10 Things You Didn't Know About Mega and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom
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Your support makes all the difference.Yesterday, in a high-camp event at his Auckland mansion, the controversial internet millionaire, Kim Dotcom announced the launch of Mega, a file-sharing website to replace MegaUpload, which was closed down by US authorities exactly a year ago. But who is Kim Dotcom?
1. Born Kim Schmitz in Kiel, Germany, Dotcom legally changed his surname to Dotcom in 2005
2. In January 2012, Dotcom appeared in court in New Zealand regarding allegations from US prosecutors that his site MegaUpload had cost it's victims $500m in pirated material and made its founder $42m in the preceding year alone.
3. He is 6'7" and weighs over 20 stone
4. According to the Wall Street Journal, Dotcom's collection of luxury cars includes a 1959 pink Cadillac and four cars with vanity plates reading 'Hacker', 'Mafia' and 'Stoned' and 'God'.
5. He has five children with his wife Mona
6. Until January 2012, he was the world's number one-ranked player of video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
7. Dotcom is the founder of a group called Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism (YIHAT), founded in the wake of 9/11.
8. In 2010 Dotcom personally funded the New Year's fireworks display in Auckland, New Zealand.
9. As a teenager in Germany, Dotcom adopted the hacker name "Kimble" in homage to Dr Richard Kimble from the television programme The Fugitive and claimed to have hacked into the computer systems of high-security institutions including NASA and Citibank.
10. In August of 2012, he released an album of electronica titled Party Amplifier, one of the songs, 'Mr President' was a protest against Barack Obama, who Dotcom blames for shutting down MegaUpload.
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