Kim Dotcom Raid - What Really Happened 285
chill writes "People have been discussing the raid on the Dotcom mansion for months, but now more details and video footage of that morning have begun to emerge from the trial. From the article: 'At 6.46am on January 20, the raid was underway. The helicopter carrying members of the elite special tactics group flew into the Coatesville home of Dotcom.
"Ground units, Gates are open," someone says into the radio.
Dotcom's pregnant wife their three children, some guests and about a dozen staff were also there.
All is quiet below.
Within seconds four armed members of the special tactics group ran towards the main door.
The helicopter immediately took off. The main justification for using it at all was that Dotcom's security staff could have stopped police vehicles at the gates. But as the chopper flew out, ground forces were already arriving just seconds behind.'"
They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Interesting)
On Bernie Madoff.
But who really robbed people for tens of millions?
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
And without the religious people.
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Wackos were present, victims were present, Religious nuts were missing.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
Not RIAA. Universal Records.
They were the ones who demanded youtube remove Megaupload's ad/music video (and also Tech News Daily which included a 15-second clip of the ad). They were the ones who became upset when a judge ruled, "You can't claim ownership of somebody else's ad, or the artists that participated." They were probably the ones who called the Obama White House and demanded action, so the White House ordered the raids in foreign countries.
Welcome to facism (aka "corporatism" according to Benito Mussolini). The government ignores the law, ignores the court orders, and just does whatever it takes to keep its corporate friends happy.
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Yet another ignorant Dittohead. (Score:5, Funny)
Heh. Yeah, if there's one group that stands their ground against entities with deep pockets, it's the Republicans.
Re:Yet another ignorant Dittohead. (Score:5, Insightful)
What could be more annoying and less productive than drawing minor distinctions as boundaries, separating two parties that are obviously a single party with the same goal in mind. Notice we face the same problems and only accumulate more, election by election? Taxes don't go down, they go up, liberty doesn't flourish, it wanes. They point fingers at each other and point out small differences in values over minor problems, but they have both ruled the U.S. as a single party for more than a century. They've replaced the SCOTUS with their drones who even now reinterpret the constitution for their own immoral purposes. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleId=&packageId=GPO-CONAN-2002 [gpo.gov]
Now we have a nation of drones, bolstering each others belief that they have been electing represenatives of their interests instead of being suckered into keeping a ruling class of criminals in office to utilize the people as livestock.
Who's a dittohead now buddy?
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Remember when democracy was supposed to give us options?
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember when democracy was supposed to give us options?
No.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:4, Insightful)
It still does. The electorate just willfully and purposefully chooses to ignore them in favor of the guys with the flagpins, white teeth, perfect hair and the massive budgets.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
Lol, republicans (Score:4, Funny)
Voting for Obama means voting to be raped up the ass.
Voting for Romney means voting to be raped up the ass with a sandpaper covered telephone pole while having to pay your raper.
Welcome to American democracy. Your choice between bad and really goddamn awful fucking bad.
Obama bows to his friends in business.
Romney IS business.
Obama at least has to pretend to listen to the voter, Romney openly states that business is not just his first priority but his ONLY priority.
When you are a lamb let to be slaughtered, pick the butcher who least enjoys torturing small furry creatures. That is what I do.
Re:Lol, republicans (Score:4, Insightful)
Welcome to American democracy. Your choice between bad and really goddamn awful fucking bad.
Why not vote on the third guy then? I mean, your country has to have more than two guys who want the job, right? Or is it somehow forbidden to have a political party that's neither republican nor democrat?
Re:Lol, republicans (Score:4, Insightful)
Why not vote on the third guy then? I mean, your country has to have more than two guys who want the job, right? Or is it somehow forbidden to have a political party that's neither republican nor democrat?
The system is rigged in such a way that there is no effective third party. Neither of the parties with true power will change this as it means giving away a share of their power. The voters are confused with constant republican v democrat non-issues and believe that any vote for any other party is just a wasted vote.
In essence US democracy has reduced to a republican/democrat alliance that is garenteed power forever, it's a dictatorship with the illusion of free choice.
Re:Lol, republicans (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not vote on the third guy then? I mean, your country has to have more than two guys who want the job, right? Or is it somehow forbidden to have a political party that's neither republican nor democrat?
The system is rigged in such a way that there is no effective third party. Neither of the parties with true power will change this as it means giving away a share of their power. The voters are confused with constant republican v democrat non-issues and believe that any vote for any other party is just a wasted vote.
In essence US democracy has reduced to a republican/democrat alliance that is garenteed power forever, it's a dictatorship with the illusion of free choice.
And until people start voting for the third parties it will stay that way, ironic isn't it? I'm not American, but I see this explanation every time. It's true, if you are liberal and vote for a third party you do risk giving the Republicans a win, and of course the same applies the other way around.
However it's sure the parties who are in power would analyze why they lost, and if they found it was due to an increase in voters supporting third parties it would be sure to make a change in their tactics, and the more people would move to third parties, the more the current parties will be forced to make a change.
While the problem is certainly more exaggerated in the US, it's not unique to you. For example here in Finland the strong parties have been trying to find ways to make it difficult for anyone to start a new party, and to find ways how a party with wide acceptance in some area will benefit from that in another area. Still, occasionally somebody finds a way to break their lock and it definitely makes a difference.
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I'm American, and I plan on voting for Gary Johnson [garyjohnson2012.com], the Libertarian candidate. I'm not a big fan of the party, nor am I a big fan of his (though according to various political "match ups" I agree with him more than any other candidate), but I'm casting my vote to a third person (who I know will not get elected) to make the other two squirm. I believe that just as even competition leads to a better market, it can lead to better politics. If people keep voting for one or the other because of party lines
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Actually, in the last Presidential election, there were five parties on the ballot in enough states to have a chance of winning, if only the other three parties got any recognition. Even in the so-called debates the other three viable parties are always locked out.
I always either vote Libertarian or Green, the other three want to put me in prison.
Re:Lol, republicans (Score:4, Funny)
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Informative)
Corzine. Hundreds of millions in 'segregated' funds. Currently enjoying new multi-million dollar offices on Wall St.
It helps to be a friend of the U.S. President ... (Score:5, Informative)
Corzine. Hundreds of millions in 'segregated' funds. Currently enjoying new multi-million dollar offices on Wall St.
It helps to be a friend of the President of the United States and a leading member of the Democratic party.
“Jon Corzine one of the best colleagues I had in the Senate and one of the best partners I have in the White House.”
President Barack Obama, Oct 21, 2009.
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No one on Wall Street goes to prison, drnb. Obama didn't make that happen. Wall Street did. They run the country. Don't like it? So vote Republican. Oh, wait...
We had a chance to stop this takeover back in the eighties and nineties. We needed to provide taxpayer money to fund elections, remove all contributions WHATSOEVER, and restrict candidates to single points of communications. Running for office should require three staffers and a camera, not a billion dollars for media buys.
But now, candidates must, t
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
On Bernie Madoff.
Madoff is part of the ruling class.
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Was. You can steal all you want from the little people but I think he got a little greedy and stepped on someone else turf.
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Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Funny)
That is just the cultural difference between the nasty gun slinging New Zealanders versus the polite, peace loving Americans.
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Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Informative)
Clearly you lack reading comprehension skills. Kim Dotcom was already charged, convicted, and punished of crimes. There is no need to punish someone again. Furthermore it is standard practice for people that have this kind of mansion to go to an emergency room whenever anything odd is afoot. He realized it was the police, kept the door unlocked and waited for them to come to him so he wouldn't be shot.
He had no option to surrender himself to police because he was not sent a polite letter like Madoff. Dotcom was punched in the face and handcuffed all while FBI agents from the US were watching.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Informative)
The AC to whom you replied pointed out that Kim Dotcom had a collection of guns, he liked to show them off, and this is unusual in NZ. That is all true. If you have a gun collection in NZ, you're out there.
No, he didn't. Certainly not on the Coatesville property anyway. The only firearm was in a locked gunsafe, and was owned by the bodyguard.
Add to the fact the guy had a head of security. This is New Zealand, a sleepy, bucolic country of four million people and 70 million sheep. The Mongrel Mob has security; business men do not.
Actually, business men worth a lot of money in New Zealand DO have heads of security. Graeme Hart for example has a fairly large number of full time guards and also a very well paid head of security. It's not unusual at all.
You comment he was waiting for the police, but neglect to mention the fact he was waiting for them with a shotgun in his hands.
Where are you getting your information from? The media said something ridiculous like this on the day of the raid, but retracted it because it's entirely incorrect. As I stated, the gun was in a gunsafe as per NZ law.
The gun was however found to be illegal due to the fact it had a stock removed and a pistol grip, and the bodyguard and head of security Wayne is being charged for that.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:4, Insightful)
So do you suppose we should keep "due process", or are you suggesting we just get rid of it as if it was just some quaint outdated notion?
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:4, Informative)
You comment he was waiting for the police, but neglect to mention the fact he was waiting for them with a shotgun in his hands.
*Bullshit.*
Watch the news clip. He states was holding his hands up empty when he entered the room, and the police do not dispute this. There was, according to some reports I have read, a loaded gun in the room.
The fact that you embellished this part of the story makes me suspect that some of your other statements also might be less than the unvarnished truth.
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"You comment he was waiting for the police, but neglect to mention the fact he was waiting for them with a shotgun in his hands."
Even if this were true (it isn't), I don't find this shocking. If an unknown armed gang attempt a home invasion of my household I would also grab my shotgun to try defend my life and family. What would you do? Let armed robbers kill you? There is no way for an innocent home-owner to tell the difference, on a split second, between a home invasion by robbers and a police raid (which
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
You're right, Dotcom only robbed people of millions, not tens of millions - insider trading and embezzlement
Of course that may be true, but it is also completely irrelevant. According to wikipedia : "Dotcom also pleaded guilty to embezzlement in November 2003 and received a two-year probation sentence."
I find it amazing that the most common reaction is -- "yes, what happened would have been normally wrong/unlawful, but since Dotcom is a sleazebag, then it's ok. He had it coming." Laws should be applied the same way regardless of how much of an asshole the particular person happens to be.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
I for one have a problem with this.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
Think about it, say you're retired and you have 30% of your savings in this supposedly great fund. And suddenly it's gone. Then another bunch in wall street wipe out another 40% (and still keep their bonuses). What are you going to do? How are you going to find a decent job if nobody wants to hire old people? It's not like you're as energetic as before.
The other thieves are those who are holding 120 year monopolies on stuff that should have entered the public domain by now.
As for megaupload, sure some of the stuff they are doing is dubious, but so what? Why not shutdown Monsanto if you don't like dubious?
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Wish i had mod points
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Interesting)
Blame myself for placing all the eggs in one basket and thinking that a investment fund cannot go bust. Don't you have Past performance is not guarantee of future results. standard disclaimer over there?
Are you kidding me? That disclaimer doesn't say anything like "having honest management in the past is not guarantee of future management".
'Lightly Armed' in the USA is the default (Score:4, Informative)
Just wanted to point this out to the 2-3 non-americans who might not already know, but in the USA 'lightly armed', IE with a service handgun, is pretty much the default for Law Enforcement personnel.
You see an officer, he's going to have a handgun unless there's something special going on. 'Special' being it's somehow specifically dangerous to be wearing one(sometimes happens during crowd control duty), or 'special' in that an elevated danger situation is going on, where they'd be breaking out the shotguns/rifles and heavier body armor.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:4, Insightful)
Would armed security staff make a difference?
Not if they pull him over with a marked police car as soon as he leaves his driveway, or arrest him after a public appearance, or some other civilized method that does not involve a full scale home invasion. Sad thing is, apart from the mansion it sounds exactly like your average pot-head bust.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
He stole from no one, the court case to date is starting to show that. He barricaded himself after unknown armed assailants attacked the property. Consider this, does a kidnapper only need to use the magic word 'police' for a person to surrender themselves to an unknown fate or is more substantial identification required.
Two policeman gainded admittance to the property the day before and could have quite easily arrested him. The reality here, is it was a show, forced upon New Zealand by the US government at the behest of the RIAA/MPAA, with possible lethal consequences, a straight up corruption of legal practices in two countries, that can pretty well be laid right at the feet of Barack 'The Betrayer' Obama.
This distortion of the law to create a big show as a threat to others pretty well destroyed the case ie greed driven stupidity.
The biggest crime of the last decades, lobbyists, they have robbed people of billions even trillions in the corruption of democracy and the resultant psychopathic distortions in economy. Right now every lobbyists practice should be subject to that kind of raid.
Re:They Didn't Pull This Kind of Muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
President Obama is not a betrayer. He is an honest politician. An honest politician is one who once bought, stays bought. He performed at the behest of his backers. Strangely enough, the people that back him also back his opposition. Issues like abortion, gay rights, civil rights and other push button issues that get people screaming names at each other and waving signs are only positions to politicians. These emotion charged issues are used to divide the people so that they don't notice their government being purchased right in front of their noses. The irony is that one trip to opensecrets.org will show you who owns your favorite candidate but people naively think that their candidate actually cares about them and their interests.
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Dennis Kucinich.
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I mentioned him re: opensecrets.org. He's not a (presidential) candidate. He's BEEN a candidate. People had their chance to get an honest "transparent" man of the people. Once again they blew it. At least the people of Ohio got some good use of him for quite a while.
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Yep. A unlocked door should have stumped the FBI that were present for hours!
Pity a NZ cop got to the door first and used the handle. Dotcom's plan was foiled!
Do you even read any of this fiasco? No barricades, no guns. He went to his safe room, left the door unlocked and sat there waiting for them.
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For American units of "billion". ;-)
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Well, I'd more say for english speaking plus others units of billion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_of_long_and_short_scales.svg [wikipedia.org]
It's mostly spanish and french (and derived) countries who use long scale.
Good thing they launched an aggressive assault (Score:2, Interesting)
I mean, such a violent guy.... he's like a terrorist. His children could have been at the windows with their ak-47s.
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It could have been worse. They might have burned the place down with his kids in it.....but then that's the ATF's modus operandi.
This would have been called terrorism (Score:3)
Oh, wait...
Several reasons come to mind... (Score:4, Insightful)
First, shock-and-awe factor, in the real terms of cowing the target of the raid and ancillary subjects so that they don't do something dangerous to the authorities, like grab weapons. This can be especially important for security staff that might not be wired quite the same as everyone else.
Second, disruption of other elements of critical thinking. If there are things to be destroyed, from the perspective of the target of the raid, this might disrupt that plan.
Third, and in my opinion, most likely, to make a show of force for others. My guess is that this raid didn't require air support, a number of practiced officers could have detained or arrested people on the ground, even security, quickly enough, if enough people were involved in the raid in the first place. It is possible that this was more cost effective in not requiring as many officers to breach and secure, but helicopters aren't cheap either.
Re:Several reasons come to mind... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Several reasons come to mind... (Score:5, Insightful)
Watch the video the servers were seized before the raid occurred. There was little evidence Kim had access to to destroy at the time of the raid.
Re:Several reasons come to mind... (Score:5, Insightful)
All very valid and totally justified reasons...if you live in a police state.
NZers are generally shocked and totally disgusted with their police force over this. Especially the co-towing to the US authorities part.
Given the current right-wing government's stance on doing whatever the US or its corporate owners say it is not surprising...
Ref:
- Changing employment law for the hobbit movie
- Signing up to ACTA despite it being bad for NZ
- 3 strikes law
- General foreign policy
- Our special forces in Afganistan
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Out of those 5 examples, I can only think of one (the hobbit employment law thing) that might have played out differently under the previous Labour government. Some of them were already happening or at least in play
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Actually, not sticking up for old Johnny boy, but wasn't it his governement that put on hold the original 3 strikes law (after much kerfuffle) to get what we have today and not what was originally proposed? (although both are bad, I am sure the original bill was even more evil)
Re:Several reasons come to mind... (Score:4, Interesting)
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What will it take to get the kiwis to vote for someone who is going to put New Zealand first and stop bowing down to the US and big American corporations.
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Correct posture, wrong direction... the position I believe you are groping for is "Bending Over" though it includes the same subservience, there is a culminating act which distinguishes it from the more culturally acceptable bow. How'z it feel to be the 51st state?
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Possibly.. just when you thought he was gone. ..
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You forgot
- selling off of all the government's strategic assets
- signing up to TPPA despite it being bad for everyone
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You need to understand when it comes to fascist corporate interests, nations and governments are middling obstacles to crushed under the jackboot of those who would make a profit under any circumstance. The American people are faring no better against their corporate owned and operated government.
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Yes, all over a website. What a dangerous individual. Truly a threat to national security!
Wait... I think I see a little girl running a lemonade stand down the street... without a permit! The army needs to get involved in this serious matter!
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I'm not in favor of heavy-handed things that don't really affect a lot of people. Even if he's the biggest software/movie/music pirate or piracy facilitator in the world, one can argue that the number of people harmed by his actions is small, and the amount of harm caused to them is also small, relatively speaking on the latter. I would argue that a banker that profited off of the loss of someone's life savings has caused more real ha
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Nothing you said distinguishes this raid from any other instance of searching anything or arresting somebody. It's always possible that they will pull out a fully automatic rifle and lay waste to everything, but that possibility doesn't mean anything unless you've got a specific reason to suspect that that is what will happen. You either just accept that or you live in a police state with no rights. Unless you have good concrete evidence that searching an area is going to put the cop's welfare in danger, th
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I think your third option is the only plausible one. There's a name for that kind of action. It's called terrorism.
Re:Several reasons come to mind... (Score:5, Interesting)
What a Joke (Score:5, Insightful)
Firstly, the NZ Police for being such a nice lapdog. Pretty funny when NZ stands up over something as silly as a nuclear free zone, but then does this.
Secondly, this is the time of when the government needs to smack the government, HARD, and award Kim damages. Nothing else is really acceptable.
Too much for such an intervention (Score:4, Interesting)
NZ Perspective (Score:5, Insightful)
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As a Yankee who has spent a lot of time in NZ, I'm tired of personally getting blamed for the NZ government's actions (it has happened... a lot... At pubs, parties, bus stops, you name it, if a Kiwi hears an American accent there's a decent
Re:NZ Perspective (Score:4, Insightful)
>> Also, I think the two party system we have in the USA might makes us a little more resistant to politicians selling out
Its exactly because the US has (only) a 2 party system that the US is so bad.
Both parties (who are just as bad as each other) screw the citizens equally, because they know if they go a little to far and lose power at very worst they'll have to wait 5 years before they're back in anyway.
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Apparently our tax code isn't too bad, most of the tax is paid by the rich. The poor pay very little.
Re:NZ Perspective (Score:4, Insightful)
(at least in the USA the massive corporate profits mostly stay in country and get spent on fancy cars, swimming pools, and bar tabs). And it's not my fault!
Oh, sorry, you apparently didn't get the memo... the only thing "Trickling Down" in America is toxic sewage from D.C. The top 400 people in the U.S. have the same wealth and the lowest 1650,000,000. Exactly how many fancy sports cars and bottle of Clicquot do you think these clowns would have to buy to even make a dent in the vacuum in the American economy created by this level of hoarding? No, the only folks smiling (besides the insanely wealthy) are their Caribbean bankers. Even one else is swimming in something a wee bit browner than your typical pool. Corporations are turning America into a toilet.
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Dog & Pony show (Score:5, Insightful)
This whole thing is just a huge dog & pony show by Hollywood and the FBI. Its the exact same tactics they use when they catch someone downloading illegal content.
Early on, they made a huge "example" out of the first offenders. Huge fines, drag them into court, media everywhere, blah blah blah. Now, the majority of the cases settle for a few thousand bucks and everyone moves on.
Well, this is their first hosting provider that they (HollywoodFBI) have gone after, and they want to put on a big show so that everyone else knows they mean business. They'll bring in helicopters & troops & go after your kids and pregnant wife if you don't play by their rules.
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Interesting point you make. Anyone have any general input on how it's going with those law suits? It's been a long time since I've seen anything about it on this site.
A guide to appropriate use of armed force (Score:2)
If it would look stupid as a 3D shooter, then you've probably used too much.
Unless of course 'disarming unarmed citizens' and 'avoiding pregnant wife' suddenly became genre staples.
who knows? (Score:2)
Like religion in the 1600's (Score:3)
Copyright rules at this point would be like a guy who you hired 50 years ago to paint one of your apartments is somehow able to demand 30% of the rent from that unit. He may have done a really really nice job but when you look at copyright as where the public good lay it would be better for all if these things came available way faster. Also the restrictions should be more relaxed. A song is the majority of a composition. Any copyright on a few riffs should be done in a year or two.
The same with a story. The whole composition might have a decade or two of protection but the characters and storyline should lose out in a few years. It is definitely time for new blood in the Star Wars series but even Harry Potter characters should be fair game soon if JK can't be bothered with continuing their journey.
Raid was deemed illegal back in June (Score:5, Informative)
Can't believe I just spent 10 mins reading this guy's wikipedia entry yet this is the most important piece:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jun/28/kim-dotcom-judge-raid-illegal [guardian.co.uk]
It's clear that the FBI acting on behalf of the MPAA/RIAA had an overzealous NZ police force keen to impress.
The really interesting item for me was how UMG submitted an invalid takedown notice on a video on Youtube on baseless grounds. I'm surprised that some of the artists didn 't sue the record company.
Suggested new leadership (Score:2)
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No, it's too late for this election. I was hoping that something would come of the Americans Elect effort, but they self-destructed.
The Greens might get themselves on a majority of state ballots. The candidates pull stunts like getting thrown in jail, but they might be somewhat inclined to listen to IP reform... it's already on their agenda in the form of patented genes. I wouldn't get my hopes up, though. But if you can stomach Krazy Kucinich, the Green Party platform might not sound too kooky to you. Both
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...arrested in such a way as to prevent him from destroying evidence.
What, like, to keep him from jumping into his fucking time machine and going back to before the authorities had siezed the Megaupload servers?
Re:Nothing of interest ever happens here in NZ. (Score:5, Funny)
It's not too far from Australia. Australia is the place full of dust, dangerous creepy-crawlies, passed-out drunk men, and aged, leathery women with voices capable of shattering crystal. On second thoughts, New Zealand is in fact not far enough away from Australia.
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I think I went to New Zealand once, it's right beside Florida at the edge of the World..... right?
New Zealand is like Australia's Canada.
New Zealand is like Australia's Canada. (Score:2)
I think I went to New Zealand once, it's right beside Florida at the edge of the World..... right?
New Zealand is like Australia's Canada.
Oh, so Australia has 51 states too? Cool.
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It's more like we're the 52nd state. What that makes NZ in that context I couldn't say. :)
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Or Belgium's Netherlands? Or Venezuela's Cuba? Or Phillipine's Brazil?
Typically Aussie's get along quite well with Canadians. Just don't offer them a Fosters. They don't drink that crap.
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Guess what, Slashdot hosts stolen content too. Sometimes submitters copy paste articles into Slashdot. Would you fault Slashdot for hosting stolen content? And would you justify Rob Malda's house being raided with a fucking SWAT teams and helicopters?
And unfortunately I dont live in US or NZ. The only way I can hope to fix these is to get my country to go to war with one of these. For some reason I dont like that option.
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Is that a chopper I hear? Hey! Who are you g...............
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No, but we can tell the unions that "they're coming to take our 4 weeks paid leave" and they'll crush any attacking force like a bug.
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Re:He Hosted Stolen Content (Score:4)
An interesting point of view. Here's one to counter it. I've been following Robert Fripp's struggles to get UMG to give him a simple accounting of how many King Crimson and related releases have been sold, for several years now. What I'd more, in violation of contract, KC music has got on to online stores like iTunes. Will you support SWAT teams raiding UMG at gunpoint to seize those records, and if not, why not?
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I'd pay to see UMG raided! Or maybe there's a torrent of it......
Megabox (Score:5, Insightful)
Kim Dotcom was on the way to launch Megabox [bbc.com] which would flip the ratio of money the artists get versus what is held on to by the labels. Color my cynical but this upcoming service seems to be the only major difference between Mega Upload and the other file storage services. He claims to be planning on still going through with the launch. If so it will cut the labels out of the loop by allowing artists to sell more or less directly to the public. Good riddance I say.