US Ordered To Hand Over Megaupload Documents 242
An anonymous reader writes "A judge in New Zealand has ordered the U.S. government to hand over evidence seized in the Megaupload raid so Kim Dotcom and his co-defendants can use it to prepare a defense for an extradition hearing. The judge wrote, 'Actions by and on behalf of the requesting State have deprived Mr. Dotcom and his associates of access to records and information. ... United States is attempting to utilize concepts from the civil copyright context as a basis for the application of criminal copyright liability [which] necessitates a consideration of principles such as the dual use of technology and what they be described as significant non-infringing uses.' Once the defense attorneys have gathered and presented their evidence, the judge must decide whether the U.S. can make a reasonable case against Dotcom."
Re:docs need to prove conspiracy.. (Score:5, Informative)
INAL but from what I've been reading it's more complex then that, the conspiracy/ racketeering and money laundering charges only stick if they can show criminal copyright infringement. Problem is copyright infringement is civil issue in NZ AND they need to show probable success of conviction for crimes with at least a 5 year jail term in NZ before extradition can even go ahead.
Conspiracy to commit a crime carries a maximum penalty of 5 years so qualifies, but they need to show both likely hood of conspiracy and the original crime.
A laymans example would be: I think you and your friend conspired to cheat on a test. I may have emails showing you conspired but I can't just have you extradited by showing conspiracy, I have to convince a judge that cheating on a test is a criminal offence first. A much taller order.
Also remember that the judge has already stated his displeasure with the failure to follow due process in the initial arrest and has required the crown to guarantee to cover costs and lost income if kim dotcom is not found guilty.
-Kactus
Re:Dear USA (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dear USA (Score:4, Informative)
Careful....
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/05/29/2353223/twitter-bomb-joke-case-rolls-back-into-uk-courts [slashdot.org]
Re:Dear USA (Score:3, Informative)
The US produces very little? It's incredibly obvious to tell you're trolling with statements like that.
Actually from my point of view, I'd have to agree with the GP.
I can't think of a single item I own that was actually made in USA. I own plenty of stuff made by US companies, but as far as I'm aware not on US soil.
At one stage I thought my mountain bike was actually made in the US, but then I found a sticker that disproved that (can't remember where it said now)
A brief survey of most stuff I own indicates that most of it came from China, followed by Taiwan and various other Asian countries.
That's one of the big issues I see with the "first world". We don't actually make the stuff any more that got us to that position in the first place. How long before the rest of the world doesn't need us any more?
Posts like this are one of the reasons I rarely visit slashdot anymore. The GP is a contentless one-liner marked +5 insightful. The parent says the USA doesn't make anything, when a quick wikipedia search reveals, "The United States is the world's largest manufacturer, with a 2009 industrial output of US$2.33 trillion. Its manufacturing output is greater than of Germany, France, India, and Brazil combined" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States
Then else where in the thread, we have crackpots making grand conspiracy theories about the United States, +5 insightful of course. *Sigh* I think this will be my last post on slashdot.
Re:Dear USA (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry, the DVD region code for NZ is 4. The UK and Europe is 2 (see wikipedia [wikipedia.org] ). Fortunately enforcing the suppliers use of region locking on DVD players was ruled a breach of our competition legislation (which explicitly makes parallel importing legal) and our copyright act explicitly excludes region locking as a proctection measure See here [legislation.govt.nz] So almost all DVD players are sold unlocked.
Re:Dear USA (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Trade_Balance_1980_2011.svg [wikipedia.org]
Re:Dear USA (Score:4, Informative)
"Statistically"?!?
USA was the world's largest manufacturer up to around 2009-2010, and has just been overtaken by China. Each of them produce around 20% of the total world's manufacturing output (40% combined).
How is 1/5th of the total manufacturing output "statistically very little"? Or are you just making up shit about something you have no clue about in the first place?
Re:Dear USA (Score:1, Informative)
We created?
Yes you (not you as you, but you as your past government) did. You force-spread your culture among us, and it's nothing to do with a single currency. The words are business and finance. But since we thought that going to war to sell LuckyStrike wasn't an option, we failed to comply and now have to re-educate ourselves into human beings, which is though since MTV airs here too...
In the US we're doing just peachy.
yeah, sure... 50 millions people just in your lovely country DO HAVE to just eat peaches, because they can't afford to live like you do... but they're "resolving themsleves": in a few years, they'll be dead, and with a little luck, since they can't afford your very well thought medical system, they won't have children. Easy. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2009/pov09fig04.pdf [census.gov]
Re:Missing the point (Score:5, Informative)
Why aren't you? Isn't he innocent until proven guilty? Right now, he's 100% innocent.
Innocent until proven guilty is correctly used with the verb "presumed", not "is". Whether he is innocent or guilty will not change in the coming months - either a crime has already been committed or it hasn't. However, he is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.