The idea pirates

Let the pursuit of Kim Dotcom send a message

It may seem like no big deal. If somebody scores free internet access to a movie, who cares if the Hollywood bigwigs are shorted a few bucks?

But theft of intellectual property is no small matter, whether the loot is a movie, the blueprints for a new piece of equipment or the technology behind a groundbreaking product. That’s why the federal government rightly has pulled out all the stops to apprehend and prosecute accused internet pirate Kim Dotcom, along with three of his former colleagues.

The four are living in New Zealand while U.S. authorities seek their extradition on a raft of charges related to Megaupload, a hugely popular file-sharing website Mr. Dotcom once ran. Authorities allege that the site, founded in 2005 and shut down more than six years ago, made at least $175 million as people used it to share pirated movies, TV shows and songs.

Although Mr. Dotcom contends that he isn’t responsible for what others did with his site, former FBI official Shawn Henry told CBS in 2014 that Megaupload was like “a warehouse where stolen property is being dropped off. If you created the environment that facilitated it, and you encouraged it, and you incentivized people by paying them to drop off stolen property, I think that you are complicit.”

Mr. Dotcom’s original name was Kim Schmitz. He was born in Germany and was granted legal residency in New Zealand in 2010. In announcing the charges against him in 2012, federal authorities described the case as one of the largest of its kind ever brought. It is seen as a test of America’s power to track intellectual property bandits through cyberspace while also addressing traditional obstacles, like extradition laws, in bringing fugitives to justice.

Threats to intellectual property are everywhere these days. A recent report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative had 12 countries, including China and Russia, on a “priority watch list” because of rampant piracy, inadequate safeguards to protect U.S. intellectual property or both. Another 24 countries were on a lower-level “watch list.” While China is often criticized and perhaps best known for steel dumping, it’s also a shameless thief of intellectual property.

The cumulative effects of such piracy are astronomical. Mr. Dotcom himself reputedly was responsible for losses exceeding $500 million.

But this is about so much more than money. Big ideas — in business, culture, medicine and sundry other fields — fuel progress. They foster economic growth and national security. They deserve to be protected.

As the trade office noted in a report last year, “IP-intensive industries directly and indirectly support 45.5 million American jobs, about 30 percent of all employment in the United States.”

A New Zealand appeals court has ordered Mr. Dotcom’s extradition and that of his associates, but Mr. Dotcom’s lawyer says he will appeal to the country’s highest court. The U.S. should continue fighting to bring the four here to face charges, partly to send a message to anyone who thinks intellectual property theft is OK. The government should doggedly pursue other individuals and states seeking to illegally profit from American ingenuity.