US Judge Say Kim Dotcom May Never Be Tried or Extradited 345
vik writes "As Megaupload's Kim Dotcom's megafarce trial continues, the New Zealand Herald reports that his alleged offense not only falls below the threshold for extradition, but also that the warrant may not be properly served. 'My understanding as to why they haven't done that is because they can't. We don't believe Megaupload can be served in a criminal matter because it is not located within the jurisdiction of the United States,' says Megaupload's lawyer Ira Rothken. Not surprisingly, Kim Dotcom has a few choice words to say about having his business trashed this way, with 220 jobs lost, and millions left without access to their legitimate data."
Shit Like This... (Score:5, Interesting)
Be thankful, Kim. (Score:5, Interesting)
"...having his business trashed this way, with 220 jobs lost, and millions left without access to their legitimate data."
Kim, you should be thankful that this attempt to bring democracy to your country ended with so few casualties. The United States is generally far more aggressive regarding its use of military forces to support economic (corporate) policies. You could have been picked up by a bounty hunter, or kidnapped by operatives. I wish I could say I was joking here -- several federal legislators and officials have stated that they consider filesharing and copyright infringement to be supporting terrorism.
On the upside, your sacrifice may bring additional business to New Zealand, as well as prompt a review of disaster recovery with an emphasis on protection against foreign governments. Again, I wish it was a joke -- ten years ago, disaster recovery plans centered around the damage backhoes and hurricanes could do. Today, those risks can be cheaply mitigated thanks to cloud architecture and data centers in almost every major city worldwide. The biggest threat which cannot be managed by a business anymore is the threat posed by a rogue foreign government such as the United States. Though I am hardly singling them out -- the UK, China, Iran, North Korea, India, Iraq, France, Germany and Egypt join them on the list of foreign governments who have attempted to destroy businesses extrajudicially.
Re:Trial and extradition were never the goal (Score:5, Interesting)
Completely cut off the flow of money to the entertainment industry and encourage others to do the same.
Whether you pirate or abstain is irrelevant. What matters is that the flow of money stops.
The behemoth entertainment industry was not created out of thin air by Blofeld. It grew from the ground up when clueless consumers chose to buy its products, unaware or unconcerned with what their purchases were fueling.
The entertainment industry did not fall from the sky. The public created it, nurtured it, and fed it. It is what it is because people are willing to fork over huge sums of money for an intangible product of questionable quality with a near zero marginal cost of production.
These days, telling someone to give up their MAFIAA-backed entertainment is like trying to get a smoker to quit. People are hooked and falsely believe that mass produced entertainment is a necessity. In the brain of the average consumer, not buying a DVD and taking a hike in the park instead does not even register as an option.
Don't feel sorry for him or his business (Score:1, Interesting)
I don't feel sorry for anyone who uploaded their only copy of their files to Megaupload, either. It's no one's issue but the uploader's if he was dumb enough to not have multiple physical backups of files that he definitely couldn't lose. Anyone dumb enough to also pay money to share their files on a site that is filled with ads also gets what's coming to him. There are at least 10 sites out there that provide you with a clean, easy to use and efficient service - even for free - for sharing files without any ads.
This whole situation is just children, Brazilians and the mentally challenged just whining about not being able to get their warez, or losing a couple of dollars to a company that shut down and didn't give them a refund. I didn't see any cries from the people who lost hundreds or even thousands of dollars when Etology scammed every advertiser and publisher, last summer.
Re:Don't feel sorry for him or his business (Score:5, Interesting)
He was knowingly running a warez hub
Which was also used by the United States government, the recording industry, and an enormous number of other law abiding people.
On top of that, he was running it as a for-profit warez distribution website
So why are ISP operators not behind bars as well? What, do you really think that broadband service is not targeted at people who upload and download copyrighted material without permission? Let's not get caught up in external marketing here.
This whole situation is just...
Re:Trial and extradition were never the goal (Score:3, Interesting)
Global capital? How do we vote them out of office?
First, I read your comment.
Then, I laughed out loud.
Then, I sighed.
Then, I cried.
Now I feel like shit.
Thanks :-((
"completely" not necessay -corporatism's weak spot (Score:5, Interesting)
completely cut off the flow of money to the entertainment industry
There's no need to cut off the flow completely - just reduce it sufficiently.
Doing that is simple. Here's the plan: It's not as tough as you believe. [techdirt.com]
Re:Trial and extradition were never the goal (Score:5, Interesting)
He was put out of business and lost tens of millions of dollars from the raid. His punishment has already been served, without trial, and without due process.
Except this whole thing was orchestrated to prove to legislators that the current law cannot be used to stop the bad guys and that America needs those tougher laws that the lobbyists cannot get though.
"Ok, they won't give us the powers we need to make it impossible to send movies to your friends... How about we try and do everything possible we can to take down someone we can paint as the bad guy (fat douche looking hacker with an attitude, nice!) and when it backfires we can say it isn't cause we are not trying hard enough. It is because we need bigger legal guns."
Kim will get his stuff back. He will put Megaupload back online, even without everyone's data, because Kim will want to make a point, and the point will be exactly the point the RIAA and MPAA want him to make. "Look we even had the bad guys raided by a swat team... And they went right back to selling bandwidth to pirates."
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Shit Like This... (Score:5, Interesting)
Most of us know perfectly well what libertarianism is. I was a libertarian myself back in uni days.
We also do know our history, which has ample examples of why "very small government" inevitably leads either to anarchy, or to an authoritarian take-over (and often it's the first followed by the second). It simply isn't a stable state of affairs: a power vacuum will be filled, and if you refuse to fill it with what you believe is best, it will be filled by those most willing to fill it: i.e., sociopaths with a power lust.
bad hero (Score:2, Interesting)
I feel sorry for the crowd here when someone as sleazy as Kim gets lauded as a hero. The guy is a known crook, despised by everyone with a clue, and he is absolutely not the kind of sleazebag you want to root for. Don't fall into that trap.