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Kim Dotcom Demands Access To Seized Property To Defend Himself
redletterdave writes "On Wednesday, Kim 'Dotcom' Schmitz and his legal team visited the High Court in Auckland, New Zealand, to demand access to the data stored on his computers and hard drives that were confiscated during the police raid, and also requested a judicial review of the general legality of the search warrants police used to raid his mansion. Dotcom's lawyer, Paul Davison, argued that his client needs the data for a few reasons: To mount a 'proper defense' case, to fight possibly being extradited to the U.S., and also to show that 'excessive police action' was used during the raid. Dotcom could prove this in court because the entire raid was recorded by CCTV data, which is stored on Dotcom's confiscated computers. Even though the FBI demanded Dotcom turn over the passwords for Megaupload's encrypted data, he refuses to give up any passwords until he can regain access to his seized property."
What's the German word for "the boner you get from too much Schadenfreude"? Speaking as an American expat living in NZ: fuck the US government and its thuggish international corporate rent-a-cop policies.
That a cloud service company executive does not have this is a lesson to us all.
We need to settle this issue, so that people at least know where they stand when it comes to key disclosure in the United States.
Palm trees and 8
reminds me of that scene in Cryptonomicon when Randy is trying to selectively delete evidence that can incriminate Epiphyte.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
The US government has illegally copied his data, in the hope of extraditing him of charges of illegally copying other peoples data.
It was on the local news last night. The FBI are confirmed to now have a copy of the personal HDDs.
It's causing a bit of a stink as it looks like the Police have done it illegally given they had previously agreed to return them first.
... he's guilty as hell of violating US law. Writing as a non-American living outside US territory who has never set foot inside US territory, I hope that Kim Dotcom succeeds in stopping the US extradition request. Extradition should be reserved for those who committed crimes in the country that is requesting extradition or for war criminals. A case might be made for "hackers" (security breakers) that plant malware that destroys another country's computer systems, but not for people whose crime involves not destruction but the "creation" of more data.
Whether he stole anything is the issue.
Don't give up that stance either, Kim.
Easy BitCoins
One of the principles to come out of the Steve Jackson Games case is that the accused can't be deprived of their computer equipment and data. Law enforcement may only make copies of data.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Seriously go read the indictment, it has money laundering, it has fraudulent take down procedures, it have fictitious users. Copyright infringement was just an underlying thing, they have him banged to rights which is why he's trying for the "excessive force" side defense.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/78786408/Mega-Indictment
They freeze all of your assets so you can't defend yourself against a government with unlimited funding. The arbitrary injustice system: The more laws, the less justice.
Er, he did not (well he definitely does not have to) bribe his way into NZ. NZ like most other countries, has investors visa. He only had to invest 1 million USD, which is not much at all (his mansion it worth much much more). Well, he did pay taxes in NZ, and NZ govt better bear the costs of taking him to court. I would not be surprised if he paid more as taxes in NZ, than the govt ever had to spend on him. The SWAT team, and the helicopters to raid his mansion, must have cost a pretty penny I admit, but it was unnecessary, and its the NZ govt that has to blamed for this expenditure.
Don't blame Kim DotCom for the idiots that are the NZ police, or NZ politicians. They all need taken down a notch or two for not only illegal behaviour, but for idiotic behaviour. That we get to enjoy the show while it all goes down just adds to the amusement. Kim Dotcom will no doubt milk it for all it's worth, and so should he!
Almost, or essentially right. I'd phrase it a bit differently though.
Actually, innocent is not the same as not guilty. He is not proven guilty of these particular charges (yet) in a court of law yet. It is the job of the prosecutor to prove him guilty of these particular charges. It is the job of the jury to decide (1) if the prosecutor has achieved his aim, and (2) whether the the laws underlying the charges are full of shit or not. The last is called jury nullification, which is a bit misleading. A jury does not have to explain or justify its reasons or the basis for its decision to ANYONE.
The aim of the defense is purely negative - to either cast doubt on the prosecutions case, or outright disprove it. It is not necessary for the defense to PROVE anything.
There's no one worth rooting for here. Governments FAR overstepping their bounds primarily at the will of big business or a money laundering scumbag? Who do you root for here? This isn't even just a matter of the lesser of two evils - it's just a matter of size. IMO, this looks more like clan warfare, but instead of spears and AK-47s, they use money and men in suits.
Nobody cares what the CAPTCHA for your post was.
I have not really been paying much attention to this case but really thats part of it? Are they required by some law to do this? If so what law?
No, you need to read it again. Megaupload said that they can hash cp images and automatically block them from being uploaded again. They flip this claim against them for none CP files.
Read item 24 carefully.
"Members of the Conspiracy have indicated to each other that they can automatically identify and delete such materials on all of their servers by calculating MD5 hash values of known child pornography or other illicit content, searching the system for these values, and eliminating them; in fact, such files with matching hash values have been deleted from the Mega Conspiracyâ(TM)s servers. Members of the Mega Conspiracy have failed to implement a similarprogram to actually delete or terminate access to copyright infringing content."
How can you be so stupid?
I am pretty sure that it is illegal in all jurisdictions to even store child pornography. Preventing it from being uploaded is a no-brainer, since there are no cases where it could be legal.
However, it not illegal for me to upload a copy of an album that I own, to my private Megaupload account.
Why should Megaupload automatically prevent me from uploading a backup of a song (or album) that I legally purchased, and which shares MD5 hash with the exact same copy which someone else uploaded and shared with others?
You seem to think that you are not able to make a copy of purchased song/album onto external hard disk (which is what Megaupload really is).
That is really sad.
It's been going around NZ quite conspicuously that the search and seizure that happened isn't actually legal in NZ. Under NZ law the crown has to gain a conviction first. What is so hard to anyone to understand is how the judge allowed it in the first place. Maybe a lawyer who knows what's what in NZ can actually explain???
I am not just going to agree with the popular view. In other words I have bad Karma.
I think a more valid question is why should MegaUpload be expected to prevent you from doing anything illegal? We don't require manufactures of other products to do that.
How come GM is not required to have cars verify all passengers are willing in some way to prevent kidnapping and human trafficking? How come nobody is prosecuting the guys who painted John Edward's house for not verify they were not being paid with illegally converted campaign contributions?
I think setting the precedent that service providers or manufactures are responsible for the actions of their users is wrong.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
How come the 24/7 enhanced interrogation/torture hasn't either got a confession or killed him by now?
I don't think those Kiwi police know what they're doing.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I know, it's not like the constitution says "innocent until proven guilty" or anything.
Oh wait, it is there. We'll have to get that overturned right away with an overreaching addition to a must pass legislation.
To clarify, this is the case in the UK.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
> I am pretty sure that it is illegal in all jurisdictions to even store child pornography.
You forgot to add the small detail that even if that is true, it is defined differently in different jurisdictions. And some jurisdictions define it in such a way that only a court can decide whether something is CP (e.g., those jurisdictions which include a qualification that it needs to not have any "artistic value").
So, good luck with your "no-brainer".
Very important point.
Seems these days the news just tars someone as "consorting with illegal copiers", and everybody goes, Oh noes!
Exactly how clean does a dollar have to be before you accept it? How far do you have to go with a purity test? And how would that impact the ability of a lot people to even get basic services (even food)?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
'excessive police action' was used during the raid. Dotcom could prove this in court because the entire raid was recorded by CCTV data, which is stored on Dotcom's confiscated computers.
Making this claim seems like a great way to cause the confiscated hard drives to get 'accidentally' damaged.
(If they really did contain evidence against the police, would you reveal that while the drives were in police custody? I wouldn't).
Kevin Seghetti: kts@tenetti.org, HTTP: www.tenetti.org GPG key: http://tenetti.org/phpwiki/index.php/KevinSeghett