US kangaroo court

[Andun]

In this case against Megaupload. It makes you wonder if they really do give a damn about justice. One thing about this case is that it is international and gives us outsiders an insite into how the US establishment works. They will twist the law any which way they can to screw their opponents. In the case, even denying funds for legal fees. Absolutely sick.

Government trying to deny Megaupload fair legal representation


The United States government has adopted a take-no-prisoners attitude in its prosecution of Megaupload, seeming to raise every conceivable objection to Megaupload's efforts to defend itself. We've already covered the government's attempts to block Megaupload from spending money to preserve servers that the company says contains data needed for its defense.
Now, the government has adopted a new tactic: making it as difficult as possible for Megaupload to obtain legal counsel. The prominent law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan has sought permission to represent Megaupload in the case. But in a legal document filed on Wednesday, the government raised several objections to freeing up money to allow the law firm to represent Megaupload in court.
As Quinn Emanuel noted in a Thursday response, the government's objections are so broad that they would effectively prevent Megaupload from hiring any lawyer with experience litigating major copyright cases. Indeed, they could could make it impossible to hire any lawyer at all. It's hard to see how Megaupload could get a fair trial if the government's objections are sustained by the court.

[edin日本]

And this, just in!

Dotcom trial may not occur - Judge

It looks bad for the US Gov't. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=10800409
And is Kim ever p!ssed! http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-l...rnment-120420/

I find it interesting that copyright is being equated to prohibition. At one time the level of protection was all of fourteen years but with various amendments and acts of congress Mickey Mouse's first movie Steamboat Willie won't be in the public domain until sometime late next century. And, with the enactment of related laws and amendments satirizing, making a parody or fair use of copyrighted material is becoming illegal. Looks like Weird Al Yankovich will be considered a dangerous criminal when he makes his next CD. I wonder how he'll feel when he's sharing cell space with Kim Dotcom?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...ion.shtml#c941

[Andun]

Looks like Weird Al Yankovich will be considered a dangerous criminal when he makes his next CD. I wonder how he'll feel when he's sharing cell space with Kim Dotcom?

He always gets permission from the artists.
I have to agree that copyright and patenting for that matter is getting out of control. It's all just designed to profit organizations not individual scientists or artists.

[YokohamaTommy]

The guy is a super fatty though.
I'd be more on his side if he were bit more dashing.

[edin日本]

The guy is a super fatty though.
I'd be more on his side if he were bit more dashing.

Wasn't that Dotcom doing the Numa Numa song?

[Andun]

The guy is a super fatty though.
I'd be more on his side if he were bit more dashing.

Become his personal trainer and turn him into the man you want him to be!

[YokohamaTommy]

Become his personal trainer and turn him into the man you want him to be!

I'll bet the guy who shovels bacon into his gaping maw each morning makes more money.

But let's be frank;
Dotcom is no fool. Right or wrong, he knew what he was doing would not last forever.
It simply couldn't. He was waving a pair of copyrighted panties from the bow of his Super-Yacht at the MPAA going "YOOO-HOOO!! Can't catch meeeeee!"

On the other hand, I'm not absolving the American system either.
The system is made up of many groups, some intelligent, some not so intelligent. Some perhaps corrupt.
But not the whole system.
Besides, we're not really privy to all the facts.

This case will be very interesting to follow.

[Deathblob]

Well, here's the latest I've seen on it:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04...se_in_trouble/

[edin日本]

More on FBI chicanery concerning Megaupload

SAeems the data on Kim Dotcom's HDD's is so important that the FBI just had to break the chain of evidence and NZ laws to get the contents of the drives back home.

FBI agents who copied data from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's computers and took it overseas were not acting illegally because information isn't "physical material", the Crown says.
The agents were accused of underhanded behaviour by Dotcom's lawyers in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, after revelations that the information was already in US hands.
Megaupload's lawyer, Willie Akel, told Justice Helen Winkelmann how two FBI analysts flew to New Zealand on March 20 and reviewed seven hard-drives of information. The analysts cloned the computers in Manukau.
When police returned to pick them up to take them to their hotel, the agents had already left to FedEx the copies back to the United States.
"The first [copies] were sent without the New Zealand Police having any say in it whatsoever," Mr Akel said. The commissioner of police had "lost control of the items" once the FBI had them.
"If [they] went offshore without the consent of the attorney-general, it was an illegal act."Mr Akel said that there had been an agreement that none of the evidence against Dotcom, seized after his arrest, would be provided to the FBI without prior agreement.
However, Crown lawyer John Pike, for the attorney-general, said the material stored on the hard drives could be shipped overseas for the FBI to examine because it did not constitute "physical" material.
The relevant legislation applied only to physical possessions rather than information, Mr Pike said. "[Information] may be the most valuable thing we have, but it is not scooped up by the act".
He said that there were "gremlins" all through the exercise, which made the situation difficult to understand. "Nothing of the physical items have gone overseas and that was our undertaking."
Justice Winkelmann said that there was an obligation that material deemed irrelevant to the investigation be returned.
However, Mr Pike said it was too difficult to know what was relevant and what was not. "Police, to put it bluntly, would not have a clue what is relevant and what is not relevant. How could they?"
Dotcom, 38, is on bail awaiting an extradition hearing.
US authorities say he and his three co-accused – Mathias Ortmann, Fin Batato and Bram van der Kolk – used Megaupload and its affiliated sites to knowingly make money from pirated movies and games.

[Andun]

Anti piracy lawsuits are all ending up in the dumpster recently with US judges becoming sick of all the hollywood antics. I don't see a different ending with this case either. Only this time the egg will be on the US federal government's face.

[edin日本]

And it looks like the RIAA and MPAA are taking steps outside the courts to keep their deathgrip on the music and media entertainment industries. When do you think the American couch potato will get out of his/her comfy chair and waddle off to the revolution?

[rainbowtokyo]

These days, Kim Dotcom has fewer friends or prospects than Julian Assange. The system is out to get him and grind him into dust.

Well, the good news is that his wife just gave birth to twins. He has sent the placenta to the FBI; the man has a sense of humor. http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-b...-girls-120325/

Kim is entitled to decent legal counsel and a fair trial. He is more than a colorful fellow and, over the years, has racked up quite a few criminal convictions. From dealing in dodgy credit cards to share ramping and insider trading, the man is hardly an angel.

The biggest hypocrites in this whole story have to be the New Zealand government. They gave him Permanent Residency in 2010, knowing full well of his past criminal convictions. Now that they have been paid, they are throwing him to the dogs.

[Andun]

The biggest hypocrites in this whole story have to be the New Zealand government. They gave him Permanent Residency in 2010, knowing full well of his past criminal convictions. Now that they have been paid, they are throwing him to the dogs.

I have to agree. Pathetic and weak. Still, it's not as disgusting as what happened with the Rainbow Warrior affair.

[rainbowtokyo]

Kim sure knows how to have a good time. That the authorities have denied him internet access must really hurt. But I'm sure he will find a way around it.

Some interesting pics of the big fella and his sexy wife here: http://gizmodo.com/5877987/the-best-...oad-kim-dotcom

An apres-arrest interview here: http://www.3news.co.nz/Kim-Dotcoms-f...0/Default.aspx

And his primary legal defence here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital..._Copyright_Act If Youtube/Google can get away with it, good luck to Kim.

[madazzahatter]

In this case against Megaupload. It makes you wonder if they really do give a damn about justice. One thing about this case is that it is international and gives us outsiders an insite into how the US establishment works. They will twist the law any which way they can to screw their opponents. In the case, even denying funds for legal fees. Absolutely sick.

....a kangaroo court,but it's being run and backed by rats.

[hml]

The biggest hypocrites in this whole story have to be the New Zealand government. They gave him Permanent Residency in 2010, knowing full well of his past criminal convictions. Now that they have been paid, they are throwing him to the dogs.

I disagree. They may have known about it, but was it really their issue? I'm sure they were happy to receive money from him, but there's nothing wrong with doing business with someone who may or may not get in trouble with someone else at a later date. It was still "Dotcom's" decision to break the law and his decision to live in New Zealand, incurring various costs in the process. It was his decision. The New Zealand government did not force it on him. "Dotcom" got what he deserved.

[rainbowtokyo]

I disagree. They may have known about it, but was it really their issue? I'm sure they were happy to receive money from him, but there's nothing wrong with doing business with someone who may or may not get in trouble with someone else at a later date. It was still "Dotcom's" decision to break the law and his decision to live in New Zealand, incurring various costs in the process. It was his decision. The New Zealand government did not force it on him. "Dotcom" got what he deserved.

Dotcom is no angel, that much is for sure. He is a wily fellow and its amazing how many convictions he has accumulated in the EU without having served any jail time. That said, its highly irregular for any developed country to give PR to people with serious criminal records. Why on earth did they give him residency? Why indeed - because the man has tons of cash! Pretty grotty.

[rainbowtokyo]

The NZ govt. is bowing to the highest bidder. In this case, it's the US govt. and whatever threats that came with them if NZ didn't cooperate ― a far cry from the F You attitude towards the US in the anti-nuclear eighties.

Vale the Man from the Lange White Cloud. Or something like that.

[John Grey]

The guy is a super fatty though.
I'd be more on his side if he were bit more dashing.

We are all so happy, that as usual, you have the priorities right!

One can always rely on to know what is important.