Apple co-founder Woz defends MegaUpload's Kim DotCom

26.06.2012
Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak has spoken out about his recent , who is currently under house arrest. Woz accused the US government of a "poorly thought out attempt to extradite" MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom, with prosecutors "attempting to take advantage of loopholes".

Woz also bemoans the US government for not allowing DotCom access to legal fees, suggesting that: "The side with access to the funds spends millions on lawyers hoping the other side goes bankrupt and gives in. Shame on the system that permits this one-sided advantage."

DotCom is accused by the United States of allegedly running a of numerous types of copyrighted works. Officials claim that DotCom encouraged users of the site to share movies, music, software and other pirated material. Wozniak disagrees; he suggests that DotCom was attempting to prevent piracy on his site by removing links to pirated content.

In , Woz wrote: "When crimes occur through the mail, you don't shut the post office down."

He continued: "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 when he'd just removed the links to them, this is evidence of how poorly thought out the attempt to extradite him is."

Woz notes that it's lucky that DotCom lives in New Zealand, "which is better on human rights."