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Canadian Court Rejects US Demand For Full Access To Megaupload Servers
An anonymous reader writes "Nearly one year ago, the U.S. government launched
a global takedown of Megaupload.com, with arrests of the leading
executives in New Zealand and the execution of search warrants in
nine countries. Canada was among the list of participating countries
as the action included seizure of Megaupload.com servers. Last week,
a Canadian court rejected
a request to send mirror-imaged copies of 32 computer servers to
authorities in the U.S., indicating that a more refined order is
needed. Megaupload successfully argued 'that there is an enormous
volume of information on the servers and that sending mirror image
copies of all of this data would be overly broad, particularly in
light of the scantiness of the evidence connecting these servers to
the crimes alleged by the American prosecutors.'"
What is the official reason for requesting the data anyway? Kim is being prosecuted and the site is down.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
This makes up for your frozen desolate wasteland of a climate for refusing to allow my car to start.
Since I'm stuck home for the day, I think I'll download a movie. ;)
Canada continues to appear in the United States' Trade Representative "Special 301" report as a "Priority Watch Foreign Nation", under active suspicion of not supporting US intellectual property regimes, having inadequate intellectual property laws, and also not being "a team player".
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I'm just waiting for the declaration from the US that Canada has joined the "axis of evil".
OMG, we* have a nuclear program! And oil!
* see username
Search and seizure needs to be for a specific item or copyright. You just can't say I want the hard drive because we think there is something on it. Now if it was deemed a proceeds of crime then anything can be taken.
And not often mentioned is the role Harper's lot played in getting the Canada on that list.... thanks to Wikileaks we can see the coordination between Harper and the US.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5986/135/
Industry Minister Tony Clement’s policy director asked U.S. officials to add Canada to their Special 301 Priority Watch List. See, they have an agenda, they ask Canada to be put on the list, then they can use the presence of Canada on the list as an excuse to enact a lot of nasty IP laws they wanted to do anyway. Cute huh?
I love living in the US, but our government has been on a massive powertrip for decades now. It really needs to be reigned in.
No, they wouldn't.
For all the talk of copyright on slashdot and elsewhere on the web, I continue to be shocked and underwhelmed by the basic ignorance people have about it.
During these past few years, the Canadian court system has been a bit of a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel with regards to this and striking down draconian laws instituted at the federal level.
Just in the past week (part of) the legislation regarding human smuggling was struck down in BC (giving aid to someone attempting to illegally enter the country could be construed as giving legal advice, or even coffee); mandatory sentencing for a guy in Surrey with no priors, but caught with a loaded Glock in a public place also struck down (an unreasonable gap between levels of sentencing, IIRC).
Now if they could just pick up the pace on the election fraud case(s) being heard; we cannot allow these ones to be unresolved through the next election, like the last one involving the Conservative Party of Canada (In & Out scandal).
Well, that turned into more of a rant than I expected.
TL;DR hooray for the Canadian courts.
This is how the US authorities go after everything - with massive, overwhelming, completely unnecessary force. Ever see the video of the invasion of Kim's compound? You'd think they were invading a small nation with that army of agents. It's like those cop shows on tv where they burst into some guys house - 10 or 20 or them, armed to the teeth - and all you see is some redneck standing there with no shirt and unarmed.
It's looking more and more to me like the US authorities had a pretty flimsy case with improper search warrants. Now they are trying to get everything they can, thus the "mirror" request. But the Canadian authorities have stuck a finger in the eye of the American justice machine by refusing to just hand over the contents of the entire server, not just what Kim is accused of being involved with.
My prediction is that not only will Kim not get extradited to the US, his lawyers will find a way to get him off the charges. Of course, it will cost him several years of his life and several million dollars. The US government, on the other hand, has virtually unlimited resources (thanks to the taxpayer). Backed up by the greedy Hollywood producers they will continue their campaign of harassment.