Dutchman gets 2.5 years in New Zealand prison for pirate site MegaUpload

Dutchman Bram van der K. was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in New Zealand on Thursday for his role in the pirating site MegaUpload. The court in Auckland convicted Van der K., originally from Zwolle, of participating in a criminal organization, among other things.

Van der K. and his co-suspect Mathias O., who got two years and seven months in prison on Thursday, made a deal with the judiciary for lower sentences, according to the NZ Herald. Among other things, they agreed to testify against MegaUpload CEO and primary shareholder Kim D. The deal also held that they wouldn’t be extradited to the United States, which also wanted to prosecute the two men.

MegaUpload was one of the biggest pirate sites in the world. Users could share music, movies, television shows, ebooks, video games, and computer programs without the copyright holders getting any compensation. The service was taken off the air in 2012. At the time, it had about 180 million users, according to ANP.

Van der K. and O.’s sentencing happened 11 years after they were arrested in a global FBI operation against the pirating site. The court deferred their sentences until August to give Van der K. time to spend with his seriously ill mother and O. to be present at the birth of his second child.