MegaUpload: Kim Dotcom to live on $49000 a month

Currently out on bail, MegaUpload’s founder has been granted the right by New Zealand’s courts to access $49000 per month to live.

The AFP indicates that part of the fortune amassed by the founder of MegaUpload has been unblocked. Currently out on bail, Kim Dotcom is allowed to spend up to 60 000 New Zealand dollars per month, close to $49000 per month.

Kim Dotcom was arrested on the 20th of January in Auckland, New Zealand, following an investigation conducted by the FBI. He is at risk of being extradited to the USA where he would face up to twenty years in prison.

The US Justice accuses the man – along with other managers behind MegaUpload – of having generated more than 175 million dollars (US) in illegal profits, while causing more than half a billion dollars in losses for copyright holders through the massive violation of copyright violation.

The man is preparing his defence while the extradition proceedings will be decided on the 20th of August.

Like the Hollywood studios, Kim Dotcom wants the data of the 66.6 million MegaUpload users to be kept. This information could be used as evidence, while users are hoping that they will be kept so that they may finally be able to recover their information in a readable format.

Through their investigation, the US authorities indicate that they copied come information – not all – and consider that the host provider Carpathia Hosting can delete the rest of the close to 25 million gigabytes of data stored on MegaUpload’s servers.

According to Carpathia Hosting, maintaining MegaUpload’s servers costs them 9 000 dollars per day. MegaUpload rented 1 103 servers in the USA and Canada from Carpathia. Wired reports that the host has requested a hearing next month.