After Wayne Tempero’s tell-all interview about how the government of New Zealand used the Special Tactics Group (STG), the country’s elite counter-terrorist force, in the raid and arrest of Kim Dotcom, Megaupload’s founder, you’d think that piracy would come to halt, or at least slow down.  But the outrageous tactics didn’t have the desired effect – piracy is still rampant.

According to a report from IT World, internet traffic was just re-directed, instead of using US servers, pirates are now using servers from Europe.  So, yeah, piracy is still rampant.

Jan. 18, the day of the raid, MegaUpload’s MegaVideo was the biggest supplier of video online, with 34.1 percent of all traffic. Its closest competitor was Filesonic with 19.1 percent.
On Jan. 19, the day after MegaUpload went away and Filesonic swore off third-party downloads, Putlocker was the No. 1 source with 27.5 percent of all downloads. NovaMov and MediaFire follow, with less than half that market share.

Out on Bail

Bram van der Kolk, head programmer for Megaupload who was arrested along with Dotcom and two others, is now out after he was granted bail to an Auckland address to be with his wife.

During the bail hearing yesterday at the North Shore District Court, Crown prosecutor Anne Toohey, acting on behalf of US prosecutors, argued that Ven der Kolk should be refused access to the internet since he can easily setup a site similar to Megaupload.  And he should also be refused association with any alleged co-offenders.

Van der Kolk’s lawyer, Guyon Foley, called the bail terms “unreasonable” arguing that he should be allowed internet access stating that he could not restart the Megaupload site even if he had access to the internet because of the time, amount of data and resources required to do so as well as he is being closely monitored by the FBI.  As for the communication with the other co-accused, Foley argued that the three Auckland-based men involved in the case shared the same lawyer.

In the end, Judge Pippa Sinclair granted van der Kolk bail on the conditions he and anyone he lives with doesn’t use, own or have any devices with access to the internet, or associate with the three others accused based overseas.

Extended Stay

Finn Batato, who was also granted bail, is still in jail and hopefully be out on Monday after Foley, also his lawyer, argued his bail conditions which were the same with van der Kolk.

Foley argued that Batato was an employee of Megaupload and not a shareholder,who worked in the marketing of the company rather than in computer programming, and therefore should not need to be subject to electronic bail.

Judge Nevin Dawson said problems with administering the electronic monitoring of Batato’s bail meant he would have to spend another weekend behind bars.  If Foley did not argue Batato’s bail conditions, he would already be out.

Another condition of Batato’s bail states that he will live with Dotcom’s pregnant wife, Mona, but she was unable to provide her written consent because she was at the doctor’s when the bail assessors visited her address.  Foley proposed that Batato be allowed to live with van der Kolk but Toohey, stating that “the risk is that these men, who used to own a multi-million dollar company, now have nothing to do with their time and they would be living together.”

Dotcom’s wife is now living in a smaller mansion on their property in Coatesville, north of Auckland  since their NZ $4.3 million (U.S. $3.6 million) home has been seized by he authorities.