Megaupload neergehaald door de FBI #4 Kim Jing Ping Ping

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LG Frankfurt a.M: Rechtshilfeersuchen wegen Megaupload-Strafverfahren in Deutschland unbegründet

Das LG Frankfurt a.M. (Beschl. v. 14.05.2012 - Az.: 5/28 Qs 15/12) hat entschieden, dass ein Rechtshilfeersuchen aus den USA wegen des Filesharing-Dienstes Megaupload in Deutschland unbegründet ist.

Im Rahmen der strafrechtlichen Ermittlungsverfahren gegen den Filesharing-Dienst Megaupload sollten auch in Deutschland bestimmte Vermögenswerte abgeschöpft werden. Den Antrag hatte die amerikanische FBI-Behörde im Rahmen eines Rechtshilfeersuchens gestellt.

Die Frankfurter Richter lehnten nun dieses Gesuch ab, da sie es für unzureichend begründet bewerteten. Es sei nicht hinreichend dargestellt, dass ein Webhosting-Dienst für den rechtswidrigen Upload urheberrechtlich geschützter Dateien strafrechtlich verantwortlich sei.

Nach dem Telemediengesetz sei ein Hosting-Dienst für fremde Dateien grundsätzlich nicht verantwortlich, es sei denn, er habe von Rechtsverstößen aktive Kenntnis, so die Robenträger. Der Begriff der Kenntnis sei auf positive Kenntnis beschränkt. Nicht ausreichend sei es hingegen, dass der Diensteanbieter es nur für möglich oder überwiegend wahrscheinlich halte, dass eine bestimmte Information auf seinem Server gespeichert sei.

Es bestünde auch keine gesetzliche Verpflichtung, die übermittelten oder gespeicherten Informationen zu überwachen oder nach Umständen zu erforschen, die auf eine rechtswidrige Tätigkeit hinwiesen.

Da das Rechtshilfeersuchen hier keine weiteren Umstände nenne, die eine Strafbarkeit begründen könnten, sei die beantragte Vermögensabschöpfung unbegründet.

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Kim DotCom: New Zealand will be home to new MegaUpload site

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New Zealand appears to be embracing Kim DotCom and the service he's creating to replace MegaUpload.

DotCom announced on Twitter that his new cloud-storage service will use a New Zealand-based domain: Mega.co.nz. DotCom attempted to use a domain name from the West African country of Gabon, but that country's administration last week ordered that the domain, Me.ga, be suspended.

DotCom didn't waste time in finding a new domain name.

"New Zealand will be the home of our new website: Mega.co.nz," DotCom wrote, adding that the site will operate within the law. He previously said that the new service will launch in January.

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Op dinsdag 13 november 2012 03:23 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op dinsdag 13 november 2012 11:39 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:

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heb je een vertaling

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Dotcom: We've hit the jackpot

A fresh legal bid to throw out the case against Kim Dotcom in the United States is being made after claims of an FBI double-cross.

Evidence has emerged showing the Department of Homeland Security served a search warrant on Mr Dotcom's file-sharing company Megaupload in 2010 which he claims forced it to preserve pirated movies found in an unrelated piracy investigation.

The 39 files were identified during an investigation into the NinjaVideo website, which had used Megaupload's cloud storage to store pirated movies.

When the FBI applied to seize the Megaupload site in 2012, it said the company had failed to delete pirated content and cited the earlier search warrant against the continued existence of 36 of the same 39 files.

The details emerged after the US District Court in East Virginia allowed partial access to the FBI application which led to the shutdown of the Mega family of websites.

Other information from the case to emerge this week includes a collection of photographs from the day of the raid at Mr Dotcom's Coatesville property on January 20 this year.

The High Court released the material after applications from the Herald.

Mr Dotcom said Megaupload co-operated with the US Government investigation into copyright pirates NinjaVideo and was legally unable to delete the 39 movies identified in the search warrant.

Mr Dotcom said: "We were informed by (the US Government) we were not to interfere with the investigation. We completely co-operated.

"Then the FBI used the fact the files were still in the account of the ... user to get the warrant to seize our own domains. This is outrageous."

He said the revelation was the first insight into the FBI's case against Megaupload and it showed bad faith on the part of the US Government. "Immediately we hit the jackpot - the first little piece of paper is this super-jackpot."

New Zealand's district court has ordered the FBI to provide documents relating to its investigation through an order for discovery. It was currently being appealed.

"I understand why the US is working so hard to appeal the discovery decision."

Mr Dotcom said the warrant obliged Megaupload to keep the files. It was among a string of legal requests from law enforcement agencies around the world.

"We have always co-operated. We have responded to takedown requests, we have been a good corporate citizen."

The FBI application to seize the sites said the "Mega Conspiracy" members were told by "criminal search warrant" in June 2010 "that 39 infringing copies of copyrighted motion pictures were present on their leased servers". The application was approved to allow the seizure of the domain names.

However, the application to seize the domain names, made on January 13, 2012, did not state the earlier search warrant was not issued against Megaupload.

Instead, the Department of Homeland Security application sought the help of Megaupload to track down files of interest in its investigation of NinjaVideo. The warrant application was by Special Agent William Engel and stated that the data storage company Carpathia "will work with its customer Megaupload to access content to provide in response to the search warrant".

The investigation was a success and saw its central figure Hana Amal "Queen Phara" Beshara sentenced to prison for 22 months and ordered to pay $256,000 of her illegally gained money to the Motion Picture Association of America - the same Hollywood lobby group blamed for pitting the FBI against Megaupload.

The access was granted after a bid by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of a Megaupload customer whose business files were lost when the cloud storage site was shut down.

Mr Dotcom's US-based lawyer Ira Rothken said he would ask the US court to return the Megaupload websites.

He said the discovery of the FBI's evidence of wrongdoing was part of a "trail of misconduct" stretching from the US to New Zealand which would ultimately lead to asking for the FBI charges to be dismissed.

"What we have uncovered, in our view, is misleading conduct. It looks like the Government wants the confidentiality because they would be concerned their conduct would be scrutinised."

The 39 files were not only used by NinjaVideo, according to the FBI affidavit. The Megaupload system identified files which were already on the system and kept only one copy of each. Unique weblinks were produced for each user providing multiple paths to the same file. The FBI indictment cited an email by Mr Dotcom's co-accused Mathias Ortman in which he said more than 2000 users had uploaded the 39 files.

A month after Homeland Security sought MegaUpload's help, NinjaVideo and a range of other sites were shutdown without warning. Coverage of the action led to Mr Dotcom emailing staff about the domain seizures, saying the manner of the US action posed "a serious threat to our business". He asked: "Should we move our domain to another country (Canada or even HK?)." The company, which has maintained it operated inside the law, stayed in the US.

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Researchers find Megaupload shutdown hurt box office revenues, despite gains for blockbusters

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We’ve heard this one before, over and over again: pirates are the biggest spenders. It therefore shouldn’t surprise too many people to learn that shutting down Megaupload earlier this year had a negative effect on box office revenues.

The latest finding comes from a paper titled “Piracy and Movie Revenues: Evidence from Megaupload” (via TorrentFreak) from last month, conducted by from Munich School of Management (LMU) and the Copenhagen Business School (CBS). Here’s the abstract:

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Dotcom documents accuse FBI of double-cross

Kim Dotcom is challenging the warrants used to seize his fortune in new court documents which accuse the FBI of doubled-crossing his Megaupload company.

The new court filings say the courts need to examine closely the evidence submitted by the FBI when it sought seizure warrants as part of its investigation into Megaupload.

It pointed to a "pattern of governmental misconduct plaguing proceedings" in New Zealand and said the FBI secured judicial backing to go after Megaupload by misrepresenting help the file-sharing company had given during the investigation into an internet pirate.

"This is huge," Mr Dotcom tweeted, announcing the filing. It was proof of the "US government acting in bad faith" and the Department of Justice "misleading". Mr Dotcom and three colleagues are facing extradition to the US on charges of criminal copyright violation, which they deny.

The claim of dishonesty hinges on testimony given by the FBI of Megaupload knowingly acting as a haven for illegally copied movies. The testimony was given a year ago in hearings which saw warrants issued for Dotcom and his business associates.

Details released from US courts in November showed the FBI relied on the existence of 36 illegally copied movies as evidence of willful law-breaking. The FBI told the US courts Megaupload had been told of the illegal files in 2010 and the continued existence was evidence to flagrant criminality.

However, Dotcom's lawyers said the files were kept at the request of the US government which asked it do nothing to impact on its criminal investigation. They claimed FBI testimony to secure arrest warrants managed to "exclude critical facts" which would have shown the company's efforts to assist. Instead, they gave a "selective distorted account" and "deliberately misled the court".

The filing says Megaupload was painted by the FBI as a "brazen scofflaw" and the files were the only linking thread which tied together those described by the FBI as the "Mega Conspiracy".

It also pointed to other court cases which showed warrants being declared invalid if the applicant - in this case the FBI - was shown to be dishonest or reckless.

The help sought in 2010 related to a Homeland Security investigation into NinjaVideo, a file-sharing site which used Megaupload's system to store files. An agent on the case contacted Megaupload's data storage company Carpathia to ask for help securing the files. Megaupload was told not to alter or change the files - a detail not later mentioned by the FBI.

Mr Dotcom's lawyers pointed to an email between Carpathia and Megaupload from 2010 as capturing the reality. The email, from Carpathia executive Phil Hedlund, detailed the search warrant issued to capture the NinjaVideo material.

Mr Hedlund said the warrant was restricted to just Caropathia and Megaupload but would be otherwise kept secret. He said it was possible to do so "because we relayed to the Government Mega's willingness to work with the Government for these types on requests". He added: "We have no reason to believe the Megaupload is the target of the investigation."

The Weekend Herald revealed the details around the so-called double-cross in November when the first US court files were unsealed. Mr Dotcom, waiting on the US to comply with NZ court orders for discovery, said: "I understand why the US is working so hard to appeal the discovery decision."

He said Megaupload worked hard to comply with requests to remove unlawful material.
"We have always co-operated. We have responded to takedown requests, we have been a good corporate citizen."

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Antigua Government Set to Launch “Pirate” Website To Punish United States

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The Government of Antigua is planning to launch a website selling movies, music and software, without paying U.S. copyright holders. The Caribbean island is taking the unprecedented step because the United States refuses to lift a trade “blockade” preventing the island from offering Internet gambling services, despite several WTO decisions in Antigua’s favor. The country now hopes to recoup some of the lost income through a WTO approved “warez” site.

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Op donderdag 24 januari 2013 17:40 schreef Iwanius het volgende:
Kan iemand mij uitleggen waar die vent eigenlijk nog zijn geld mee verdiend want ik meen mij vaag iets te herinneren dat al zijn bezittingen en vermogen waren geconfisceerd door de overheid tijdens zijn arrestatie. Of zijn al zijn bankrekeningen weer vrij gegeven met het daarop gestationeerde saldo?

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Op donderdag 24 januari 2013 17:40 schreef Iwanius het volgende:
Kan iemand mij uitleggen waar die vent eigenlijk nog zijn geld mee verdiend want ik meen mij vaag iets te herinneren dat al zijn bezittingen en vermogen waren geconfisceerd door de overheid tijdens zijn arrestatie. Of zijn al zijn bankrekeningen weer vrij gegeven met het daarop gestationeerde saldo?

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Op zaterdag 26 januari 2013 09:22 schreef kipknots het volgende:

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Ze zijn toch weer vrije gegeven?

Blijft interessant hoeveel mensen hier hem blijven ophemelen als een voorvechter van het vrije internet, terwijl hij dat doet omdat hij op die manier tientallen miljoenen verdiend aan andermans werk.

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Op zaterdag 26 januari 2013 21:13 schreef kipknots het volgende:
Gaan we weer met die onzin beginnen?

De meeste muzikanten hebben het niet heel ruim. Niet dat het uitmaakt, want ook al was iedere muzikant stinkend rijk, dan nog zouden ze zelf moeten kunnen bepalen wat er met hun werk gebeurd.

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Op zaterdag 26 januari 2013 21:13 schreef kipknots het volgende:
Gaan we weer met die onzin beginnen?

De meeste muzikanten hebben het niet heel ruim. Niet dat het uitmaakt, want ook al was iedere muzikant stinkend rijk, dan nog zouden ze zelf moeten kunnen bepalen wat er met hun werk gebeurd.