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Kim Dotcom Apparently Spied On For Longer Than Admitted
another random user writes "Kim Dotcom's internet connection was being diverted inside New Zealand weeks before the Government Communications Security Bureau says it started spying on him. The New Zealand Herald has obtained details showing Telecom engineers and staff at its technology services company Gen-I were investigating irregularities with his internet connection in November. The revelation has raised suspicion that Mr Dotcom was victim to earlier spying than the GCSB has admitted. It has brought fresh calls for an inquiry amid claims of the spy agency's role in the international 'Five Eyes' Echelon Network."
Apparently they can't manage to splice in an optical device that would be impossible to detect, except maybe for introducing a 3 microsecond additional delay.
Probably all the proper engineers have been borged by the Banksters. Only the Reject Still Working For Government. Reason to cheer or to be sad ?
If the latency figures in the article are accurate then the traffic wasn't staying in the country at all. You can get from one end of the country to the other in 35ms round trip, so even the original 30ms seems rubbish unless the circuit was DSL. The way they were making out it was a high end connection that doesn't seem likely. 180ms will easily get you too Australia and all going well will get you to San Jose from New Zealand.
I am a lawyer and this constitutes legal advice and I shall indemnify you against any losses arising from taking it.
Prime Minister John Key is schmoozing with studio bosses, hoping they'll keep the promises they made to him in this NZ election year.
And yet already they're letting him down, eve after he agreed to use the NZ GCSB and police against Dotcom on their behalf.
Those US studio bosses promised big rewards to John Key and "for New Zealand" in return, such as movie and TV production deals.
Only, once Dotcom was nuked, and everyone started glowing in the dark from the fallout, the studios then told the PM that they wanted NZ's existing foreign production subsidy upped to 30% from 16%, and postponed 'Avatar 2' which was to have begun shooting in NZ in 2013.
You see, PM John Key? See what happens when you get into bed with the Big Players in the hope you'll get yourself reelected?
On the other hand, I have no doubt they'll reward you with some juicy little seat on a board or three when you retire from politics, so it's not all bad... Unless you're just a NZ citizen-taxpayer, in which case, yes, it's all bad..
For hardcore online gamer ping is one of the most important metrics to check up your internet connection - and hardcore gamers do everything to keep it as low as possible.
Kim even had own fiberoptics laid to his mansion - since he's a gamefreak...
So, when ping goes up considerable for some time it's not just a routing "issue".
That's why europeans, north americans and asians don't usually play outside their region - bigger ping.
Can anyone remind me, again what his crime was?
Wasn't he just running a cloud backup service, same as countless nonarrested others?
He was going to launch the Megabox service. Thus, his crime was the most serious crime any citizen of the United States of Earth can commit: Felony interference with an outdated business model. It's still rather surprising that the MPAAocrat administration didn't send over a predator drone or two to level his house and be done with it.
That in itself is not a crime. I think the claim is that he knew (or noticed) specific files that were infringing and still continued to host them. The employees even mentioned some file name and repeated infringes. One mentioned that the all "downloads" counted towards a payout were from infringing content, and mentioned that he is approving the payment this time, but would approve it the next time.
The other hosters make it very clear that they have zero tolerance towards anything they identify/notice as infringing. Megaupload was sort of a bit tolerant, and it is now biting them in the ass.
Hey, the New Zealand intelligence infrastructure takes cheating at Modern Warfare 3 very seriously! (see Kim's wikipedia page)
Alleged but never proven.
The authorities should have to prove their innocence, or they should lose their authority.
Prove that you are not a serial killer. Prove you do not rape women. Prove you do not rob banks. A negative is almost impossible to prove. The government has the same "assumption of innocence" as a person. One needs to prove that something happens not prove that something didn't.
The government has the same "assumption of innocence" as a person.
Not while they have any authority... That's is price we must make them pay for it. And I'm not saying throw them in jail for abusing it, just that it must be taken away from them. A government should be made to use their authority transparently.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
His crime was pissing off the industry.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The NZ Prime Minister John Key is *so* in-bed with the US movie industry that it is not funny.
Right now, he's in the USA schmoozing with the members of the MPAA and offering them hundreds of millions of (taxpayer) dollars in inducements to come film their products here.
Meanwhile... the same government ignores pleas from the science and technology sectors here to give them even a small break with respect to their R&D activities. Even when they do have a brain-fart and decide to invest taxpayers' money in some research or development activity they totally screw up and blow almost $1m on a stupid pie-in-the-sky delusion like the Martin Jetpack.
No, it seems that the government is more interested in selling-out (at all levels) to the USA than in helping to actually create some really valuable intellectual property that would be *owned* by NZers.
Kim Dotcom can't win -- because he's fighting the people who make (and break with impunity) the rules.
How long before the citizens of the world wake up to the way in which their governments are colluding with certain big business interests to disadvantage the majority of people?
Surely, in this age of technology, we can do more than simply voice our disgust on forums like this?
What is the next step?
I believe you need to study up a little on basic human/animal psychology. Every study ever made demonstrates very explicitly how authority is abused. It's a very natural tendency, even with the best of characters. It's a gimme.
As for incentive, there is a very powerful one; getting re-elected. Abuse of power has been instrumental in the defeat of many parties.
Not really, only individuals get voted out. They are expendable. The abusive party remains, and most people will be scared into going along. 9/11 is the best example we have today. Bush was extremely abusive with his power and easily won reelection despite all that. And even though that faction of the party was subsequently defeated afterwards, the abuse continues, and there remains little resistance. The abuse will definitely continue for some time to come. And don't get me started on the state's department of motor vehicles and similar bureaucracies (IRS?), that can keep you standing in line for hours at a time, only to send you home to dig up more paperwork that should be their obligation to fill out.
Sorry, even with the slightest hint of trouble like this with a government, you can bet somebody is abusing their power by selling it to the highest bidder, and you would win that bet, even in New Zealand. Most people are distracted by other issues to take this into account. And the government will grow even more abusive until the voters turn it around.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Do you want every email to or from every government employee, every phone call recorded, every meeting videoed, every document on line?
If we demand it, hell yes! They must be made to answer to the public. Our obligation is to make sure they do exactly that, instead of accepting their statements at face value. History shows over and over that we are acquiesce far too easily. Time to turn it around and vote out the corrupt parties that hide behind closed doors. Time to put them into a glass house.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Can anyone remind me, again what his crime was?
Wasn't he just running a cloud backup service, same as countless nonarrested others?
"conspiracy".
just copyright infringement wasn't enough for extradition, so they invented that the company was a conspiracy.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
A routing problem that affects one customer, that even the ISP can't find an explanation for? And let's not forget that his ISP is one of the few that controls the backhaul all the way to the cable out of the country, and is the one that controls the connection to the United States by virtue of its 51% ownership of Southern Cross Cable. If they can't find a "routing problem" on their network, it's likely there is not one.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Money laundering actually. That's the kicker. By claiming that his company was involved in copyright infringement on a massive scale (but insufficient under the extradition treaty to apply to have him relocated) they could then claim that all the money the company gained was illegal, and therefore money laundering (which does carry a penalty sufficient for extradition).
If his lawyers can tank the copyright infringement charge, the money laundering charge collapses too, and the FBI have nothing.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".