Too much traffic to police - Dotcom

Kim Dotcom has used TV interview last night to claim innocence, and outline the key planks of his defence: his company, Megaupload, had too great a volume of traffic to police. It made a best-effort to monitor content, and was not liable for allegedly pirated content.

The alleged internet pirate also used his Campbell Live interview to claim "All my lawyers currently are basically working without a penny."

Watch the full interview here

Mr Dotcom's high-powered legal team - conspicuously absent from from his request for unfrozen funds -  includes one of New Zealand's most expensive lawyers, Paul Davison QC, partners from Simpson Grierson, and high-profile US attorney  Ira Rothken. 

"I’m going to win because I’m no criminal and I’ve done nothing illegal," Mr Dotcom said.

It is not in dispute that Megaupload was a phenomenally popular file sharing service.

In his indictment, the FBI says it was the 52nd most popular site in the world, at times accounting for a staggering 4% of total internet traffic.

Mr Dotcom said last night that 800 files a second were transferred via Megaupload.com, which became a popular forum for sharing everything from music and movies to routine office files. (Premium account holders were charged $US10 a month, gaining them access to longer movie files - free accounts cut off at the 72-minute mark - and faster access to files.)

Such a volume of traffic was just too large for a small company  like Megaupload to police, Mr Dotcom said.

Users were asked to check a box agreeing to terms of service prohibiting copyright infringement. No music or movie company ever attempted to sue Megaupload, Mr Kim Dotcom said.

And while Megaupload was too small a company  to meaningfully monitor the tens of millions of files stashed in its "cyber locker" service, it had given content makers direct access to Megaupload so that they 

"180 partners, including every major movie studio, including Microsoft and all big content producers and they have used that system heavily and you need to understand that that system was not even something that was even required by the law," Mr Dotcom said.

The German millionaire said he was being turned into a scape goat.

"It’s kinda like weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, you know? If you want to go after someone and you have a political goal you will say whatever it takes. These are fabrications and lies. There are a hundred other companies out there that offer the same service like us. Why has not something happened to them?"

Asked to name the companies, Mr Dotcom said: "Rapidshare, Filesurf, Filesonic. Microsoft has their own service called Skydrive."

So why was the US government only targeting Megaupload?

"I’m an easy target," replied Mr Dotcom.

"My flamboyance, my history as a hacker, you know. I’m not American, I’m living somewhere in New Zealand around the world. I have funny number plates on my cars, you know, I’m an easy target. I’m not Google. I don’t have 50 billion dollars in my account."

RAW DATA: Full Campbell Live interview transcript

RAW DATA: Kim Dotcom indictment