On January 19, 2012, Kim DotCom was arrested in a dramatic raid after being indicted on federal criminal charges that he knew that his website, MegaUpload, was a haven of piracy and counterfeiting. In the days that followed, the media commented on the presumed guilt of MegaUpload. In this debate, Jim argues that the law and evidence clearly point to MegaUpload's officers being found guilty, while Jennifer will argue that the MegaUpload case is built on unprecedented and wrongheaded interpretations of copyright law, and thus the principles should be found not guilty. The debate will concentrate on the charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and aiding & abetting copyright infringement. After the arguments and rebuttals, the audience will vote and decide the fate of MegaUpload.
Jim Rennie is an attorney currently specializing in privacy and data protection law and regulation. Previously he was a Public Defender in Las Vegas, and prior to law school was a web application developer. He has spoken previously at DEF CON and other conferences on a variety of topics concerning law and technology. Twitter: @falconred
Jennifer Granick specializes in computer crime law and has held such positions as Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Executive Director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. She is best known for her work with Intellectual Property law, free speech, privacy, and other things relating to computer security, and has represented several high profile hackers. Twitter: @granick