impunity, which was completely atypical for such resources. All file hosting understand that they contain illegal content: there is much higher demand for such files, which means the number of visits to the site and, as a result, advertising revenue. But Megaupload not only defended itself from attacks from copyright holders, but also actively attacked others.

In October 2011, Dotcom sent a letter to the payment system PayPal, in which he talked about his plans to sue some file hosting services for their “illegal activities.” The head of Megaupload advised PayPal not to cooperate with these resources, explaining that they payment system transfer funds to users who downloaded pirated content. And this despite the fact that the program to reward authors of popular downloads was also active on Megaupload itself.

The service later released a video in which stars such as Will.I.Am, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg and other popular media personalities sing a song about what a wonderful service it is. The main idea of ​​the video is simple: even celebrities use Megaupload to send files to friends.

But then a rather strange story happened. Universal Music Group either removed it themselves or succeeded in removing this video from YouTube. They justified their demands with the traditional “infringement of copyright,” but did not specify what it was. Megaupload, naturally, claimed that the video did not violate anyone’s rights and that appropriate agreements had been concluded with all the musicians who appeared in the frame.

It immediately became known that Will.I.Am asked Megaupload to remove the video. But the file hosting service was planning to sue Universal instead. Soon the video was restored with the explanation that Universal could not prove its rights to the materials from the video. The musician also rejected the claims.

Best of the day

This incident apparently infuriated Dotcom, and on December 18 he published a long letter, which, among other things, said: “Mega has nothing to fear. Our business is legal and protected by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). digital age) and similar laws around the world. We work with the best lawyers and play by the rules. We take our legal obligations seriously. Our military budget is full and we have strong support behind us. We've been online for seven years and we'll be here, so don't worry about us."

But after the publication of this entry, the service worked for exactly a month. Neither the “best lawyers” nor the “military budget” saved it from being closed on charges of copyright infringement, and Dotcom and other company executives from being arrested or put on the wanted list. Why did it happen?

The main reason was precisely the confidence in one’s own rightness and impunity, which was typical for the hosting management. Referring to the DMCA, which indeed gives some guarantees to resource owners from materials uploaded by their users, they forgot that they must comply with at least the formal rules of the game.

The 70-page indictment argues that the service did not take sufficient steps to remove illegal content. Thus, the document contains a number of quotations from email correspondence company employees who either shared with each other links to found pirated copies of films and “hacked” versions licensed programs(not to delete, of course), or asked colleagues who were allowed to search the server database to find such files.

Law enforcement officers also did not like the lack of search on the site itself. Thus, they believed, the service was trying to make it difficult for copyright holders to find illegal content. In addition, they accused the service of excluding pirated materials from the “most downloaded” rating. Both of these facts led authorities to believe that Megaupload wanted to appear “more legal than it actually is.”

The prosecutor's office also drew attention to the policy of removing child pornography from the file hosting servers. The fact is that Megaupload itself checked the database for the presence of such materials, and did not wait for lawsuits. The service’s zeal was used against itself: it did not apply this method to other dubious materials, although it had such an opportunity, which means it encouraged piracy.

The closure of the service and the arrest of its leadership, judging by the indictment, had been in preparation for several years. However, the international operation was carried out on January 19, exactly the day after protests by the largest Internet resources expressing their dissatisfaction with the anti-piracy bill SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).

Whether on purpose or by accident, the American authorities have shown that the current legislation is enough for them to “squeeze” the unwanted service. And if the “backward move” that Congress gave in relation to anti-piracy bills can be considered temporary, but still a victory in the fight for Internet freedom, then Megaupload became a sacrifice given in return. As sad as it may be, honest users should hardly wait for their files to be returned.