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Kim Dotcom's Next Venture: Free Broadband To New Zealand
First time accepted submitter damagedbits writes "So it turns out that Me.ga is only part of Kim Dotcom's resolution for 2013. Even though he's still facing extradition to the U.S. for alleged piracy, Dotcom has plans to resurrect Pacific Fibre's failed project to construct a fiber optic cable across the Pacific to the U.S. The new line will bring free high-speed broadband to New Zealanders and double the nation's Internet bandwidth, setting Dotcom back about $400m."
Some of that funding is based on optimism: "Dotcom plans on getting the majority of his funds by suing Hollywood studios and the US government for their 'unlawful and political destruction of [Megaupload].'"
First post?
Go ahead and lay the pipe to the US!
I thought he was only worth 200 million?
... It really seems to be a Robin Hood type thing....
The 'rich' taking the 'richer' to the cleaners to provide broadband to the masses for free...
Lately I can't seem to fault this guy....
Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
Although I support his defense again the US Government, I still see no reason to trust this guy what-so-ever. He's not a trustworthy individual.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
When i first read about him a few years ago he came across has a big douche, but now he has grown on me. I find myself cheering him on.
---- GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
I'd say that regardless of your stance on intellectual property, if you dig below the surface then you can see there was some very grubby, nepotistic and borderline criminal politics at work in the obliteration of Megaupload and the persecution Dotcom. Not to mention all the collateral damage to busineses using Megaupload for legitimate backups (even if we do acknowledge that a huge chunk of that data was probably pirated...).
I'm doubtful of how successful any court action will be directly against the US government, but if he's willing to funnel it back into the kind of altruistic endeavour he's proposing, I say power to him. I'm sure that LOTR-notwithstanding, It's more than Hollywood's ever done for New Zealand's economy.
Quality of connections for what you pay in NZ is awful.
Next up, Kim Dotcoms create the New Zealand based MEGAparty, waiting for the day that people vote him Prime Minister of New Zealand - with his election platform based on Free MEGAbroadband for all, for FREE!
But it's ten-times better for those who register their vote for him with the MEGApartyManager...
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
More likely his next venture will be in smokes and use of his ass for smokes.
... on the world stage is that it occupies a quaint 2-3 hour gap between the closing of the NY stock exchange and the asian stock markets. So some of the trillions of dollars of QE1-2-3 sloshing the hedge funds passes through NZ. Can we say high frequency trading? Otherwise, the only noticeable export is Hobbitown (admittedly Weka Workshops is doing interesting CGI)
He's gonna sue the federal government. That's not going to go very far. We can't even sue AT&T for cooperating with the NSA.
Oh, please. He's an attention whore and trying to stay in the news. /. willfully plays along. Will it be reported if I make a New Year's resolution, too?
There's probably half a billion people with half a billion business ideas on the planet right now. Why is Kim Criminals' being reported? Oh yes, because he broke a couple laws that we don't like.
How about you support the real heroes today? The ones like the EFF, or in Europe EDRI, who are fighting this fight where it can actually be won - the legal and politics level - and have been doing so for years?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
In New Zealand people recognize that a thug with good PR is still a thug. The argument that New Zealand needs more people like him to create workplaces is not universally popular either: if New Zealand was that desperate, there is a whole bunch of rich dudes in Central America who, if given residency, would gladly employ any number of prostitutes, enforcers, and drug mules.
Put me on the jury and i'll award him billions.
What the US and NZ goverment did to him was wrong, illegal, and COMPLETE BULLSHIT!
You can't be the good guys pulling shit like that over some fucking media... not something serious... movies and music... what. the... fuck!
So i'll root for the 'criminal' here. Because all in all he's far less of a scumbag than any of the politicians or law enforcement agents involved in this clusterfuck megaupload case.
See america... this is how far we have fallen.. i'd rather support a "criminal" than law enforcement thugs or politicians.
USA! We are the worlds biggest hypocrites! Respect is earned and the USA deserves damm little anymore.
And if i had my way i'd see ALL of the politicians and pigs involved in this case thrown in jail for a decade.
Interesting, but beating a government at their own game by suing their interests simply isn't going to work. It takes arrogance to think you can beat another man's game when the other man gets to define the rules.
Did I miss anything? I included the Dr. Evil-esque finger quotes. It only works if he can successfully sue Hollywood for that much before he is extradited, and if the people of NZ are willing to turn a blind eye to his motives. Or the fact that you'd have to be batshit crazy to reveal this plan to the world while you're fighting extradition for piracy.
I believe that a lawsuit against Hollywood and the US government is hopeless. They both own too many judges. However, I hope that some investigation into the matter would bring more light on the US government's and Hollywood's roles in the matter. This whole thing looks like Hollywood just convinced the US government to destroy the Dubious Dotcom, by using whatever Dubious Means possible. It's like Hollywood ordered a drone strike in New Zealand, and the US military leadership had no say in the matter.
Some Hollywood and government folks are a wee bit too cozy together, for my comfort.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Can anyone see the irony in Hollywood studios providing the funding for unlimited quota internet in New Zealand?
To put it into perspective, currently ADSL plans in NZ start with quotas as low as 3GB for NZ$49.95/month (~US$41.25).
for him if more people are using more traffic. Also the bandwidth in NZ is so awful that it will make it easier for him to do what he does. It looks to me like a matter of if you want something done properly do it your self.
I am not just going to agree with the popular view. In other words I have bad Karma.
Basically the studios have enough collective cash to put him in the poorhouse before he ever sees a dime from them.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Why are there no Hobbit jokes yet?
I expect the us navy will keep that from staying in service.
Hmmm, altruism? What if g**gle suddenly decided to subsidize free telephones for all: smart phones for the kiddies, non-smart phones for the non-smarties, all they asked was to be able to track and keep and use all of the data they could gather from you (net access, telco PEN trace stuff, hell google could even keep every uttered voice and word and sneeze with their HW, GPS and location info along with timing info of when you are where). Now a lot of people might fall for this and want these g**FoneZ, but would you call the motivation behind this altruism? Or could you perhaps see a business benefit that the offeror of such a plan might get
.
And now to use a perfectly parallel analogy, let's say that g**gley-minds came up with the idea of giving everyone tablets and chromebooks that came with free wifi/3g/cellular broadband access and all had strong umbilical links to the mothership. That's a strong parallel to subsidizing a wide-fiber-pipe from the USA to NZ. Would you call that altruism?
I'm sure that there are very viable profit-making opportunities to be made in putting in and having access to that wide-fiber-pipe: all of his redo-megaupload ideas would then also have an easy route of entry for any US based customers. Perhaps this is the missing step before the "Profit" step in the recipe.
I could buy a bus today and offer people free commuting to work, but that's not going to last much beyond the point where I have to refill the fuel tank for the first time...
He is not so naive to think that he can just hook a fibre link up to an end-point in the CONUS and give everyone in NZ free data transfer.
1. Maintenance costs of the fibre link.
2. Transit costs to non-peering partners
3. Transit costs to "rest of World", you may have heard of it
4. End-mile connectivity for the NZ customers
All these have immense ongoing costs. Not sure how Mr Dotcom's traditional advertise-and-nag funding model will help there.
I wouldn't call Dotcom's plan altruistic, on that I agree with you, but his plan is clearly much less "evil" than the scenario you proposed. The plan is simple: he wants more bandwidth for his new Mega-solution, and he wants to bitch-slap back the U.S. government and all the related parties while doing so. Handing out free bandwidth to all the Joe Blows of NZ is just a means of increasing the profitability of his new venture via indirect marketing effect while also improving his own, personal reputation in their eyes. So yes, there is an ulterior motive, but luckily there are only benefits to be reaped by the common folk on this plan.
Rich people can pay for a good public image...
Perhaps you should have told that to Steve Jobs or Steve Ballmer and the likes. Richer then rich but their public image is down the drain with all the other turds.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Mormons think they're Christians. Close enough!
Of course there are many NZ people who feel that way, who do you think voted in this government that bent over for American interests?
Any country will have a large number of sheep, NZ is rather famous for it. Just that most countries do not allow sheep to vote, NZ does and even lets them run the country.
Hope Kim DotCom sues the shit out of them.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
You may know a little about running an international network link but I suspect that Kim would be smart enough to get professional advice for specific matters such as the costs of running an international network link. This, combined with his entrepreneurial spirit to find solutions as well as his experience in megaupload means that he might know a little more about his plans than you do.
He is not so naive to think...
The guy might be of questionable intent, but he isn't stupid. Without having much knowledge of the subject matter, at a wild guess I'd say he plans to cover the costs by serving all me.ga data from NZ to the rest of the world, which effectively makes all peering arrangements hugely profitable since most traffic is outbound. In any case I'm sure he knows more about this than you or I, so there must be a workable business model there somewhere.
The free version has adverts. Are you surprised. Could you not have thought of that yourself?
So to summarise: It will be free because *handwave* MAGIC!
Or am I missing something?
> project to construct a fiber optic cable across the Pacific to the U.S.
Kim Dotcom does not want to sepnd life at the Guantanamo Bay resort, because he hates palm trees, topless mulatto girls and constant sunshine. Therefore Kim boy became a US mole. As instructed, he is now proposing to build an NZ --> NSA direttissima line.
He has to go to the US first, and face the charges brought against him. Which is a gamble I don't think Dotcom will take.
Big promises, trying to get investors, then ... well, read his history.
I wouldn't hold my breath to see it come true.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Whoever loses.
We win.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I don't deny he's a dick but he's going up against even bigger dicks, so let them have their "swordfight".
And with regards to him suing US Government/Studios, he may just have a chance not to win, but get paid to shut up.
The original Pacific Fibre project failed technically because of lack of funding, but just as much from international politicking. International infrastructure (intrastructure?) attracts these sorts of issues it would seem. The US didn't want China funding it and really didn't want them providing technology.
And of course theres's already speculation the US would take the same attitude to Kim Dotcom's involvement given they are trying to prosecute him for teh internet crimez.
A cynic might see this as a cynical PR move on his part. He offers The People of NZ goodies and the US government takes them away. He gets to look like the good guy again and it ultimately costs him nothing.
Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Never drive a car when you're dead
Fool me once..
Better to focus on a big pipe to Australia, and if you have money left over then work on fattening the bandwidth from there to LA. NZ has little content, few consumers, and no real reason to lay down the infrastructure directly to LA. We pay so much for bandwidth because we're low-density leechers.
And this is coming from someone who really dislikes being associated with Australia.. but in terms of efficiency (and latency-per-dollar) it makes sense.
He knows he isn't going to do it, because to bring the action against the US he'd have to do it in US court. He tries that, well he'll get arrested. Bullshit or no, the US government wants to go after him and if he's on US soil, that's quite easy. Even if the lose they can make the process drawn out and a huge pain in the ass for him. So there's no way he'd come to the US.
That aside, suing government is problematic. Look up sovereign immunity. In the US, as with many countries, it is still law. So more or less you can't sue the US government unless it waives immunity. Congress has passed laws waiving immunity in a few cases, but generally just negligence/tort related matters. Something like this wouldn't apply.
His lawyers know this for damn sure, so this shit is never going to happen. It is just a PR stunt on his part. Depending on how far they carry the stunt he may do something like sue them in a NZ court, but that'll be dismissed on account of the court not having jurisdiction. It'll never actually be brought in US court, nor would it go anywhere if it were.
The only man with a double chin that big that can still see his own balls.
He's pulled the kind of shit that people love to hate on varies wall street baddies for, just on a somewhat smaller scale. In 2001 he bought a bunch of stock for a bankrupt company, and said he'd invest 50 million Euro in it. the stock jumped, and he cashed out making a profit, leaving others to hold the bag.
In 2003 he set up a set of shell companies and pretended to have "an artificial intelligence-driven hedge fund delivering an annual return of at least 25%." It was all bullshit of course and the Hong Kong SFC shut him down.
This guy is not some shining example of human goodness, being railroaded by the US government. He's a sleaze who will screw over others to get what he wants.
Now, none of that excuses the US government from acting like jackasses, but let's not pretend like Kim is a good guy. He's not, and I personally think the US government's allegations that he at the very least was turning a deliberate blind eye to copyright infringement on Megaupload. Nobody (except the jackasses in Hollywood) would expect something to be 100% perfect, but Megaupload had many problems, and had an interesting little linking system whereby a DMCA request often resulted in a link going away, not the actual file being taken down.
Regardless, this is the case of the US government acting like thugs to a jerk, not to a great guy. You should be mad at the US for acting as it has, but you shouldn't support Kim as some sort of great person.
Actually giving the apology probably means the government has effectively admitted that it is liable for any damages Kim Dotcom tries to claim
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
...is this Dotcom guy and his homies reminding anyone of the crew from Stephenson's Cryptonomicon? 'Datahavens' and now his considering putting down cable. Does that mean he's gonna start looking for Japanese war gold soon?
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Isn't that true of all Christians?
Transit costs are marginal.
Once the fiber is in place, operational expenses on a link per bit are basically zero. You'd have to get it connected to a peering hub of course, but on the scale he's talking about, it's not a big deal.
Bandwidth is (almost) free. Capital build is not. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
..don't panic
Kim Dotcom is a douche, an amoral, egoistical money-maker. He is obsessed with making money in the grey areas of the law (he learned that when he got CONVICTED). He uses the law where he finds it fitting and he is completely megalomanical when it comes to scale.
In this, he is the very, very same as the companies he profits from. They are also douches and operate in legal grey areas and punch and kick everyone who is smaller. They also employ armies of PR agents and lawyers. They use the government when it''s stupid enough to get abused.
Kim Dotcom is doing the very same they do. He does what you and I cannot, because we are not insane, because we do (might) have some morals left.
In a way, Dotcom is the ghost the Content Industry created themselves and now cannot get rid of again. He's they grey mirror.
I find that awesome, they both are fighting fire with fire and as I dislike one party more than the other, I do hope he stombs on them as they stomb on everyone and any right that hinders they money schemes.
I plan on building a free airport, which will travel to every other international hub in the world. It will be funded by my leprechaun-catching business.
Well if Romney does win, looks like New Zealand might be a good place to go to (with free broadband - but I wonder if this will extend to the Hawke's Bay, or will it just be in Orcland, Wellington and Chch) _ I was born in Hastings.
Even then there's a good bit of cost in terms of maintaining your equipment and all that jazz. Don't think that fiber is the only cost, you have ongoing costs of all sorts.
However in the event nobody wants to peer, then you have even more costs. That is one reason places like NZ get the short end of the stick is that there isn't much data there, so the big carriers aren't interested in peering. They'll sell them access, but not peer.
Conus is a large genus of small to large predatory sea snails.
He's got the NZ gov't on the defensive in this debacle, and now he wants to reach out to them and make them an ally against the US. It's not impossible, although unlikely.
One technical aspect you might consider. If me.ga servers are hosted in NZ, most of the traffic will be from the rest of the world towards NZ. Now think of the typical broadband user online behavior. Getting it? Dotcom might be smarter than you think...
He's basically acting like a socialist, and the US can't abide any entity, (public or private), actually doing good for the average person.
I doubt he needs the bandwidth for me.ga because why would he have the servers in NZ?
More likely it is just a political stunt to make him more popular in NZ and thus make it more risky for NZ politicians to support extraditing him to the US.
Hmmm, altruism? What if g**gle suddenly decided to subsidize free telephones for all:
Amusingly google do offer a telephone service on which it is free to call any US number - I use this all the time for conference calls.
I'm going to sue the US government and build my own transoceanic fiber network, with blackjack, and hookers! In fact, forget the fiber!
I hope he stombs them like they do way instain mother who kill thier babbys. becuse these babby cant frigth back?
That's actually a really deep question. If one does what Christ wanted all humans to do, except for the explicit whorshiping of God, are they not Christians? There are several instances in the bible that suggust they are, in addition to documents from the second vatical council of the Catholic Church.
but on a more surface level it depends upon what you define as a Christian. Mormons do not believe the same things about Christ as mainstream Christianity. If you were to define that mainstream Christ to them, they would not say they follow him.
What would hobbits do with hi-speed internet?
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interesting... where do i find this? (g**gle it, i know that's the answer) what's the service called? i thought their voice was a big dial-thru call forwarding listen to all of your phone-calls and contacts service. I didn't know they ran a conference call center like those rural midwestern states local phone companies do to rack up charges from att and such...
I don't know if you live in or have visited NZ... but the lack of bandwidth is mind blowing. Seriously, I don't know how you Kiwis have been doing it. Going to NZ is like visiting a very scenic 1998 with the same per megabyte rate and everything!
Re:"google do offer a telephone service ..." Does [sic] they, now? ;)
Out of interest, I was under the impression that it is correct English to use 'do' in this context, e.g. "they do, in fact, offer a telephone service...". Perhaps this is something only the English do, or perhaps it is just widely used poor grammar?
interesting... where do i find this? (g**gle it, i know that's the answer) what's the service called? i thought their voice was a big dial-thru call forwarding listen to all of your phone-calls and contacts service. I didn't know they ran a conference call center like those rural midwestern states local phone companies do to rack up charges from att and such...
I'm sorry, my message was not clear. The service is only dial-out I believe - I use it to connect to the two-hour conference calls at work when I am not in the office, rather than racking up huge cell-phone bills. I think it may be called called Google Voice but I just use it through gmail's web UI (the little phone icon in the contact list on the left). If they do listen in on my calls I expect they have a few suicidally bored employees by now.
Its funny how crazy this site is sometimes. There is no reason to like this guy, who is simply upset that intentionally causing illegal behavior got him in trouble. It seems like this whole place simply is for anyone who hates sufficiently strongly. The comments to this story are what proves that slashdot attracts people who are very bitter.
There is a VOIP aspect to it. It isn't intended to be a telephone service, but can be used as one (which I think is against the tos). It is intended that you can call a Google voice number and hit someone's IM app.
Hey I'm going to offer free bus rides. I'm going to get my startup costs by suing the people who destroyed my other business. As you know suing people for money is such a trivial matter that I'm quite comfortable betting my entire bus business on this lawsuit because you know, MAGIC!
Yeah, especially when everyone who gets free Internet uses it to stream movies.
No doubt the USA government will want to block Kim Dotcom owning a piece of the Internet pipe. Imagine the first request from the CIA to install secret switches along with a gag order - how would that go over with Kim Dotcom? He should get any judgement from the US government in cash - $16 trillion in debt and growing.
.
My understanding of the conjugation of "to do" in the present tense is that in this case, "Google" is taken as being a singular noun rather than a plural noun, or at least I took it to be a singular noun referring to the singular corporate identity of Google. I think if you conjugate to do in the present tense in USA English :
I do
you do (singular)
he does, she does, it does (singular for masuline, feminine, nongendered)
we do
you do (plural, in most of USA) or y'all do (~"you all do" for plural in South-eastern USA)
they do, they do, they do (plural masc/fem/neuter gender)
.
So the only use of "does" is for the singular third person present tense, and "Google" referred to as a company or corporate entity is a single person. So you can also see my "they do ... offer" as an incorrect response, "Google does" and "it does" matches tense. But I was only saying "they do" to use the "do" you had used. I believe third person singular is the correct pronoun for a company. (aside, I believe corporations have achieved "corporate personhood" according to the SCOTUS, though I do not believe the Supreme Court made any decision on whether to refer to the corporate entity as a singular entity or as a plural entity composed of the stockholders.)
.
If you do a search for +"google do", you get 400k results with the majority being the questioning future tense as in "What will Google do?". If you do a search for +"google does", you get more than a million results for present tense in the form "Google does XYZ" or "Google does it". I know we should not bow to the wisdom of the masses, but my understanding as a "native speaker" (of English.American.USA, subdialect Southern California teenager) is that "Google does this" is more appropriate than "Google do this" (unless that is meant in a command form and voiced to Google as a request or command for something to be done.
I am sure that the Grammar police lurking on slashdot will come to correct me if I am wrong, or possibly even if I am right. ;>)
He's probably just hoping to attract The Woz to New Zealand...
Whoever loses.
We win.
How is the loss of megaupload and large amount of data not available anywhere else a win for you or me? Care to explain?
You have to be over 18 and of sound mind to serve on a jury where I come from.
Of "sound mind"? I call BS on that. Have you actually seen the members of any juries? If "sound mind" means 'incredibly stupid' then yeah...