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Kim Dotcom Raid - What Really Happened
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.'"
On Bernie Madoff.
But who really robbed people for tens of millions?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I mean, such a violent guy.... he's like a terrorist. His children could have been at the windows with their ak-47s.
If it would not have been to capture an armed and dangerous mafia boss..
Oh, wait...
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
...to stage a raid on a high-profile target like this...
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.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
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.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
Is it me or that was the type of raid that could/might have been used to capture Osama Bin Laden ?
Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser? Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich
And almost immediately Dropbox made it harder to share my family photos to extended friends and family (to new users).
As a New Zealander, I'm frankly outraged that the US has this kind of influence down here. It's about to get a LOT worse as the Trans-Pacific Partnership gets finished off and pushed through... Most people won't have even heard of it until the deal is done. Dodgy, dodgy secret deals with US corporations, and my country stands to gain absolutely nothing but the unjust legislative offspring off the MAFIAA.
This post was made in complete sincere seriousity; as such any attempts to derive humour are doomed to instant failure.
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.
No man is an island, But if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie them together, they make a pretty good raft.
...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?
Kiwis are bored and feel left out, especially the NZ media which desperately craves big time American-style action and excitement.
So, everyone who does anything online is a 1337 h4x0r genius ubercrim preparing to hold the world to a Bond villain-like ransom.
Every 12-year-old kid of Asian descent who gets picked up shoplifting sweets is a Triad boss.
Anyone who breaks any law is a "cunning and daring" master criminal, which is why the NZ police haven't yet captured them/which is why the NZ police are so amazing for capturing them.
The NZ government, like some 14-year-old emo kid, is desperate to be noticed by big, powerful grown-up governments, and so will comply with any demands if it means an opportunity to be seen with somebody who may have been on the cover of Time magazine.
It's all simply the inevitable consequence of living in a tiny country at the bottom of the world, forgotten by everyone else.
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.
Certainly not anybody posting here. Maybe they wanted to make sure they got somebody in there before he could destroy any evidence. Maybe they thought he might flee in his own chopper. Maybe they just thought it would be more fun that way.
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.
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?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Yeah, sure, he's a sleaze. But he's not even remotely a criminal. Contrary to the implication of your post title, he stole nothing, and provided no material assistance to any actual theft. All he appeared to do, all even the prosecution alleges he did, was help other people violate some licenses. Nothing at all was stolen. Not a scrap of paper or speck of dust was wrongfully taken away from someone who owned it. Nevertheless, the license violations certainly do expose him to a wide range of civil complaints, should the content owners ever decide to sue him--I personally think they have a decent case against him, in addition to the strong cases they could build against the actual infringers. But it's simply factually incorrect to compare him to an actual criminal like Madoff. It's more accurate to compare him to a divorcee in a nasty custody dispute. No crime doesn't mean there isn't still lots of drama, and bad behavior all around.
Whoosh.
This is like religion in the 1600's and earlier controlling the government to take out those who didn't play by their rules. We are better off with the separation of church and state and will be better off with a massive reduction in the breadth and depth of copyright/patent rules. I agree that it is good that if someone writes a book that the publishing industry can't just rip them off. But I disagree that the writer of Happy Birthday is still able to control who sings his song all these years later. Even the same with the Beatles. By this point people should be at least able to rework them into something modern and potentially more interesting. I suspect that much of the lack of variety in pop music is that they don't dare do something interesting that might be similar to something done
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.
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
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.
Wearing pants should always be optional.
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.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Is that a chopper I hear? Hey! Who are you g...............
I'd pay to see UMG raided! Or maybe there's a torrent of it......
I know, eh. One day someone uploaded a Hannah Montana DVD and my copy stopped working. They deprived my family of their use of a DVD by uploading it. I demand justice!
Wearing pants should always be optional.
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.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Heh. Yeah, if there's one group that stands their ground against entities with deep pockets, it's the Republicans.
Who's Law? Jude of course.
Hey jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.
Hey jude, don't be afraid.
You were made to go out and get her.
The minute you let her under your skin,
Then you begin to make it better.
And anytime you feel the pain, hey jude, refrain,
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder.
Hey jude, don't let me down.
You have found her, now go and get her.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.
So let it out and let it in, hey jude, begin,
Youre waiting for someone to perform with.
And don't you know that it's just you, hey jude, you'll do,
The movement you need is on your shoulder.
Hey jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her under your skin,
Then you'll begin to make it
Better better better better better better, oh.
Na na na na na ,na na na, hey jude...
Your DVD still plays fine. It is your mind that is blocking the injustice you're subjecting to your eyes by watching it.
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.
I have seen a lot of upset posts by people that don't like US leadership over this issue. Furthermore others have mentioned that the two top individuals most likely to get elected in November are both unlikely to take this issue in a different direction. What I have not seen are suggested alternate candidate names that upset US citizens can or should vote for. I did see the name Dennis Kucinich mentioned though I don't believe he will be on the ballot in most states, if any. Does anyone else have some suggestions we can all get behind and vote for?
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
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.
I don't read AC A human right
Theater.
of the two you'd be best off attacking NZ - we don't have anything resembling defenses. We rely soley on the fact that no one can be arsed coming so far to conquer a big sheep farm.
Well, from TFA we know that they have at least one helicopter.
The **AA could simply have sued MegaUpload for not taking sufficient action against copyright infringement. I don't see why the NZ police had to go after the founder directly, other than to intimidate him on behalf of US corporations.
Kim Dotcom was on the way to launch Megabox 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.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
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.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Bernie's high crime was robbing rich people, instead of poor ones. That is the only reason he is in prison.
(30)
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, truly must, do what money tells them to do, not because they want to get rich, but because they know that if they buck Wall Street, a billion dollars will rain down in opposition to them and kick them out of office. This is the death of democracy you're seeing, not "Obama", who somehow you've noticed has just invented kowtowing to Wall Street. Bush and Reagan utterly caved and let them take over, for Godzakes. This isn't about Democrats, it's about money and how our collective distaste for funding elections by taxes has let infinite amounts of money shut down democracy here, and soon around the world. We did this to ourselves with our own ideology and distaste for politicians and the political process. Democracy has never been popular with Americans. They prefer wealthy landlords, more or less, as long as they are entertained.