Despite legal battles, he says the file sharing site will relaunch in six months.
Kim Dotcom is relaunching the file sharing website that led to his house being raided and proceedings to extradite him to the US to face charges of copyright infringment. Photo: AFP
Controversial internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom plans to relaunch his Megaupload website on the fifth anniversary of his Coatesville mansion being raided by police.
The original file sharing site was thought to have 50 million users a day at its peak, but was shut down more than four years ago amid allegations of copyright piracy.
Dotcom is facing ongoing legal action from United States authorities over the site and he said the files stored on the site were being illegally withheld from users.
He announced his latest plans in a series of tweets, saying the site will relaunch on 20 January next year.
Megaupload comes back on January 20th 2017, the 5th anniversary of the raid. It will be better than the original and it will feel like home.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 10, 2016
"I'll be the first tech billionaire who got indicted, lost everything and created another billion $ tech company while on bail," he tweeted.
He said he would make announcements about new site partners in the coming weeks, and hinted that there may be a partnership with the digital currency Bitcoin.
I can tell you that Megaupload and Bitcoin had sex. There is a pregnancy and I have a feeling that the baby will be such a joy.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 10, 2016
Dotcom has waged a lengthy legal battle to fight accusations that he profited from others abusing Megaupload, and to recover the assets seized at the time.
The FBI is seeking to extradite him to the US to face charges of copyright infringement, racketeering and money-laundering along with three former colleagues.
- A version of this story was first published on RNZ.co.nz with additional reporting from BBC.
