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Woz goes to bat for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:28PM EST
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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has never been one to shy away from courting controversy, even when it’s at the expense of his former company. This is why it’s not too surprising that Wozniak has come out in support of Kim Dotcom, the infamous Megaupload founder last seen yukking it up on Twitter and joking about the racketeering and money laundering charges he’s currently facing. In an interview with CNET, Wozniak said that Kim had gotten a bum rap, and he accused the American government of leveling trumped-up charges against him. “When governments dream up charges of ‘racketeering’ for a typical IT guy who is just operating a file-sharing service, or accuse him of mail fraud because he said he had removed files [to alleged infringing content] when he’d just removed the links to them, this is evidence of how poorly thought out the attempt to extradite him is,” Wozniak said. Later in the interview, Wozniak acknowledged that any copyright infringement Megaupload allegedly engaged in was wrong, but he also compared it to going over the speed limit while driving.

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Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.