FBI Used FedEx To Sneak Dotcom's Hard Drives Out of NZ 292
First time accepted submitter bpkiwi writes "FBI agents, working with New Zealand police on the Megaupload case, took a copy of Kim Dotcom's hard drives and then immediately sneaked out of the police facility and FedEx'ed them back to the USA. Despite the fact that removal of evidence in this manner without official approval (and a chance for the defendant to challenge it) appears to be illegal, the New Zealand government is now left arguing on a technicality — that the law only covers 'physical' items." Things got slightly better for Megaupload users trying to get their files back today. In a court filing the MPAA said users can have their files back as long as access to copyrighted files is blocked. “The MPAA Members are sympathetic to legitimate users who may have relied on Megaupload to store their legitimately acquired or created data, although the Megaupload terms of use clearly disclaimed any guarantee of continued access to uploaded materials,” MPAA lawyers write.
Re:Physical items? (Score:1, Interesting)
I guess they'd argue those particular physical hard drives were theirs to begin with. And copying the data isn't depriving the original owner from it.
And we will all get a new chance to be aghast at the turns these cases take.
Re:Physical items? (Score:3, Interesting)
You know that old saying "two wrongs don't make a right"?
A police officer can't break into your room to steal cocaine as evidence against you. Sure, you're breaking the law, but so did law enforcement.
Yeah. (Oh, and I don't see anyone here regularly saying "there's nothing at all wrong with downloading movies for free", troll. In fact, most posters agree to some degree about copyright. What we have problems with are the specifics of the laws, the methods used to enforce them, and the double standard in which they are enforced.)
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Like: "Considering that you helped a foreign power conspire to break NZ law, why should we allow you to continue to work in our country?"
I can imagine FedEx's response.
"What are you suggesting? That we open every FedEx package we ship out? To check against some kind of real-time up-to-second list provided by the police department for what's already in their evidence locker?
What happens if we don't do that? Are you going to arrest us and freeze all our assets too? Wouldn't it be easier to just put a lock on your evidence locker and carefully vet/punish the people who took out the evidence in the first place? Or at least punish/fire/jail the people who gave them access to that locker? "
Re:Physical items? (Score:5, Interesting)
RTFA. the FBI had no permission from anybody concerned, much less the actual owner of the hard drives! the man doesn't forfeit property rights by being arrested.