Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has given his first TV interview since being arrested, appearing on 3News New Zealand's Campbell Live to make the case that he's no "pirate king," and Megaupload hasn't done anything wrong.

Dotcom says he's accused of causing $13 billion of damage to the U.S. music industry, which he calls "mind-boggling and unreleastic," considering that the entire industry is worth $20 billion.

"It's really, in my opinion, the government of the United States protecting an outdated monopolistic business model that doesn't work anymore in the age of the internet and that's what it all boils down to," he said.

Dotcom also wonders why none of the companies allegedly damaged by Megaupload ever sued him for those damages.

"If you are a company that is hurt so much by what we are doing, billions of dollars of damage, you don't wait and sit and do nothing. You call your lawyers and you try and sue us and try to stop us from what we are doing," he said.

As for the suggestion that Megaupload should have been proactively checking users' accounts for copyright-infringing material, Dotcom says it wasn't possible, because doing so would have violated U.S. privacy laws.

The Megaupload founder is still out on bail -- despite an attempt by the U.S. government to have him locked up again -- and awaiting a date for his extradition hearing.

[3news]