Schmitz, who was known as Kimble during his hacking times and recently changed his last name to Dotcom, has been convicted for multiple crimes such as racketeering and insider trading in the early years of the past decade. He is now in the news again as the possible owner of Megaupload. The file sharing service has been targeted by Perfect 10, which has filed multiple and not very successful copyright infringements against sites which have been used to share its copyrighted erotic images.

However, it appears that Kim Dotcom, who seems to be the mind behind Megaupload as well as other “mega” sites, may actually be guilty of direct copyright infringement, according to a report and court filing Techdirt has published. The court found that Perfect 10 “has adequately alleged Megaupload has engaged in volitional conduct sufficient to hold it liable for direct infringement.” The document states that Megaupload not only provides a network designed to encourage copyright infringements, but its operators are being paid to upload popular and copyrighted data to Megaupload’s servers.

Kim Schmitz virtually disappeared after his conviction in Germany in 2003, and even closed his website kimble.org, which he used to advertise his business ideas, as well as his lifestyle with expensive cars and yachts. Schmitz recently surfaced as Dotcom in New Zealand where he apparently was welcomed as dropped money to sponsor local fireworks and as a resident who intends to buy a $10 million home. The 37-year-old Dotcom described himself as one of the ten wealthiest people in New Zealand and said that he intends to build a five-star resort that is attached to a 12-mile motor sport racetrack.

SOURCE via Tech Dirt