Dotcom website failings uncool

Anna Wallis PHOTO/FILE

There's always been something a bit "emperor's new clothes" about Kim Dotcom and his businesses Mega and Megaupload.

We seem to be have been blinded by his fame, name and tussle with our police force, the Government Communications Security Bureau and US Federal authorities to overlook the kind of business he is in.

It's a business that often uses other people's work and talent without paying. Mr Dotcom has argued that anything under copyright is taken down as soon as staff notice and he has the same problems as YouTube and other websites.

The latest victim of an illegal posting on the website is Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton. The Publishers' Association has criticised the Dotcom Mega website for offering the book for download for free, and its president has called such uploading of Catton's work by "a fellow New Zealander" appalling.

And it is appalling. Many will argue that that horse has bolted, but there are still copyright laws - and downright decency.

Earning money off books is hard graft, let alone having years of work given away.

And it seems logical that with all today's technology employed by Mr Dotcom, there would be a way to ensure that when Catton's humungous The Luminaries is directed to your site, you reject it. The responsibility is with the website.

The Catton upload has been called the tip of the iceberg. A few weeks before this, an entire educational textbook written by a New Zealand author was available.

Not cool, Mr Dotcom.

It's time we questioned what this man represents, and if there is collective denial about his enterprise. Just because we can get material like the The Luminaries for free from the internet doesn't make it right.