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Kim Dotcom Wins Case Against NZ Police To Get Seized Material Back

Posted by Soulskill on from the seize-first-and-ask-questions-later dept.

New submitter Mistakill writes "It seems the case against Kim Dotcom for the NZ Police isn't going well, with Kim Dotcom scoring another victory in his legal battles. Police have been told they must search everything they seized from Dotcom and hand back what is not relevant to the U.S. extradition claims. Justice Helen Winkelmann told police their complaints about the cost and time of the exercise were effectively their own fault for indiscriminately seizing material in the first place. She wrote, 'The warrants could not authorize the permanent seizure of hard drives and digital materials against the possibility that they might contain relevant material, with no obligation to check them for relevance. They could not authorize the shipping offshore of those hard drives with no check to see if they contained relevant material. Nor could they authorize keeping the plaintiffs out of their own information, including information irrelevant to the offenses.'"

9 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. A confederacy of douchebags. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Kim Dotcom really comes across as an amazing douche.

    The thing is that in this everyone else in this whole saga is SO douchey that he actually manages to come across as a sympathetic character.

    It's really quite incredible if you think about it.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
    1. Re:A confederacy of douchebags. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The fact that this is getting sorted out is really unfortunate.

      Really? I would say that the rule of law shouldn't be suspended simply because the accused is a massive (to quote an AC from a previous thread) chucklefuck.

      Really, it's best for everyone if he wins this, because despite being a prat he was subject to a massive abuse of the law from several governments simultaneously. It's far more important that the rule of law is maintained than one dickhead gets away with being a dickhead.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re:A confederacy of douchebags. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In this level of douche vs douche, I automatically side with absolutely nobody

      One douche is a threat to no one. Another douche is a threat to you, me, and pretty much anyone in the world. (Wow, how often do you get to say something that grandiose and sweeping without it being an exaggeration?!)

      Root for the first douche, this time. It's ok for him to lose, but it really is important that the second douche lose much worse, publicly and with the most exposure and embarrassment possible. The second douche needs to know that all societies and laws hold them in utter and complete contempt. (The first douche, otoh, already knows that.) And any politician who ever hopes to be elected in the US, needs to know that "fire those guys" absolutely must become a part of his platform. If someone can run for next President or next term of Congress without publicly stating they intend to clean house at the DoJ, then we aren't making enough noise.

  2. Goodness me, apparently NZ justice is real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    An overzealous police force being made to face the consequences of its own misconduct?

    What a country!

    1. Re:Goodness me, apparently NZ justice is real by SilentStaid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If by consequences you mean that no one is being taken to task for this massive invasion of privacy even though it doesn't take a legal eye to see that the mad grab of Kim's assets was retarded. They basically were able to take his stuff for months and their penalty was to... give copies of it back? Awesome.

      You do realize, that they already sent copies of the hard drives across the ocean to the States. And no matter what that NZ judge says... Kim is already guilty according to our most important citizens - business. This is data they had no right (literally) to take. He's a dick - but they're worse.

  3. Re:kim dotcom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its the rights of assholes and attention whores you have to stand up for. Once those are violated, you get a precedent. Don't let it happen.

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Re:kim dotcom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Kim Dotcom sold me a 3D printed Raspberry Pi for 20 Bitcoins you insensitive clod!
    I used it to program an Arduino based robot that will deliver GMO wheat to Julian Assange.

  6. Re:kim dotcom by Xest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh do fuck off.

    This is an important case for the boundaries of where the line between legitimate hosting and illegal file sharing is drawn.

    It's about as important and relevant as any news you can get on Slashdot because the result of it has real repercussions - either the internet is safe from the authorities arbitrarily shutting down hosting companies because they feel like it, or the authorities win another battle to the point where state/law enforcement based censorship slips even further towards companies like Google also being guilty of supporting infringement to a legally culpable degree.

    Can we have a permanent hiatus on you commenting instead?