Megaupload neergehaald door de FBI #4 Kim Jing Ping Ping

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Op zaterdag 28 januari 2012 22:48 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op zaterdag 28 januari 2012 23:55 schreef Tegan het volgende:

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Interessant stuk .

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Op woensdag 25 januari 2012 13:00 schreef ender_xenocide het volgende:
weet iemand hier meer van?
bron

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<sub>Op dinsdag 24 januari 2012 23:44 schreef YuckFou het volgende:
Om even wat zaken recht te zetten hoe vre-se-lijk zielig de muziek industrie is hier twee interessante links, de eerste is van Courtney Love die even haarfijn analyseert hoe een contract in 'the real world' werkt, de tweede het fysieke bewijs hoe een million dollar profit film, Harry Potter deel 5, een verlies van $167 opleverde...
http://thepirateparty.com(...)y-love-does-the-math
http://www.slashfilm.com/(...)rder-of-the-phoenix/
Het zou mij niks verbazen, er vanuit gaande dat het MegaBox project waarheid is, dat er via een stevig RIAA lobby tot actie is overgegaan omdat de mediareuzen onrustig werden van dit project.

Er zijn talloze voorbeelden te vinden van artiesten die hun eigen label hebben aangevochten via de rechter om onder hun (wurg) contract uit te komen en zo tot een betere verdienste te kunnen komen en verreweg het grootste deel van hun kapitaal hebben ze vaak te danken aan het eindeloze touren en optreden wat misschien als een luxe leven kan overkomen maar in feite betekend dat je eindeloos lang in hotelkamers leeft en avond aan avond een topprestatie moet neerzetten omdat je fans nou eenmaal dat van je verwachtten....

Ik kan me dan ook goed indenken dat als MegaUpload een systeem heeft uitgedacht waarbij artiesten inderdaad op een heldere manier hun muziek aan de man kunnen brengen en daarvan een enorm stuk meer overhouden er een behoorlijk aantal overstag zullen gaan en zichzelf gaan uitbrengen in plaats van dit via een maatschappij te doen.

Zeker artiesten met een internationale reputatie die over een ingewerkt netwerk van agenten en promotors beschikken hebben geen hulp van een record label nodig en kunnen dit dan geheel in eigen beheer doen, blijft staan dat de back catalogue vaak wel bij de rechthebbende achterblijft en eerder werk dus via de reguliere kanalen of inderdaad illegale downloads aangeboden blijft worden.

Kleine kanttekening dan nog, ondanks dat het downloaden op zo'n grote schaal gebeurt hebben de Nederlandse bioscopen voor het, ik meen, 2e of 3e jaar op rij recordomzetten geboekt en lijkt er dus in Nederland tot nu toe op de reguliere platenhandel na, niemand slechter te worden van downloaden, en het verdwijnen van de platenzaken doet bij mij ook zeer, m'n vriendje werkt erin dus ik zie van dichtbij hoe moeilijk het soms gaat, toch zal voor de niche markt er altijd een plek bestaan en hebben ze het meeste te vrezen van gestreamde content als video-on-demand, spotify en gameconsoles die games in plaats van via een fysiek product via downloads aan de man willen brengen, en wie doen dat? Juist de uitgevers....</sub>

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'Data Megaupload mogelijk donderdag gewist'

De data die op in beslag genomen Megaupload-servers staat kan al vanaf aanstaande donderdag worden gewist. Dat gaat ook om data die niet illegaal is, zoals familiefoto's.

Volgens persbureau Associated Press (AP) kan de data van Megaupload-gebruikers al vanaf donderdag van de servers worden gewist. De filesharingsite werd eerder deze maand uit de lucht gehaald omdat er op grote schaal auteursrechtelijk beschermde bestanden werden gedeeld. De mannen achter de site, waaronder een Nederlandse programmeur en oprichter Kim Dotcom zijn in de boeien geslagen.

Overgebleven data
In een ingediende brief, die in handen is van AP, stelt het Amerikaanse Openbaar Ministerie dat de data op de servers vanaf donderdag door hosters Carpathia Hosting en Cogent Communications Group gewist mag worden. Over de servers van de Nederlandse Megaupload hoster Leaseweb wordt niet gerept.

Uit de brief blijkt verder dat de Amerikaanse overheid bepaalde data van de servers heeft gehaald. Verder kunnen de onderzoekers niets meer met de data omdat de grenzen van het huiszoekingsbevel zijn bereikt. De rechten ontbreken om de rest van de data te doorzoeken. Wie bezwaar heeft tegen het wissen van de data moet contact opnemen met de hosters. De verantwoordelijkheid ligt nu bij hen, aldus de openbaar aanklager.

Geen geld
Megaupload probeert het wissen van de data tegen te houden. Volgens het bedrijf gaat het ook om miljoenen gebruikers die persoonlijke bestanden hebben opgeslagen in de online kluis. Sinds de site op zwart ging heeft niemand toegang gehad tot zijn bestanden.

De kans bestaat dat de hosters overgaan tot het verwijderen van de bestanden omdat Megaupload zijn rekeningen niet meer kan betalen. De bankrekeningen van het bedrijf zijn bevroren. Volgens de advocaat van de online kluis zou de data van minstens 50 miljoen gebruikers in het geding zijn, aldus AP. Megaupload zegt er alles aan te doen om de data te behouden en samen te werken met de openbaar aanklagers. De data is ook belangrijk om tot een goed verweer te komen in de rechtszaal.
_bron

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Op zaterdag 21 januari 2012 18:26 schreef Dagonet het volgende:

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Jij vergelijkt meneer de zelfverrijker, de oplichter, de handelaar in voorkennis, de heler van gestolen goederen, de landgoedeigenaar, rolls royce rijdende, shotgun in een bunker hebbende veroordeelde crimineel met mensen die hun leven waagden tegen een militaire overheerser die willekeurig mensen doodden op gruwelijke wijze?

Echt?

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Op maandag 6 februari 2012 14:14 schreef Roel_Jewel het volgende:
Torrentsite BTjunkie gooit handdoek in de ring - update

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Op zaterdag 21 januari 2012 15:24 schreef Dagonet het volgende:

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Handelen met voorkennis is gewoon strafbaar hoor, zoals de Duitse rechter met mij eens is.

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.

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Op woensdag 22 februari 2012 09:28 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:
Die Dotcom is zó ontzettend vertrokken nu Zwitserland here he comes

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Op dinsdag 14 februari 2012 02:34 schreef epicbeardman het volgende:
inside kim's huisje (plus info over de aanval van politie, geheime kamers)

http://www.3news.co.nz/Ca(...)/242116/Default.aspx

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Op woensdag 22 februari 2012 09:33 schreef Roel_Jewel het volgende:

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Die komt het land echt niet uit...

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Op dinsdag 14 februari 2012 02:34 schreef epicbeardman het volgende:
inside kim's huisje (plus info over de aanval van politie, geheime kamers)

http://www.3news.co.nz/Ca(...)/242116/Default.aspx

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DE SAPPIGSTE DETAILS VAN DE MEGAUPLOAD-RECHTSZAAK

In minder dan 24 uur tijd is Megaupload van 's werelds grootste aanbieder van illegale content veranderd in de interessantste Amerikaanse digitale strafzaak ooit. Onmiddellijk na het offline halen van Megaupload crashte hackerscollectief Anonymous als wraak de websites van de FBI, MPAA, RIAA en Universal. Veel mensen praten er nu over, maar niemand lijkt het 72 pagina’s tellende document over de aanklacht gelezen te hebben. Maar nu Megaupload toch uit de lucht is, hadden wij genoeg tijd om het hele ding te lezen. Dit zijn de sappigste details:

- De aanklacht wijst op 'populaire' sites die linken naar Megaupload. Ze noemen Ninjavideo, maar over Icefilms wordt niet gesproken. Hoe oud is dit ding?

- Hooggeplaatste medewerkers van Megaupload hadden een speciale zoekmachine waarmee ze ALLES op Megaupload konden vinden. Dat is fucking awesome.

- Toen Google eenmaal doorhad wat Megaupload aan het doen was, haalden ze alle advertenties van Megaupload van GoogleAds. Het antwoord van Megaupload was het ontwikkelen van een eigen advertentienetwerk, Megaclick.

- De tool waarmee Megaupload zogenaamd grote Amerikaanse instituties hielp om copyrightbestanden offline te halen sloeg natuurlijk nergens op. Als een gebruiker een film uploadde, zeg The Hangover, dan doorzocht Megaupload hun servers naar een overeenkomstig bestand. Die link werd dan verwijderd, ook al wisten ze maar al te goed dat er honderden tot duizenden andere links waren naar hetzelfde bestand. Het was eigenlijk gewoon een slimme middelvinger naar de copyrighthouder.

- De Amerikaanse overheid houdt zich vast aan het bewijs dat de eigenaar van Megaupload Kim Dotcom het nummer 'Nah' van 50 Cent en Mobb Deep in 2006 gedeeld had. Serieus. Dit is een van hun grootste aanklachten. "Op of rond 3 december 2006 verspreidde KIM DOTCOM een link op megaupload.com naar een muziekbestand getiteld "05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3." Hij wordt niet beschuldigd van het hebben van een domme kutnaam.

- Kim is een inwoner van Hongkong en Nieuw-Zeeland. Hij is ook een Fins en Duits staatsburger.

- Volgens de Amerikaanse overheid verdiende Kim in 2010 $42 miljoen dollar aan Megaupload.

- Er heeft sinds 2006 zo’n $110 miljoen door de Paypal-account van Megaupload gestroomd.

- Megaupload was van plan om alle content van YouTube te downloaden en weer te uploaden op hun eigen site, om de illegale content te maskeren.

- Interne e-mails tussen werknemers van Megaupload bewijzen dat ze bewust een illegale operatie runden, maar dat het ze niets kon schelen. In een van de e-mails schrijft een werknemer, "We zijn een grappig bedrijf... moderne piraten " waarop een ander antwoordde, "We zijn geen piraten, we bieden alleen vervoer aan piraten ".

- Dankzij hun beloningsprogramma voor trouwe uploaders verdiende één gebruiker $55.000 door 5.845 stuks Vietnamese content, 10 dvd-rips, wat porno en (iets wat leek op) een Italiaanse televisieserie te uploaden.

- Megaupload betaalde hun hostingbedrijf Carpathia rond de $700.000 en $1 miljoen per maand vanuit een bankrekening in Hongkong.

- Cogent Communications, een internet service provider uit Atlanta, verdiende $1 miljoen per maand aan Megaupload.

- Megaupload gaf in juni 2011 $2,4 miljoen dollar uit aan het huren van jachten.

- De Amerikaanse overheid zit achter een vermogen van $175 miljoen aan, waaronder 59 verschillende bankrekeningen.

- Ze zoeken ook minstens 14 BMW's, een standbeeld van Predator, twee 108 inch televisies, een Seadoo, een Cadillac uit 1957, een Maserati en een Mini Cooper.

- Kim bezat een Rolls Royce Phantom met een nummerbord waar ‘GOD’ op stond. Op zijn andere auto's stond onder andere: GUILTY, STONED, GOOD, CEO, MAFIA en HACKER.

Wat we hieruit op kunnen maken is dat Megaupload inderdaad een criminele organisatie was en dat ze zich daar bovendien volledig van bewust waren. Ze hebben absurd veel geld verdiend en ze zullen zeker de geschiedenisboeken ingaan als een van de meest gestoorde digitale operaties ooit. Jammer genoeg zal de timing hiervan in combinatie met het hele SOPA-gedoe waarschijnlijk leiden tot de beperking van de internetvrijheid, maar de tijd zal het leren. Voorlopig kunnen we ons alleen verwonderen over de man die miljoenen dollars verdiend heeft met geripte dvd's.

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Wat we hieruit op kunnen maken is dat Megaupload inderdaad een criminele organisatie was en dat ze zich daar bovendien volledig van bewust waren.

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De tool waarmee Megaupload zogenaamd grote Amerikaanse instituties hielp om copyrightbestanden offline te halen sloeg natuurlijk nergens op. Als een gebruiker een film uploadde, zeg The Hangover, dan doorzocht Megaupload hun servers naar een overeenkomstig bestand. Die link werd dan verwijderd, ook al wisten ze maar al te goed dat er honderden tot duizenden andere links waren naar hetzelfde bestand. Het was eigenlijk gewoon een slimme middelvinger naar de copyrighthouder.

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De Amerikaanse overheid houdt zich vast aan het bewijs dat de eigenaar van Megaupload Kim Dotcom het nummer 'Nah' van 50 Cent en Mobb Deep in 2006 gedeeld had. Serieus. Dit is een van hun grootste aanklachten. "Op of rond 3 december 2006 verspreidde KIM DOTCOM een link op megaupload.com naar een muziekbestand getiteld "05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3." Hij wordt niet beschuldigd van het hebben van een domme kutnaam.

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Op woensdag 22 februari 2012 15:32 schreef Wessell het volgende:
Fileserve is weer terug

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Op woensdag 22 februari 2012 13:19 schreef stoeltafel het volgende:

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http://www.vice.com/nl/re(...)_source=facebookpage

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It’s Official: US Demands Extradition of Megaupload Suspects

Authorities in the United States have put in an official request to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and the three other suspects in the “Mega Conspiracy.” While the request doesn’t come as a surprise, the prosecutors waited till the official deadline last Friday before filing the paperwork. It will take a while before the fate of the accused is decided, as the first extradition hearing is planned for August.

Last Friday, US prosecutors filed an extradition request against four New Zealand-based suspects who were allegedly part of the so-called “Mega Conspiracy.”

Kim Dotcom is wanted in the United States alongside other key Megaupload employees on racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering charges.

In the battle to extradite the defendants, US authorities intend to rely on a United Nations treaty aimed at combating international organized crime.

Previously a lawyer working on behalf of the United States government admitted that no copyright offenses are specifically listed in the extradition treaty. However, he also noted that certain offenses which involve transnational crime are covered by New Zealand’s Extradition Act.

In New Zealand crimes must carry a four year prison sentence to be deemed extraditable. Under the country’s Copyright Act, distributing an infringing work carries a five year maximum sentence.

Experts and observers are predicting that due to its groundbreaking status, the extradition battle for the Megaupload defendants will be both complex and prolonged, and could even go all the way to the Supreme Court.

For now, the first extradition hearing has been scheduled for August 20.

Megaupload programmer Bram van der Kolk recently called on the New Zealand authorities to remain dignified in their extradition dealings with the United States.

“I really hope New Zealand will keep its dignity and can show that it is a sovereign state that has its own justice system,” he said, referring to the extradition process.

Talking to TorrentFreak last week, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom said that he and his co-defendants are positive that the law is on their side.

“We’re going for this and we’re confident we’re going to win,” Kim said.

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Op woensdag 22 februari 2012 13:19 schreef stoeltafel het volgende:

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http://www.vice.com/nl/re(...)_source=facebookpage

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- Ze zoeken ook minstens 14 BMW's, een standbeeld van Predator, twee 108 inch televisies, een Seadoo, een Cadillac uit 1957, een Maserati en een Mini Cooper.

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Op zaterdag 17 maart 2012 18:29 schreef Yuri_Boyka het volgende:
Interview met Kim Dotcom!!!

http://ondemand.tv3.co.nz(...)MCat/73/Default.aspx

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Op zaterdag 17 maart 2012 18:29 schreef Yuri_Boyka het volgende:
Interview met Kim Dotcom!!!

http://ondemand.tv3.co.nz(...)MCat/73/Default.aspx

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Entertainment Industry Was Eager to Work With Megaupload

Considering the aggressive stance taken by the MPAA against Megaupload, one might be forgiven for thinking the Hollywood-backed group and file-hosting service were sworn enemies. But behind the scenes things were quite different, with companies including Disney, Warner Brothers and Fox courting Megaupload to set up content distribution and advertising deals.

“By all estimates, Megaupload.com is the largest and most active criminally operated website targeting creative content in the world,” said the MPAA in a statement issued immediately after Mega was shutdown in January.

As statements go, they don’t get much more harsh than that, so one might think that hostilities between Megaupload and the member companies of the MPAA are a long-standing thing.

But as we know, despite all the rhetoric the likes of the usually-aggressive Disney never sued the Hong Kong based file-hosting service, and instead opted to let the FBI do their work for them.

While this government-financed approach will have proven substantially cheaper than dragging Megaupload through civil court, some potentially embarrassing things would have inevitably come out in such a case – such as this selection of emails just obtained by TorrentFreak.

In an eyebrow-raising email penned by Disney attorney Gregg Pendola, the counsel contacts Megaupload not to threaten or sue the company, but to set up a deal to have Disney content posted on the Megavideo site.

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Megaupload proves users were legit

In light of Megaupload's upcoming court case in which the US Government has accused Megaupload of being a hotbed for illegal users, Mega has proved the majority of it's users were legitimate. Megaupload has released that a large sum of it's users were actually belonging to US Officials including over 15,000 accounts held by US Military. Of the accounts held by US Officials these included accounts held by members of the FBI, Homeland Security, NASA and the Senate.

Megaupload attorney's and users are fighting hard for the data to not be deleted at this time however there is no certainty at this time if the information will be saved.

In other Megaupload news Kim Dotcom and his wife Mona welcome their twin baby girls into the world. The twin girls are reported to be a healthy weight at 5.3 and 6.2lbs however their names have not yet been released.
This is the fourth and fifth children for the couple. While Kim Dotcom is still under house arrest leading up to his extradition case the founder can live comfortably with his $50,000 a month spending limit. When doctor's asked if the couple would like to keep the placenta Kim Dotcom responded "yes, and please send it to the FBI for forensic analysis so they can verify there is no pirate DNA ;-)". If nothing else Megaupload founder has kept his sense of humour.

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Kim Dotcom: The US Government is Wrong, Here’s Why

For the first time since his arrest in January, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is responding to allegations in what he calls the “MPAA-sponsored” indictment. Eager to fight back, Dotcom refutes several “nonsense” claims made by the Government. In addition, he shows that Mega wasn’t a big bad pirate haven, but a legitimate service that may have been shutdown for political reasons.

For a man who’s the main defendant in one of the biggest criminal cases ever brought in the US, Kim Dotcom is surprisingly composed.

The Megaupload founder is convinced of his innocence, and instead of letting fear or anger get to him, he is excited. Deep into the night, Dotcom digs through heaps of paperwork, collecting evidence that shows how he was framed by the US Government.

Talking to TorrentFreak by phone, he gives example after example of why he thinks the indictment twists the truth. While Megaupload’s lawyers are still working on the first motion in response to the indictment, he agreed to exclusively share the first details with us.
Stealing from 50 Cent?

One of the claims of the US Government is that Kim Dotcom personally shared copyrighted files on Megaupload, so-called ‘direct infringement’. He supposedly shared a link to a 50 Cent song, but the indictment fails to include the necessary context.

“A link distributed on December 3, 2006 by defendant DOTCOM links to a musical recording by U.S. recording artist ’50 Cent’. A single click on the link accesses a Megaupload.com download page that allows any Internet user to download a copy of the file from a computer server that is controlled by the Mega Conspiracy,” the indictment reads.

Dotcom told TorrentFreak that the file in question wasn’t infringing at all. He explained that he actually bought that song legally, and that he uploaded the file in private to test a new upload feature. He quickly picked a random file from his computer, which turned out to be this song.

“The link to the song was sent using the private link-email-feature of Megaupload to our CTO with the file description ‘test’. I was merely testing the new upload feature,” Dotcom said.

“The URL to this song had zero downloads. This was a ‘private link’ and it has never been published,” he added.

Aside from the above, Dotcom told us that the US may not even have jurisdiction over the issue. The song was uploaded from a Philippine IP-address to a European server. Also, since the upload occurred in 2006, the statute of limitations renders the evidence unusable.

Dotcom further said that the Louis Armstrong song mentioned in the indictment wasn’t an infringement either.

“I also bought the Louis Armstrong song that was sent to me by a co-defendant via the private link-email-feature of Megaupload. According to the Department of Justice I am an infringer, and this is all they got? One song?”

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Mega has become a re-election pawn in the White House / MPAA affair. If I was a Republican presidential candidate I would investigate this, Dotcom says.

However, this gift isnt as free as it may seem. Dotcom says that the witch hunt against his company is putting the US technology sector at a disadvantage.

The MPAA / White House corruption has weakened US technology leadership. Internet businesses, hosting, cloud, payment processors, ad networks, etc. are going to avoid the US, Dotcom told TorrentFreak.

There is an opportunity for liberal countries to welcome those businesses with better laws, he predicts. The loss of IT business & jobs in the US will substantially outweigh the inflated losses claimed by the MPAA & their billionaire club.

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The MPAA / White House corruption has weakened US technology leadership. Internet businesses, hosting, cloud, payment processors, ad networks, etc. are going to avoid the US

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Megaupload user asks for his perfectly legal videos back

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a brief on behalf of an Ohio man in a federal court case brought by the United States against Kim Dotcom, founder and owner of the file-sharing locker Megaupload. The brief requested that Kyle Goodwin, and users like him, be allowed access to the files they had stored on the currently shuttered site.

Goodwin is a local high school sports reporter and the sole proprietor of the company OhioSportsNet, who stored his video footage on Megaupload.com as a backup to his video library on his hard drive. He had paid ¤79.99 (about $107) for a two-year premium membership. Just days before the government seized the site, Goodwin's hard drive crashed. The brief states that his lost videos include footage to make highlight reels for parents to send to their children's prospective colleges, and an unfinished full-length documentary about the Strongsville girls soccer team’s season.

While there is no way of telling how many Megaupload users like Goodwin stored legal files on the site, he is one of millions of users who can no longer access any of the information they stored there.

When the Feds shut down the file-sharing locker earlier this year, they seized more than 1,000 servers that Megaupload was leasing from hosting company Carpathia, including 525 servers in Virginia alone. Government authorities have been using the servers in the investigation of Dotcom and his company. Earlier this week, Carpathia announced that the 25 petabytes of Megaupload data stored on its servers have been costing the company $9,000 a day, and Megaupload has no way of paying its bills with its assets frozen.

According to the EFF, authorities told Carpathia that after it was done examining the servers and had copied portions of the data, the hosting company could delete the files and re-purpose its servers. Carpathia noted in a statement last week that it would like to allow Megaupload users to recover their data, but has struggled to find a way to do so.

"Despite our best efforts, the parties have been unable to work out a voluntary solution that meets the concerns of all the various parties who have claimed an interest in Megaupload’s data," Brian Winter, Chief Marketing Officer of Carpathia Hosting wrote. "As a result, Carpathia has filed a motion in federal court seeking the court’s guidance on how to proceed in resolving this matter." A hearing concerning this matter is set for next month.

The interests of Goodwin brought by the EFF represent the concerns of the millions of users who now can't access their data. “Mr. Goodwin files this brief in support of Carpathia’s Motion for Protective Order and requests that the Court implement a procedure to expedite the return of his rightful property, as well as the property of others similarly situated, stored on Megaupload’s servers,” the court document read, “The government itself created the problem of an overbroad seizure by utilizing a method that predictably encompasses innocent property.”

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It is no secret that the MPAA was a main facilitators of the criminal investigation against Megaupload. But while the movie studios have praised the actions of the US Government, they are not satisfied yet. Paramount Pictures vice president for worldwide content protection identified Fileserve, MediaFire, Wupload, Putlocker and Depositfiles as prime targets that should be shuttered next.

The file-hosting business has been in a permanent state of chaos since the Megaupload shutdown in January. Many sites were quick to remove their affiliate programs and some went as far as blocking visitors from the US entirely.

Its clear that site owners are concerned that their business might become a target, and if its up to the major movie studios this fear is justified. We continue to make criminal referrals, Paramount Pictures Alfred Perry said during the On Copyright conference in New York yesterday.

CNET reports that the Paramount Pictures produced a list of five rogue file-hosters, presented in a fancy graphic where Megaupload is crossed out. The prime targets on this shutdown list are Fileserve, MediaFire, Wupload, Putlocker and Depositfiles.

The movie studio claims that these rogue cyberlockers receive 41 billion page views a year, which translates to five views for every person on the planet.

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US government: We hear there's child porn on those Megaupload servers, judge!

Carpathia Hosting, which owns over 600 servers leased by Megaupload before the government shut down the file-sharing site, has a problem: those servers are worth serious money, but no one is paying the bills.

Megaupload wants the servers back to help with its defense, but with most of its assets seized by the federal government, it can't pay for them. Carpathia would normally wipe the servers and lease them to new clients, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation is demanding that legitimate users of the site be allowed to retrieve their personal data first. The Motion Picture Association of America doesn't want this to happen without assurances that its copyrighted content won't be retrieved and distributed again; besides, it might want the servers for a future lawsuit of its own. And the federal government yesterday announced that the servers “may contain child pornography,” which would render them "contraband" and limit Carpathia's options for dealing with them.

Carpathia originally housed the servers in a Virginia warehouse on which the government executed a search warrant back on January 19. After making forensic copies of selected servers, the government withdrew. Megaupload couldn't pay the bills, so Carpathia says it spent $9,000 a day in rent to house the servers it couldn't reuse. This quickly got expensive, so Carpathia trucked all the servers (at a cost, it says, of $65,000) and stuck them in some empty space it had in one of its own facilities. Now, stuck with all these servers, Carpathia wants a judge to compensate it for all the money it could be making.

The US government insists that the court has no real jurisdiction over the server issue. In a filing made late yesterday, the government argued that the EFF had highlighted an "unfortunate" situation, but one not before the court (even Megaupload's terms of service warned users not to count on the site as a sole repository for files). As for the MPAA, it hasn't even filed a civil lawsuit yet, and courts should not rule on "speculative matters affecting civil lawsuits that have not yet been filed (and may not be filed at all)." As for Carpathia's request for cash, the government suggests it doesn't deserve any. After all, it's free to wipe and re-lease the servers; the government already has its forensic evidence. The entire dispute is merely a "private contractual matter."

Well, sort of. When it comes to selling or renting the servers back to Megaupload—there the government draws the line. It doesn't want the servers to leave the court's jurisdiction and it worries that they could be used for criminal activity. In addition, "the government recently learned from multiple sources that the Carpathia Servers may contain child pornography, rendering the Carpathia servers contraband."

So Carpathia sits on its servers and waits for the judge's order it has requested. Simply wiping the servers could expose Carpathia to angry rightsholders who want the evidence for cases they intend to file, and to angry Megaupload users whose data would be gone for good. But keeping the hundreds of machines idle costs money, and transferring them to Megaupload—the only interested buyer—may not be possible.

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Kim Dotcom Lashes Out Against “Corrupt” US Government

The US judge handling the Megaupload case noted today that it may never be tried due to a procedural error, a comment that has sparked the anger of Megaupload’s founder. Kim Dotcom is furious with the US Government for destroying his businesses and rendering hundreds of people unemployed. According to Dotcom the case is the result of “corruption on the highest political level, serving the interests of the copyright extremists in Hollywood.”

Earlier today the news broke that a Megaupload trial may never happen because the US Government failed to serve the now defunct file-hosting company.

While some defendants might respond with relief upon hearing such news, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is only becoming more furious at the people who destroyed his businesses.

“The US government has terminated Megaupload, Megavideo and 10 other subsidiaries, including a company called N1 Limited that was developing a clothing line,” Dotcom told TorrentFreak.

“They destroyed 220 jobs. Millions of legitimate Mega users have no access to their files.”

If Judge O’Grady is to be believed all this damage could very well have been for nothing because the authorities simply can’t serve foreign companies. This could lead one to wonder whether the whole setup was to simply destroy Mega’s businesses.

This is certainly a theory Dotcom subscribes to, and it’s not the only dirty trick Megaupload’s founder believes the US Government is playing. The US is structurally denying Megaupload the chance to put up a fair fight.

“We are refused access to the evidence that clears us, we are refused funds to pay our lawyers, we are refused to pick the lawyers we want to represent us and have any chance for a fair trial,” Dotcom says.

For Megaupload the worst part is that the damage can’t be undone. The site has been completely destroyed as well as the plans to become a publicly traded company.

“We have already been served a death sentence without trial and even if we are found ‘not guilty’ which we will, the damage can never be repaired,” Dotcom says.

And why?

According to Megaupload’s founder it is quite clear that the Mega investigation was a ‘gift’ to Hollywood, facilitated by corrupt forces.

“This Mega takedown was possible because of corruption on the highest political level, serving the interests of the copyright extremists in Hollywood,” he says. “Mega has become a re-election pawn.”

Nevertheless, Dotcom is confident that these forces will eventually be exposed.

“It is just a matter of time until the truth comes out. We are working on that and we are making good progress,” Dotcom concludes.

quote:

Op zaterdag 21 april 2012 12:30 schreef PiRANiA het volgende:

[..]

http://torrentfreak.com/k(...)s-government-120420/

Zieke shit.

quote:

Op zaterdag 21 april 2012 13:49 schreef Blue_Panther_Ninja het volgende:

[..]

Nee hoor,volgens de rechter zal MU rechtszaak waarschijnlijk niet meer voorkomen door al deze gedoe.

quote:

Megaupload Prosecution Is Lawless and Unconstitutional, Law Professor Says

quote:

Yet another law expert has slammed the US Government’s decision to launch a criminal case against Megaupload. Law Professor Eric Goldman argues that the Megaupload prosecution is a “depressing display of abuse of government authority” that ignores basic constitutional rights in order to protect private commercial interests.

In recent months many people have been baffled by the US Government’s decision to shutdown and prosecute Megaupload.

While the Department of Justice proudly presented the case as one of the biggest criminal cases ever brought in the US, critics claim the Government has gone too far.

Many law experts agree with this assessment and point out that Megaupload is a lot less guilty than portrayed by the authorities.

This weekend Eric Goldman, a Prof. at Santa Clara University School of Law, joined in with his comments. His attack on the US Government is scathing, describing the Megaupload prosecution as a “depressing display of abuse of government authority.”

Siding with Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom who lashed out against the Government earlier, the Prof. claims that the shutdown of the world’s most popular cyberlocker was a gift to the entertainment industry.

“The government’s prosecution of Megaupload demonstrates the implications of the government acting as a proxy for private commercial interests. The government is using its enforcement powers to accomplish what most copyright owners haven’t been willing to do in civil court,” Goldman writes.

“The revolving door between government and the content industry” and the “Obama administration’s desire to curry continued favor and campaign contributions from well-heeled sources,” are the main motivations Goldman cites.

According to the Professor, Megaupload should have never been taken offline. He claims that it’s a modern-day equivalent of the printing press.

“Megaupload’s website is analogous to a printing press that constantly published new content. Under our Constitution, the government can’t simply shut down a printing press, but that’s basically what our government did when it turned Megaupload off and seized all of the assets.”

“Not surprisingly, shutting down a printing press suppresses countless legitimate content publications by legitimate users of Megaupload,” Goldman adds.

In addition, by shutting the site down and arguing that all data can be destroyed, the authorities are destroying evidence and ignoring the constitutional rights of the millions of US citizens who stored data on Megaupload.

“The government’s further insistence that all user data, even legitimate data, should be destroyed is even more shocking. Destroying the evidence not only screws over the legitimate users, but it may make it impossible for Megaupload to mount a proper defense. It’s depressing our government isn’t above such cheap tricks in its zeal to win.”

Professor Goldman continues by pointing out that the Government has to prove “willful infringement” when they want to hold Megaupload accountable for the infringements of its users. This is going to hard, he argues, as Megaupload has several strong potential defenses.

“Whether it actually qualified for these is irrelevant; Megaupload’s subjective belief in these defenses should destroy the wilfulness requirement. Thus, the government is simply making up the law to try to hold Megaupload accountable for its users’ uploading/downloading,” Goldman writes.

In his closing arguments, Professor Goldman points out that actions like the Megaupload prosecution will only make the public more skeptical about the Government’s attempts to control the Internet on behalf of a few multi-billion dollar companies.

“In the end, the Megaupload prosecution demonstrates that SOPA advocates are inevitably going to win. The content owners’ ire toward ‘foreign rogue websites’ combined with the administration’s willingness to break the law, if necessary, to keep content owners happy, leads to lawless outcomes like the Megaupload prosecution and ICE’s domain name seizures,” he concludes.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2012 19:22 schreef PiRANiA het volgende:
Megaupload Wins Crucial Evidence Disclosure Battle With US Govt. http://bit.ly/JulElc

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2012 19:57 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:
[..]
Fantastisch nieuws. Fuck die corrupte door de film en muziek industrie omgekochte Amerikaanse overheid.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 mei 2012 20:00 schreef PiRANiA het volgende:

[..]

Denk dat het doel downtime was. Megaupload is praktisch om zeep gehoplen op deze manier. Dat is ze mooi gelukt.

quote:

Megaupload has no rights? US broke its own rules by going after Internet giant

More than four months after federal agents shut-down the file-sharing service Megaupload and ordered a raid on the New Zealand mansion of its founder Kim Dotcom, attorneys are asking a US court to dismiss the case against the website.

Ira Rothken, the California-based attorney of both Megaupload.com and Dotcom, is calling for a US federal court in Virginia to dismiss the criminal case against the website. According to Rothken, the website’s Fifth Amendment rights were violated when the FBI ordered for Megaupload to be taken off the Internet earlier this year. As a result of the agency’s demands, Megaupload’s servers were seized and millions of files uploaded to the website — including those owned by paying subscribers — were made unavailable and are still inaccessible today. Now Rothken says that the prosecutors in the case failed to guarantee due process for his clients and is asking the court to dismiss the charges. Since Megaupload was hosted overseas, argues the site’s attorney, the Department of Justice has acted improperly in its attempts to prosecute.

“Both prongs of the procedural due process test are plainly met here. The Government has seized Megaupload’s property and domain name, ruined its reputation and destroyed its business pursuant to an indictment which is fatally flawed as a jurisdictional matter. Megaupload now finds itself in a state of abeyance, with no end in sight,” writes Rothken in a newly released statement.

“As a result of the Government’s inability to properly serve the summons on Megaupload, this Court lacks jurisdiction over the company. In the absence of effective service of process, criminal proceedings against Megaupload cannot commence, and as the Court has aptly noted, we ‘frankly don’t know that we are ever going to have a trial in this matter’.”

Indeed, those were the words US District Court Judge Liam O'Grady had for the case in April, when the proceedings against Megaupload were already three months old yet grossly underdeveloped. Rothken condemned the court system at the time for failing to properly play by the rules by opening a case against Megaupload and Dotcom over copyright infringement and other related crimes by seizing the website without first bringing charges against it. Last month Judge O’Grady even warned the FBI that the trial was in jeopardy because the Justice Department jumped the gun on the case.

In an interview with Radio New Zealand last week, Rothken added, "We're optimistic that the case against Megaupload will be dismissed” and called the entire federal witch-hunt “flawed.”

"Megaupload is a Hong Kong corporation, it does not have an office in the United States and we're just asking the US to play by the rules," said Rothken. "One would think that they'd have done more legal research before filing this type of indictment against a foreign corporation."

Speaking to AFP, Rothken added, "The rules in this instance didn't allow a foreign corporation to be served and indicted as it has not have a presence in the US. We believe the law is clear in that issue, and we're asking the court to dismiss the case."

Dotcom, a German national, is currently under house-arrest in New Zealand. American prosecutors are hoping to extradite him for charges relating to his involvement with Megaupload though have been unable to do as much so far. A court hearing scheduled for the matter is slated for this August. In the meantime, though, his attorney says that the shortcuts that the US government tried to take in the case might very well cost the court a victory.

"This case was flawed from the start, once this case gets dismissed it can't be fixed,” Rothken added to the radio network.

Dotcom previously told the website Torrent Freak that he predicts he will prevail over America’s attempt at prosecuting him but that the government has already made their point.

“We have already been served a death sentence without trial and even if we are found ‘not guilty’ which we will, the damage can never be repaired,” said Dotcom.

Rothken adds this week, “Megaupload is thus deprived of any procedure to clear its name or recoup its property, in clear violation of its due process rights.”

quote:

Op dinsdag 5 juni 2012 18:29 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:
Hhahaha

En met de naamsbekendheid die MU nu heeft, als ze de toko weer online zouden zetten... whooaaaa

quote:

FBI Did Not Steal Megaupload Evidence Because It’s “Digital”?

In New Zealand Dotcom’s legal team continues the battle over data that was seized from his home.

Dotcom’s lawyer Mr. Akel argues that the FBI illegally copied data from his computers, to send it to the U.S.

“The first [copies] were sent without the New Zealand Police having any say in it whatsoever,” he said quoted by Stuff.

“If [they] went offshore without the consent of the attorney-general, it was an illegal act.”

However, according to Crown’s lawyer, no harm was done because the evidence in question is “not physical” and therefore not covered by the relevant legislation.

“[Information] may be the most valuable thing we have, but it is not scooped up by the act,” he said. “Nothing of the physical items have gone overseas and that was our undertaking.”

A strange but interesting argument, since the entire case against Megaupload is built on evidence that’s not physical.

Whether Judge Winkelmann will agree with this argument has yet to be seen.

quote:

Op zondag 10 juni 2012 10:36 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Zie je wel, kopiëren en delen is geen stelen.

quote:

Feds Tell Megaupload Users to Forget About Their Data

Federal authorities say they may shut down cloud-storage services without having to assist innocent customers in retrieving data lost in the process.

The government is making that argument in the case of Megaupload, the file-sharing service that was shuttered in January following federal criminal copyright-infringement indictments targeting its operators.

The Obama administration is telling an Ohio man seeking the return of his company’s high school sports footage that he should instead be suing Megaupload — even though the government seized Megaupload’s assets in January.

The filing (.pdf) comes as cloud-based storage services are becoming more and more popular — despite there being little clarity about what’s legal and what’s not — and who’s to blame if copyright infringement happens on a service. Even Apple announced enhancements Monday to its iCloud storage service.

Assisting former Megaupload customer Kyle Goodwin “would create a new and practically unlimited cause of action on behalf of any third party who can claim that the government’s execution of a search warrant adversely impacted a commercial relationship between the target of the search and the third party,” the authorities wrote the judge overseeing the prosecution.

As first reported by CNET, the government noted that Megaupload had 66.6 million users and that its seizure didn’t include the data O’Grady is seeking.

Though the authorities seized 25 petabytes of data, that was not all of Megaupload’s data. Megaupload rented more than 1,100 servers from hosting provider Carpathia — though the servers are of little use after the feds seized all of Megaupload’s domain names. The government says it doesn’t care what happens to the rest of the data, and has said Carpathia can erase it if it chooses.

“The government also does not oppose access by Kyle Goodwin to the 1,103 servers previously leased by Megaupload. But access is not the issue – if it was, Mr. Goodwin could simply hire a forensic expert to retrieve what he claims is his property and reimburse Carpathia for its associated costs,” the government wrote in a brief filing Friday. “The issue is that the process of identifying, copying, and returning Mr. Goodwin’s data will be inordinately expensive, and Mr. Goodwin wants the government, or Megaupload, or Carpathia, or anyone other than himself, to bear the cost.”

Goodwin is the owner of a startup called OhioSportsNet, which films and streams high school sports. He stored his copyrighted footage on the file-sharing network, and he has no backups as his hard drive crashed days before the government shuttered the site on Jan. 19. He is the only Megaupload customer to come forward in court seeking return of files.

But Goodwin’s lawyer, staff attorney Julie Samuels of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says the government’s methods of prosecution of online copyright infringement means there will be more Goodwins in the future.

“As more and more consumers move their data to the cloud, and as the government continues its campaign to seize whole websites without regard for third-party property residing on those sites, it’s clear that we need a better solution. We hope the court will help us get there,” said Samuels.

Megaupload allowed users to upload large files and share them with others, but the feds and Hollywood allege the service was used almost exclusively for sharing copyrighted material — which Megaupload denies.

The criminal prosecution of Megaupload targets seven individuals connected to the Hong Kong-based file-sharing site, including founder Kim Dotcom. They were indicted in January on a variety of charges, including criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Five members of what the authorities called a 5-year-old “racketeering conspiracy,” including Dotcom, have been arrested in New Zealand and are pending possible extradition to the United States.

The government said the site, which generated hundreds of millions in user fees and advertising, facilitated copyright infringement of music, television programs, electronic books, business and entertainment software, and, perhaps most damningly, movies, often before their theatrical release. The government said Megaupload’s “estimated harm” to copyright holders was “well in excess of $500 million.”

Carpathia said it is spending $9,000 daily to retain the Megaupload data, and is demanding that Judge Liam O’Grady relieve it of that burden. Megaupload, meanwhile, wants the government to free up some of the millions in dollars of seized Megaupload assets to be released to pay Carpathia to retain the data for its defense and possibly to return data to its customers — a proposition which the government rejects.

quote:

New site Megabox from Megaupload's Kim Dotcom

Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom has announced his plans to launch a new website, despite still being under arrest.

The 38-year-old tweeted an image of Megabox, a site he said would allow recording artists to sell music directly to fans.

It is not clear when the new website will be launched.

Mr Dotcom was arrested in January in New Zealand because, alleged the FBI, his site was being used for piracy.

Speaking about his new site, Mr Dotcom tweeted: "The major record labels thought Megabox is dead. Artists rejoice. It is coming and it will unchain you."

In an interview with bit torrent news site TorrentFreak.com last year, Mr Dotcom said the service would allow artists to keep 90% of earnings from their music.

Hearing set

Following his arrest, Mr Dotcom's assets were frozen and he has been placed under house arrest at his New Zealand mansion.

Prominent internet rights group the Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF) is taking the FBI to court over its handling of users' files, with a hearing set for 29 June.

It argues that users of the site have a right to access their files which were seized in raids prior to the arrest of Mr Dotcom and several of his team.

"We've asked the court to implement a procedure for all consumers, not just our client, to recover their data," the EFF told technology news site Ars Technica.

Among Mr Dotcom's tweets is a picture of himself with Steve Wozniak.

Mr Dotcom told TorrentFreak that the Apple co-founder was "totally supportive" of the efforts of the EFF.

The trial of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and the site's management team is due to start on 6 August.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 juni 2012 01:58 schreef capuchon_jongen het volgende:
20 – De FBI haalt de website Megaupload.com uit de lucht. Hackersgroep Anonymous reageert met een aanval op websites van Amerikaanse overheidinstellingen en de muziekindustrie.

Zalig gewoon hoe Anonymous de FBI terugpakt.

quote:

Dotcom searches illegal: Judge

The High Court has ruled the police raid on internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom's Auckland mansion was illegal and the removal from New Zealand of cloned copies of hard drives seized was unlawful.

Justice Helen Winkelmann found the warrants used did not adequately describe the offences to which they were related.

"Indeed they fell well short of that. They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid.''

A spokesman for Dotcom's attorneys said Dotcom and his co-defendants were pleased.

"They are very happy with Justice Winkelmann's decision," wrote a representative for Simpson Grierson. "We are considering our clients' remedies as a result of the decision that the search warrants were unlawful and that the FBI sending the clones to the USA was also unlawful."

Police said they were considering the judgement and are in discussions with Crown Law to determine what further action might be required.

They would not make any comment until that process was complete.

Justice Winkelmann's judgement released a short time ago found the warrants were far too wide in terms of the scope of the search and the amount of items they gave police authority to seize.

"These categories of items were defined in such a way that they would inevitably capture within them both relevant and irrelevant material. The police acted on this authorisation. The warrants could not authorise seizure of irrelevant material, and are therefore invalid.''

The cloning of Dotcom's hard drives by the FBI, who took the copied disks back to the US was also ruled as invalid because Dotcom had never given consent.

The court ordered an independent lawyer to review everything seized in the raid to determine what is relevant to the investigation and what is not.

Relevant material is to be released to US authorities and everything else is be returned to Dotcom "forthwith''.

The decision followed a hearing at the High Court in Auckland last month.

Kim Dotcom cried in court as his lawyer spoke of how he was ``ripped from his family'' during a dawn raid by police at the request of US authorities.

Dotcom, who was arrested alongside three associates, had argued for copies of the data on 135 computers and hard drives seized when police raided his $30 million home in Coatesville.

His lawyer Paul Davison QC said his client's rights had been "subverted'' after cloned copies of the hard drives were taken overseas by the FBI without his lawyers knowing.

Mr Davison told the court he wrote to Crown lawyers in February to ask that none of the data from Dotcom's computers leave New Zealand.

Mr Davison said Crown lawyers responded, saying: "The evidence is required in its original form to be sent to the US. That has not happened and will not happen without prior warning.''

He said he was told the FBI had been in New Zealand and made clones of the data on the computers and one copy would be made available to him.

Mr Davison said he had yet to receive that copy and was only told today that copies had been sent to the US.

"There has been no approval for removal.''

Mr Davison also said there had been an "excess of authority''.

"Here is an example of what I would submit at the most moderate was high-handed and at the worst misleading.''

He said the process was "off the rails'' and his client's rights had been "subverted''.

Dotcom wiped tears from his eyes and left court as Mr Davison said his client had been "ripped from his family'' and was now before the court asking for the legitimacy of the police actions to be looked at.

Justice Helen Winkelmann said she wanted an affidavit from Crown lawyers that would clarify whether or not the Solicitor General gave police permission to allow copies of the data on Dotcom's computers to be taken to the US.

Crown lawyer Mike Ruffin said the original police search warrant, signed by a district court judge, made it clear that the computers and hard drives would be taken to the US.

He said a proposal by Dotcom to have a judicial review of the information was "not practical because of the volume of the data''.

Mr Ruffin said copies of Dotcom's computers and hard drives could not be handed over because investigators were not yet able to determine what is relevant to the case and what is not.

Dotcom faces an extradition hearing in August which will determine whether or not he is to fly to the US to face charges including copyright infringement and wire fraud relating to the file-sharing website Megaupload.

Prosecutors allege a "mega conspiracy''; Dotcom denies the charges and says his website was legitimate.

quote:

Kim Dotcom declares: 'MEGA will return'

As Americans spent July 4 celebrating the anniversary of the United States’ independence from Britain, German-born Kim Dotcom was reveling in a re-birth. According to the founder of Megaupload, his file storage site will rise again.

In a tweet to his followers this week, the man behind the world’s most famous file-locker site — and one of the FBI’s biggest foes — hinted that Megaupload will be brought back to life.

“SOPA is dead. PIPA is dead. ACTA is dead. MEGA will return. Bigger. Better. Faster. Free of charge & shielded from attacks. Evolution!” reads a tweet from the official @KimDotcom Twitter account. Dotcom— born Kim Schmitz — is currently being targeted by international authorities over his role with the website, which American official say was the centerpiece in a vast online piracy conspiracy.

By masterminding the operations of Megaupload, the Federal Bureau of Investigations insists that Dotcom caused the American entertainment industry to lose $500 million in revenue. Law enforcement agents raided his home this past January in a highly publicized sting that has since been condemned by not just Dotcom and his supporters but even justices in New Zealand.

Commenting on the case last week, Justice Helen Winkelmann ruled that the warrants used during the January 20 raid were too vague and that authorities interpreted them so poorly that the future of the entire case is now uncertain. If Dotcom cannot be charged with a crime in New Zealand, the court could refuse an extradition to America, much to the chagrin of US authorities.

In addition to announcing plans to put Megaupload back online, Dotcom also commended the death of three Internet-linked bills that could have greatly crushed online freedoms around the world. In the five months since his home was raided, the Stop Online Piracy Act, the Protect IP Act and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement have all encountered roadblocks that have rendered them dead.

“To all Megaupload users, let's all unite,” another message sent through his Twitter account on Friday reads. “It's time to fight back. Spread the tweet!”

quote:

10 questions with Kim Dotcom

quote:

I met Kim Dotcom at the taping of the final Media7 show at TVNZ. He answered one question, about whether he would stay in New Zealand in the event he won his extradition case ("It's too early to tell") and agreed to answer more by email - tweaking some of his responses after we spoke again yesterday (Friday). Kim was crook this week.

quote:

Kim Dotcom staat uitlevering toe, mits hij bij zijn geld mag

De in Nieuw-Zeeland woonachtige internetondernemer Kim Dotcom wil best uitgeleverd worden aan de Verenigde Staten, mits hij weer kan beschikken over zijn banktegoeden. Ook wil hij de garantie op een eerlijk proces.

Dat zegt hij vandaag in de New Zealand Herald. Hij zegt er meteen bij dat hij niet denkt dat de Verenigde Staten akkoord gaan met zijn voorstel. 'Dat is omdat ze deze zaak niet kunnen winnen, en dat weten ze al.'

Gisteren werd bekend dat de behandeling van het uitleveringsverzoek door de Nieuw-Zeelandse rechter is verdaagd van augustus naar volgend jaar maart. De Verenigde Staten willen Dotcom en drie medeverdachten berechten vanwege onder meer internetpiraterij en het inbreuk maken op de copyrightwetgeving.

Dotcom is oprichter van de website Megaupload, waar gebruikers bestanden zoals films en muziek konden uitwisselen. De site werd in januari door de Amerikaanse federale dienst FBI op zwart gezet.

Dotcom beschuldigt de Amerikaanse overheid ervan hem door vertragingstactieken te willen uitputten. Omdat zijn tegoeden op last van justitie zijn bevroren, kan hij zijn advocatenrekeningen niet voldoen. Die lopen volgens hem intussen in de 'miljoenen dollars'.

quote:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18882756

The judge overseeing the Megaupload extradition case has stepped down after one of his comments caused his impartiality to be questioned.


Judge David Harvey described the US as the "enemy" while discussing copyright law, at a conference last week.

It attracted attention because he had been dealing with the US government's request that New Zealand hand over employees of the file-sharing site to face copyright and fraud charges.

The accused deny the allegations.

DVD row

Judge Harvey made the comment at the NetHui internet conference in Auckland on 12 July.

He had been taking part in a discussion about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty - a proposed intellectual rights agreement involving the US and about a dozen other countries.

The judge had noted that at present it was legal for citizens in New Zealand to hack DVD region codes to watch disks designed to be restricted to other countries, adding that TPP would change this.

"Under TPP and the American Digital Millennium copyright provisions you will not be able to do that, that will be prohibited," he said.

"If you do you will be a criminal, that's what will happen.

"There are all sorts of ways this whole thing is being ramped up and if I could use Russell's tweet from earlier on - we have met the enemy and he is US."

The reference was a play on words adapting the quote "we have met the enemy and he is us".

News spreads

The news was reported by The National Business Review the same day, but only attracted controversy three days later when the New Zealand Herald published a report quoting local law professor Bill Hodge who said the comment could "be seen as probably an extra-judicial comment that isn't helpful".

The news was then picked up by other media including several US-based tech blogs.

The judge has ruled several times in Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's favour, including restoring his internet access and ordering the US to hand over evidence gathered against the accused.

Judge Harvey's most recent involvement with the case was a week ago, when he delayed the extradition hearing from August until March next year to allow more time to resolve legal arguments.

A statement given by the chief district court judge of New Zealand, Jan-Marie Doogue, explained Judge Harvey's decision to remove himself from the case.

"He recognises that remarks made in the context of a paper he delivered on copyright law at a recent internet conference could reflect on his impartiality and that the appropriate response is for him to step down from the case," she said.

quote:

Kim Dotcom's Letter to Hollywood

Dear Hollywood,

The Internet frightens you. But history has taught us that the greatest innovations were built on rejections. The VCR frightened you, but it ended up making billions of dollars in video sales.

You get so comfortable with your ways of doing business that any change is perceived as a threat. The problem is, we as a society don't have a choice: The law of human nature is to communicate more efficiently. And the economic benefits of high-speed Internet and unlimited cloud storage are so great that we need to plan for the day when the transfer of terabytes of data will be measured in seconds.

Businesses and individuals will keep looking for faster connectivity, more robust online storage and more privacy. Transferring large pieces of content over the Internet will become common -- not because global citizens are evil but because economic forces leading to "speed of light" data transfer and storage are so beneficial to societal growth.

Come on, guys, I am a computer nerd. I love Hollywood and movies. My whole life is like a movie.

I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for the mind-altering glimpse at the future in Star Wars. I am at the forefront of creating the cool stuff that will allow creative works to thrive in an Internet age. I have the solutions to your problems. I am not your enemy.

Providing "freemium" cloud storage to society is not a crime. What will Hollywood do when smartphones and tablets can wirelessly transfer a movie file within milliseconds?

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of changing their views to fit the facts, they try to change the facts to fit their views. The fact remains that the benefits of Megaupload to society outweigh the burdens. But instead of adapting, you imported one of your action-conspiracy movie scripts into the real world. In my view, MPAA CEO and former Sen. Chris Dodd lobbied his friends in the White House to turn me into a villain who has to be destroyed. Due process? Rule of law? Eliminate me and my innovation and worry about the consequences later. Never mind that millions of Megaupload users lost access to cloud data like their wedding photos. Well done, Hollywood, everyone with similar innovations got the message. But wait … You did not read the end of the script.

The people of the Internet will unite. They will help me. And they are stronger than you. We will prevail in the war for Internet freedom and innovation that you have launched. We have logic, human nature and the invisible hand on our side.

As you should have known, our Mega services operated within the boundaries of the law. We had users that spanned from the military to Hollywood to lawyers and doctors. If you are unhappy with that, it is up to you to convince Congress to amend legislation. You tried with SOPA and you failed. As an alternative, you chose to lobby the Justice Department to ignore the law and stage a global show of force and destruction. The only parties a New Zealand court has found to have violated the law in this case are the local police and the FBI.

Regardless of the issues you have with new technologies, you can't just engage armed forces halfway around the world, rip a peaceful man from his family, throw him in jail, terminate his business without a trial, take everything he owns without a hearing, deprive him of a fair chance to defend himself and do all that while your propaganda machine is destroying him in the media. Is that who you want to be?

There can still be a happy ending. I am working on solutions. Just call me or my lawyers. You know where to find me. Unfortunately I can only do lunch in New Zealand.

This open letter is free of copyright. Use it freely.

quote:

Op donderdag 19 juli 2012 20:15 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

quote:

Op donderdag 19 juli 2012 20:15 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

twitter:

KimDotcom twitterde op vrijdag 20-07-2012 om 09:20:28 Hi @BarackObama, here is a song for you #MrPresident. Regards, The Internet.

Kim Dotcom - Mr President

reageer retweet