Wozniak was in New Zealand in April to deliver a speech, which Dotcom couldn't attend because he's being kept under house arrest. Wozniak decided to visit with Dotcom, and the two have been exchanging email messages about Dotcom's case and other matters ever since. Dotcom even tweeted a picture of their meeting:
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MegaWoz. Great guy & supporter of EFF. EFF is helping to give Mega users their files back. Thanks Woz & EFF.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom)
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Wozniak blasted the United States for their pursuit of Dotcom, who's wanted to face charges of Internet piracy and other crimes, in a recent interview with the .
"It's just kind of ridiculous what they did to his life," said Wozniak. "An awful lot of Kiwis support him. The U.S. government is on thin ground."
He added that people should pay for content, but also feels the Internet should remain open to encourage digital innovation. To try to close the Internet, as he believes the U.S. government is doing in Dotcom's case, is pointless.
"If you've got a huge steamroller coming, instead of trying to stop it, you should get out of the way," said Wozniak.
New Zealand police raided Dotcom's lavish mansion in January, arresting Dotcom on a request from U.S. law enforcement. U.S. authorities seized Megaupload's servers and the fate of data stored on them remains unclear.
Wozniak argued that plenty of that content was legally owned and is now caught in digital and legal limbo -- many Megaupload account holders used the service as a way to share files that weren't copyrighted but simply too large for transmission over email.
In a separate interview with the Associated Press, Dotcom dismissed the charges against him as illegitimate.
"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," said Dotcom.
Dotcom's assets remain frozen as a New Zealand court is considering the United States' extradition request.
Dotcom has seemingly remained busy while under house arrest -- he last weekend to blast law enforcement, thank supporters and claim that his next product, a music discovery service called Megabox, is still on its way.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, of which Wozniak is a founding member, is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their handling of data stored on Megaupload's servers.
Why do you think Wozniak has come to Dotcom's defense? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
BONUS: The Strange and Epic Lifestyle of Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom
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Until recently, Kim Dotcom was the top Modern Warfare 3 player in the world. He even apparently posted to prove it. We imagine it's tough to maintain such a coveted position while being held in jail for multiple copyright violations.
This story originally published on Mashable .
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