Megaupload Co-Founder Allowed Bail

New submitter masterfpt writes "TorrentFreak is running the following article: 'The co-founder of Megaupload has been freed on bail by a judge in New Zealand. Mathias Ortmann will be the subject of strict conditions including no Internet access. The U.S. will now rely on a United Nations treaty to extradite the Mega team. Separately, it was revealed that the FBI remotely monitored last month's raids and congratulated New Zealand police on their work.'"

Comments

Who's a good police force? You are! Yes you are!

[elrous0]

the FBI remotely monitored last month's raids and congratulated New Zealand police on their work

Did they FBI at least have the decency to give them the promised snausage treat?

Re:Who's a good police force? You are! Yes you are

[Theophany]

Ask Anonymous, they were listening in on the call.

Internet Ban

[Aladrin]

Why did they bar him from using the internet? What are they afraid he'll do, start another illegal website?

If they're afraid he'll try to hide evidence, they'd have to cut him off from all contact, since others could easily just do the hiding for him.

Do they bar people accused of telephone fraud from using the telephone?

I'd understand if it was a car or gun, where he could do something stupid with it, but the internet?

Re:Internet Ban

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a belief that computer criminals are able to cause nuclear attack by whistling into a phone, people are scared of what they dont understand etc.

Re:Internet Ban

[Xest]

It's to stop him being able to carry out valuable research, or contact people who could aid in his defence.

In other words, it's to make it harder for him to build a defence now they've stitched him up.

Re:Internet Ban

[Rich0]

The modern judicial system recognizes that convicting people is hard. Therefore, the process has been engineered to be as punitive as possible before a verdict is rendered, and to tarnish your reputation as much as possible after the verdict is rendered regardless of what it is.

Get accused of a crime, step one execute a search warrant and be sure to generally destroy all your personal property in the process of rummaging through it. Step two is to grab any computers you own and hold onto them for several years as evidence. That computer you bought for $1500 last week will get returned to you just in time for you to claim a $100 tax deduction when you give it away to a local school. Step three is to drag you through the press. Step four is to charge you with 47 life sentences and a bazillion dollars in fines, and then try to get you to plea to 15 years in prison. If they can't get you to accept the plea they just make the proceedings long and expensive - since so much is at stake you can't afford not to mount a vigorous defense. Oh, if they can seize any property without a trial under forfeiture, we go ahead and do that too.

By the time it is all over, a guilty verdict is just the icing on the cake for the authorities. They've sent a clear message regardless of the outcome.

Real crime

[roman_mir]

It's good to see the governments doing what their citizen given mandate is asking them to do. Not making sure that the money is good enough to support the economy. Not making sure that the States are not engaging in anti-competitive behaviour, such as requiring different professionals to license in every State (well, at least your driver license is good everywhere, yes?) Not making sure that the government is not treating different groups of citizens preferentially based either race, gender, age, political or religious affiliation or size of the bank account. Not making sure that the will of the people is actually exercised whenever a new war is started or another individual is arrested or even killed without a warrant and a court order and a day in court. Not making sure that the country is on an actual solid economic path in terms of total government spending, borrowing, printing, taxing, regulating. Not making sure that the trade is in fact free.

But the government is doing what all the citizens want it to do - fighting the absolute evil that the people of the world are facing - distribution of copyrighted materials.

FBI is doing a good job, it has absolutely paid for its own existence, as the Constitution mandates it to be. Now it's just a matter of ensuring that the criminals, these terrorists are properly and Constitutionally renditioned to the best and most aligned foreign ally that USA has - Saudi Arabia, and that the warrant says: Muslim apostates.

First, They Came for the Terrorists

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

And I did not speak out --
Because I was not a "Terrorist".

Then they came for the operators of file-sharing sites, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not the operator of a file-sharing-site.

Then they came for the blog-posters, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a blog-poster.

Then they came for me --

And there was no one left to speak for me.