Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom received a big endorsement on Wednesday when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak threw his support behind the website owner.
While delivering a speech in New Zealand Wozniak decided to pay a visit to Kim Dotcom who is under house arrest. The two men had been exchanging emails and Kim Dotcom posted a picture of the pair hanging out together.
Later in the day Steve Wozniak blasted the U.S. government for pursuing Kim Dotcom who currently faces Internet piracy and other charges in the United States. Wozniak told the Associated Press:
“It’s just kind of ridiculous what they did to his life. An awful lot of Kiwis support him. The U.S. government is on thin ground.”
Don’t get him wrong, Wozniak still thinks we should all pay for content but he also believes for innovation to occur the internet needs to be an open platform aimed at innovation. As Wozniak puts it:
“If you’ve got a huge steamroller coming, instead of trying to stop it, you should get out of the way.”
One of Steve Wozniak’s biggest complaints is that plenty of the files found on Megaupload.com were 100% legal and those users are now caught in digital and legal limbo as they wait to retrieve their personal and business related files for which they paid to store.
Kim Dotcom in a separate interview says of the case against him:
“The more people learn about this case the more they realize that this type of copyright disagreement between Hollywood and new cloud storage technology is a political debate, not something that belongs in the criminal court and certainly not something to justify breaking down the door to my house.”
Here’s the tweet Kim Dotcom as he thanks Wozniak for his support:
MegaWoz. Great guy & supporter of EFF. EFF is helping to give Mega users their files back. Thanks Woz & EFF. instagr.am/p/MGyV4wskfq/
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) June 20, 2012
Do you think Kim Dotcom should be extradited to the United States?
