Megaupload neergehaald door de FBI #5 De soap gaat door!

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2013 16:05 schreef trancethrust het volgende:
Wat zijn de nieuwe ontwikkelingen dan precies?

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2013 16:07 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Leaseweb heeft Kim's servers gewist.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2013 16:12 schreef trancethrust het volgende:

[..]

Zonder dat Megaupload veroordeeld was?

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KimDotcom twitterde op woensdag 19-06-2013 om 15:21:43 While @EFF is fighting for the rights of #Megaupload users in U.S. court #Leaseweb has taken it upon themselfs to play judge & executioner. reageer retweet

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KimDotcom twitterde op woensdag 19-06-2013 om 15:35:31 #Leaseweb has NOT warned us about deleting #Megaupload servers. They informed us TODAY that servers were deleted on February 1st, 2013. reageer retweet

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Kim Dotcom: All Megaupload servers 'wiped out without warning in data massacre' — RT News

Kim Dotcom has accused the US government and Leaseweb, one of the hosting providers of former file-sharing site Megaupload, of deleting millions of personal files "without warning."

#Leaseweb has NOT warned us about deleting #Megaupload servers. They informed us TODAY that servers were deleted on February 1st, 2013.

The information stored on the dormant servers – “petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property” – was what Dotcom called evidence in the case US authorities launched against him in January 2012. Dotcom is wanted in the US on criminal charges for facilitating copyright fraud on a massive scale.

“This is the largest data massacre in the history of the Internet,” Dotcom wrote on Twitter.

Lawyers representing his former company “have repeatedly asked Leaseweb not to delete Megaupload servers while court proceedings are pending in the US,” he added.

Dotcom, who made a fortune from his file-sharing service Megaupload, is currently under a federal investigation launched by the US Department of Justice after by police raided his home. He is currently free on bail in New Zealand, and is wanted in the US on criminal charges for facilitating copyright fraud on a massive scale, racketeering and money-laundering, which carries maximum sentence of 20 years. His extradition trail is set for August.

US authorities claim Megaupload cost copyright holders upwards of $500 million in lost revenues because of content illegally uploaded to its servers. The Department of Justice also believes Dotcom illegally earned $175 million by selling ads and subscriptions on the site.

Last January, on the anniversary of his arrest, Dotcom launched a new file-hosting site dubbed ‘Mega.’

We asked the DOJ to release some of #Megaupload's frozen assets to buy ALL servers. They refused. Now the data stored at #Leaseweb is gone.

“My goal is, within the next five years, I want to encrypt half of the Internet. Just re-establish a balance between a person – an individual – and the state,” Dotcom said in an interview with RT. “Because right now, we are living very close to this vision of George Orwell and I think it’s not the right way. It’s the wrong path that the government is on, thinking that they can spy on everybody.”


Bron: rt.com

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Hosting service Leaseweb deletes old Megaupload files in "data massacre"

Web storage giant Kim Dotcom claims a European Web hosting company has committed "the largest data massacre in the history of the Internet."

Netherlands-based LeaseWeb, Dotcom tweeted, deleted millions of files, "petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property," belonging to people who used his former web hosting service, Megaupload.

The snafu was made possible by Dotcom's extraordinary ongoing trials for running Megaupload. In 2012, police raided his New Zealand home, seized his servers, and arrested him, an act courts later declared illegal. Dotcom has since started a similar, sequel hosting company called Mega. He still faces five separate trials related to Megaupload, and the Department of Justice has frozen his assets.

That's why, Dotcom said, he couldn't afford to keep up payments to LeaseWeb. He indicated his lawyers had requested all companies hosting Megaupload data hold it until the trial was over, and be lenient about the fees until Dotcom’s funds were returned. He added that U.S.-based Carpathia, which contains other Megaupload users' content, had honored that request.

But Dotcom never got a warning, he said, and was simply informed Wednesday that the data had been deleted February 1.

LeaseWeb appears to be in damage-control mode. Its press office in the Netherlands didn't respond to emails requesting clarification, and when contacted by phone, the company put the Daily Dot on hold for ten minutes, then refused to take the call. A sales representative said the company was "really busy" crafting a response.

Bron: www.dailydot.com

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2013 16:07 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Leaseweb heeft Kim's servers gewist.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2013 16:31 schreef AlfredJKwak5 het volgende:
Leaseweb is dus direct exit, das duidelijk.

En Megaupload down halen? Op basis van wat, welk bewijs? KimDotcom zei vooraf ook l dat alles versleuteld is en dat ze zelf niet kunnen zien wat er gepost wordt. Op welke juridische basis kan de FBI dan de stekker uit megaupload trekken?

Ik hoop trouwens dat het hierbij blijft. De FBI moet met zijn fikken van het internet afblijven. Daar hebben ze niets te zoeken en ze plegen nu gewoon een inbreuk op de vrijheid.

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2013 01:44 schreef Piet_Piraat het volgende:

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Dat was vooral een dump.
Maar goed, wat hebben ze nog om rechtszaak te starten?
Duurt wel lang.

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2013 01:57 schreef Piet_Piraat het volgende:

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Dan lijkt me die rechtszaak toch een eitje?

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2013 02:04 schreef Piet_Piraat het volgende:

[..]

Het duurt al verdacht lang voordat er een aanklacht komt.

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Dotcom Reveals Megaupload Data Massacre Emails, Plans to Sue LeaseWeb


Bron: torrentfreak.com

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Kim Dotcom says Dutch firm deleted at least 40 petabytes of Megaupload data | Ars Technica

"In our view, LeaseWeb acted like a corporate radical by destroying data in the largest corporate copyright case in history," Rothken concluded. "We learned that the [United States Department of Justice] blessed the LeaseWeb data destruction and we will raise these issues at the appropriate time with the Federal Court in the US."

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Kim Dotcom case threatens New Zealand Government | Daily News - New Zealand

Two of the New Zealand Government's key coalition parters have been plagued by scandal in the wake of the US-led raid on Kim Dotcom's Auckland mansion.

Act Party leader John Banks is facing a private prosecution for claiming $50,000 in donations from Mr Dotcom were made anonymously.

United Future leader Peter Dunne has resigned as a minister after an enquiry into illegal spying on New Zealanders was leaked and he was found to have exchanged inappropriate emails with a young female journalist.

Mr Banks and Mr Dunne are two of the three MPs giving the Government a majority in the house. Without them, Prime Minister John Key will rely on the Maori Party to govern.

Mr Banks, who is the former Minister for Police, was investigated by the police who found he had acted unlawfully during the Auckland mayoralty campaign but they declined to prosecute him. However former Royal New Zealand Air Force engineer Graham McCready took a private prosecution against Mr Banks which is still before the courts.

Mr Banks denied ever meeting Kim Dotcom despite sharing a helicopter trip with the Internet entrepreneur.

Prime Minister John Key has also denied knowing Mr Dotcom at that time, despite him living in Mr Key's electorate and having sponsored a million dollar fireworks display in Auckland Harbour.

For his part Kim Dotcom has said he regretted making the donation to Mr Banks.

"He told me he is all about tech and he wants Internet business here in New Zealand and he is tired of an economy that is focused on growing grass for cows and sheep. He gave me a pitch of how he wants to modernise New Zealand. I bought it, I believed him and I wanted to help make that happen," Mr Dotcom said.

"Today I know he's just a talker, like most politicians, who will tell you what you want to hear to get your vote or financial support. I have never made a political donation before, I regret the one I made for sure."

Former Revenue and Associate Health minister Peter Dunne resigned his ministerial portfolios after he failed to co-operate with an inquiry into who leaked documents relating to an investigation of the GCSB's illegal spying on Kim Dotcom.

Not only did the report conclude that Mr Dotcom had been spied on by the GCSB after he became a New Zealand resident, but that 80 other New Zealanders had been spied on in recent times.

While this enquiry was supposed to be made public it was leaked to the media earlier than the Government intended.

An inquiry was launched into who leaked the report and Mr Dunne, who was one of five members of a high level security and intelligence committee, refused to co-operate with the inquiry making him seem like the source of the leak.

However, Mr Dunne denies leaking the report but has resigned as a Minister to avoid having to reveal the contents of a number of emails between himself and a reporter Andrea Vance.

Tweets sent by Peter Dunne to Andrea Vance reportedly spoke about vasectomies and in a Tweet from Ms Vance to Mr Dunne she calls him the New Zealand version of Spy Catcher.

Mr Dunne's political party United Future has been de-registered as a political party after falling below 500 members. His first attempt to re-register the United Future party failed after he was unable to provide signed copies of original membership forms.

By right Mr Dunne is an independent MP relegated to the back benches but the Speaker of the House has yet to strip him of his party leader status, a decision which the opposition described as breaching standing orders.

The New Zealand First MPs and some Labour MPs walked out of parliament in disgust at the speakers ruling.
Bron: dnews.co.nz

twitter:

KimDotcom twitterde op maandag 01-07-2013 om 07:31:13 Prime Minister John Key confirmed he is chairing the committee to which I'm presenting my opposition to the new GCSB bill on July 3. It's ON reageer retweet

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Dotcom to appear before committee - Yahoo! New Zealand

Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom will be in front of parliament's intelligence and security committee on Wednesday to tell it why he has problems with the GCSB bill.

Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom will be in front of parliament's intelligence and security committee on Wednesday to tell it why he has problems with the GCSB bill.

Dotcom, accused by US authorities of internet piracy and awaiting an extradition hearing, confirmed his appearance on Monday.

"I'm in parliament July 3 telling the security and intelligence committee why the new GCSB bill is wrong," he said on Twitter.

"I bet Key and Banks won't show."

Prime Minister John Key chairs the committee and its members are Labour leader David Shearer, Greens co-leader Russel Norman, cabinet minister Tony Ryall and ACT leader John Banks.

The bill authorises the Government Security Communications Bureau to spy on New Zealanders on behalf of the Security Intelligence Service and the police, when they have surveillance warrants.

The raid on Dotcom's Auckland mansion and his arrest in January 2012 led to the discovery that the legislation the GCSB operated under forbids it to spy on New Zealand citizens and residents.

The agency had been spying on Dotcom, who is a resident.

It believed it was acting legally because the surveillance was carried out on behalf of the police, and it was subsequently revealed it had spied on 88 other New Zealanders.

The government drafted the GCSB bill so it can legally carry out surveillance on behalf of the other agencies.

It hasn't been doing that since August, and Mr Key says security is being compromised.

Opposition parties won't back the bill and the government is short of guaranteed votes to get it through parliament.

It passed its first reading but since then Peter Dunne has said he has problems with it.

The committee has received numerous written submissions and some of the submitters will be giving evidence during hearings this week.

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Kim Dotcom has fiery exchange with New Zealand PM at surveillance inquiry | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Internet entrepreneur attacks proposed expansion of spying powers in New Zealand after NSA scandal

The internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has exchanged caustic words with New Zealand's prime minister at a parliamentary committee hearing submissions on proposed changes to surveillance laws.

German-born Dotcom, who is being sought by the US to face charges of copyright infringement and money laundering, was the star attraction on the second day of hearings at the intelligence and security committee in Wellington, chaired by the prime minister, John Key.

Dotcom told the committee the proposed expansion of spying powers was "poorly timed considering the scandalous leaks concerning US mass surveillance of the world's population, including US allies". He urged New Zealand to repeat the "heroic stance" of the 80s when the country was declared nuclear-free.

"When a great power such as the United States is committing immoral and illegal practices, ranging from Guantánamo to torture to drone strikes, let alone mass surveillance against the entire world population, there has never been a greater need for New Zealanders to once again step forward and declare their values shall not be abandoned or suspended under pressure from the United States," he said.

Dotcom claimed he had evidence that Key, contrary to repeated public assurances, had been aware of his activities before a dramatic raid on the "Dotcom mansion" north of Auckland in January last year. "Oh, he knew about me before the raid. I know about that," said Dotcom, eyeballing Key. "You know I know."

Key replied: "I know you don't know. I know you don't know."

"Why are you turning red, prime minister?"

"I'm not. Why are you sweating?"

"It's hot. I have a scarf."

Key later told reporters that Dotcom was "a well-known conspiracy theorist … He's utterly wrong."

The bill to amend the remit of the Government Communications Services Bureau (GCSB) was prompted by the admission that surveillance of Dotcom and a Megaupload colleague had been illegal. Their status as permanent residents of New Zealand meant the agency was prohibited from spying on them. Key issued a public apology to the men over the incident.

The new bill, which would make it lawful for the GCSB to spy on permanent residents on behalf of domestic agencies, has attracted wider interest following the revelations of the scope of surveillance undertaken by the US and its partners, as leaked by Edward Snowden to the Guardian.

The GCSB is a partner in the information-sharing Echelon or "five-eyes" group, led by America's National Security Agency and including Britain's GCHQ. Key says the Echelon arrangement has never been used to circumvent domestic law by spying on New Zealanders.

In an interview with the TV3 Campbell Live programme after the hearing, Dotcom grinned when asked whether he had been in touch with Snowden. "I do not know Edward Snowden personally, and that's all I want to say about this," he said.

The attempt to extradite Dotcom in relation to the activities of his Megaupload file-locker site has become mired in a succession of legal challenges, and is now unlikely to be heard any earlier than April 2014.

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New Zealand appears to have used NSA spy network to target Kim Dotcom | Ars Technica

The new analysis was posted by New Zealand journalist Keith Ng in a Thursday blog post. If the link proves to be true, it would seem that the NSA’s vast international surveillance capability can be turned against individuals unrelated to the NSA’s stated mission to aid military, counterintelligence, or counterterrorism objectives.

Kim Dotcom has been charged in the United States with copyright infringement rather than terrorism or any other violent crime. The German-born entrepreneur is currently fighting extradition from New Zealand to the United States. Separately, he has launched a civil suit in New Zealand against the GCSB for what the New Zealand government has already admitted was unlawful surveillance.

On Page 21 of the GCSB’s Affadavit of Disclosure (PDF), in an internal e-mail dated February 17, 2012, the document is marked: "TOP SECRET//COMINT//REL TO NZL, FVEY."

The last section of that classification (REL TO NZL, FVEY)—“Relevant to New Zealand, Five Eyes”—refers to the vast intelligence and data sharing program between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, known as “Five Eyes.” Given new disclosures about the capabilities of PRISM and XKeyscore as a result of the documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, a close examination of this affidavit seems to suggest that the Five Eyes infrastructure was used in Dotcom’s case. (In a slide published last month by The Guardian, XKeyscore is clearly shown to have a presence in New Zealand.)

The affadavit also provides a redacted list of “selectors” for Kim Dotcom, his wife Monica Dotcom, and Bram Van Der Kolk, one of Dotcom’s co-defendants.

“We intercepted [REDACTED] from the first two selectors on the list," the document states. "Obviously only a small fraction of them were used in the reports that were generated. We had no [REDACTED] collection on Dotcom, and I’m advised we saw a little [REDACTED] none of which was used in reporting.”

“All Five Eyes partners have access [to the NSA's systems], including GCSB,” Dotcom told Ars. “GCSB doesn’t even operate their own spy cloud. Everything goes into the US-based spy cloud. Including all the surveillance they have done on me. They typed in the selector and got access to everything the Five Eyes spy cloud had on me. Then the GCSB started real-time surveillance of all my communications, IP, mobile, etc. and was feeding that into the spy cloud.”

Neither the GCSB nor a spokesperson for the Embassy of New Zealand in the United States immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment. In June 2013, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key evaded answering whether the GCSB uses or has access to the NSA’s PRISM system.

"I can't tell you how the United States gather all of their information, what techniques they use, I just simply don't know,” Key told TV3’s Firstline. “But if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no. We do exchange—and it's well known—information with our partners. We do do that. How they gather that information and whether they use techniques or systems like PRISM, I can't comment on that.''

As we reported in March 2013, a New Zealand appeals court ruled (PDF) that Kim Dotcom has the right to sue the government of New Zealand for illegal surveillance. As we reported further last year, the NZ government admitted after the fact that Dotcom should not have been subjected to government surveillance due to his having obtained permanent resident status.

According to new documents acquired earlier this year by a New Zealand TV channel, the GCSB already had information as of December 16, 2011 (before the January 2012 raid) showing that Dotcom was a permanent resident of New Zealand and that the agency knew Dotcom should not have been targeted at all. Interestingly, the documents also show Dotcom’s government code name: “Billy Big Steps.”

Still, Ira Rothken, Dotcom’s California-based attorney, seemed to be a bit more cautious about drawing any new implications from the NZ affidavit.

“We’re in the process of litigating a civil case that implicates the New Zealand government for their illegal spying,” he told Ars. “At this point, while we have a healthy appreciation for whatever informal analysis is being done, our goal in this case is to actually get the information directly from New Zealand government sources. I don’t want to prejudge the very thing that we’re litigating now.”

Still, Rothken seemed to indicate that it was within the realm of possibility that Five Eyes was turned against Dotcom illegally.

“I think it’s axiomatic that New Zealand has access to the Five Eyes infrastructure because it’s a member of Five Eyes and it has network points in New Zealand, including a large installation in New Zealand,” he added. “I think that that’s common knowledge. We know that the spy machinery was misused because what was done was illegal. The interesting thing about this case is that it shows how not having sufficient checks and balances against the spy machinery can come back to hurt and impact the rights of innocent residents. Here, the Prime Minister has already apologized and admitted that what happened was illegal. We are litigating for what damages and remedies should be provided.”

Mark Rumold, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that it wasn’t clear how much New Zealand authorities obtained via the NSA.

“It would all be dependent on New Zealand law,” he told Ars. “There’s nothing in here that looks like a slam dunk. It doesn't seem like it’s outside the realm of possibility, but if everything is based on a single classification, it seems possible.”

At the time of the surveillance against Dotcom, the GCSB was only allowed to engage in surveillance of non-resident foreigners. However, earlier this week, the New Zealand parliament voted 61-59 to expand the GCSB’s powers to encompass citizens and legal residents.

"This is not, and never will be, about wholesale spying on New Zealanders," Prime Minister John Key told parliament on Thursday. "There are threats our government needs to protect New Zealanders from. Those threats are real and ever-present, and we underestimate them at our peril."

Bron: arstechnica.com

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Inval bij Kim Dotcom van Megaupload was toch legaal

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De grootscheepse inval in de villa van internetondernemer Kim Dotcom in Nieuw-Zeeland was toch legaal. Het gerechtshof in Wellington heeft vandaag het vonnis vernietigd van een lagere rechter die oordeelde dat de autoriteiten hun boekje ver te buiten waren gegaan.

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Het juridische gevecht is voorlopig nog niet voorbij. De verdediging liet weten nu hoogstwaarschijnlijk naar het hooggerechtshof te zullen stappen om de uitspraak van woensdag ongedaan te maken. Pas daarna kan de rechter een oordeel vellen over het Amerikaanse uitleveringsverzoek. In de tussentijd zijn de verdachten op borgtocht vrij.

Het gerechtshof was overigens net als de rechtbank kritisch op de werkwijze van de autoriteiten. Zo was het volgens het hof wél illegaal dat kopieën van in beslag genomen harde schijven werden doorgespeeld aan de Amerikanen.

twitter:

KimDotcom twitterde op dinsdag 25-03-2014 om 15:14:29 If the government destroys your billion dollar company, stay calm and build a new billion dollar company. reageer retweet

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Kim Dotcom Is Taking Mega Public with a Reverse Takeover

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Mega, the encrypted cloud storage company founded by “Entrepreneur - Innovator - Gamer - Artist - Fighter” Kim Dotcom, is going public, but it’s not taking the usual IPO route preferred by the startup bros of Silicon Valley. No, like it’s unconventional founder—and alleged “cyber fugitive”—Mega is going to get listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange in a different way, via what’s called a reverse takeover.

The reverse takeover Mega is pulling is the corporate equivalent of something out of Alien—you know when the giant acid-spitting bug lays an egg in a human, only to have it horrifically hatch out of their chest hours later, killing the person in the process. So, in corporate land it more or less entails an existing corporate entity listed on the exchange (in this case TRS Investments Ltd.) buying Mega, whose shareholders will then own 99 percent of that company. Then TRS will change its name to Mega, and it's back to business as usual. Just like Alien, except with way more lawyers.

A reverse takeover is an unconventional approach to taking a company public, so I went straight to the source and asked Mega CEO Stephen Hall why they chose to go public this way, versus the more common IPO route.

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Op donderdag 27 maart 2014 09:34 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:
Blijft toch een merkwaardige snuiter die Kim Dotcom

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Wanted cyber tycoon Kim Dotcom launches party to contest New Zealand poll

(Reuters) - Kim Dotcom, accused by Washington of being one of the world's biggest internet pirates, plunged into politics on Thursday with the launch of a party to contest New Zealand's general election in September.

The alleged copyright pirate, also known as Kim Schmitz, said the Internet Party's guiding principles included faster, cheaper Internet, the creation of high-tech jobs, and the protection of privacy.

"It is a movement for people who haven't voted before, who have been disappointed by voting, or who don't like the political choices on offer," Dotcom said in a statement.

"It is a movement for people who care about a digital future, and who want a society that is open, free and fair."

The flashy internet mogul is fighting a bid by U.S. authorities to extradite him from his lavish estate in New Zealand to face online piracy charges over the now closed file-sharing site Megaupload.

The attention has not fazed Dotcom, a large and ebullient German national with New Zealand residency.

On Tuesday, Dotcom gloated over a deal that will see a cloud storage firm he founded while on bail listing on the New Zealand stock exchange and valued on paper at NZ$210 million ($179 million).

Recruitment is being done through the party's website and apps on mobile devices, where he is described as the Internet Party's "Visionary".

The party must sign up 500 members and register with electoral authorities to take part in the election.

Under New Zealand's proportional voting system, a party must win either an electorate seat or at least 5 percent of the nationwide vote to get into the 120-seat parliament.

A Reuters survey of six polls shows the center-right National Party, which has been in power since 2008, with 48.2 percent support against the main opposition center-left Labour Party, which has 33.3 percent.

Dotcom has the right to vote in New Zealand but cannot stand for election until he becomes a citizen.

Since his arrival in New Zealand in 2010, he has been embroiled in a political funding scandal, and forced an apology from Prime Minister John Key for illegal surveillance by a government spy agency.

In early 2012, the New Zealand government arrested Dotcom at his mansion near Auckland in a SWAT-style raid requested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dotcom is free on bail while he fights extradition, although his movements are restricted.

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Dotcom Bomb: U.S. Case Against Megaupload is Crumbling

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MPAA and RIAA appear to be caught in framing attempt; Judge orders Mr. Dotcom's assets returned to him

"Drinkin' beer in the hot sun / I fought the law and / I won / I fought the law and / I won." -- Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedies, 1987

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Embracing the role of IT entrepreneur in his adopted home of New Zealand, he has fought tooth and nail to defeat a puppet prosecution, acting on the behalf of the U.S. government, which is in turn intimately tied to and acting on behalf of the big money U.S. entertainment industry.

And after a long fight Kim Dotcom is on a verge of winning.

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MPAA and RIAA Members Uploaded Over 2,000 Gigabytes to Megaupload

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This month both the MPAA and RIAA filed civil lawsuits against Megaupload and its founder Kim Dotcom for massive copyright infringement. What they failed to mention, however, is that many of their members' employees were actually sharing files on the site. In addition, Disney, Warner Brothers and Fox were all eager to set up content distribution or advertising deals with Megaupload.

Following in the footsteps of the U.S. Government, this month the major record labels and Hollywood’s top movie studios filed lawsuits against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom.

While the legal action doesn’t come as a surprise, there is a double standard that has not been addressed thus far.

The entertainment industry groups have always been quick to brand Megaupload as a pirate haven, designed to profit from massive copyright infringement. The comment below from MPAA’s general counsel Steve Fabrizio is a good example.

“Megaupload was built on an incentive system that rewarded users for uploading the most popular content to the site, which was almost always stolen movies, TV shows and other commercial entertainment content,” Fabrizio commented when the MPAA filed its suit.

However, data from Megaupload’s database shared with TorrentFreak shows that employees of MPAA and RIAA member companies had hundreds of accounts at the file-storage site. This includes people working at Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal Music Group, Sony, and Warner Music.

In total, there were 490 Megaupload accounts that were connected to MPAA and RIAA members, who sent 181 premium payments in total. Together, these users uploaded 16,455 files which are good for more than 2,097 gigabytes in storage.

Remember, those are only from addresses that could be easily identified as belonging to a major movie studio or record label, so the real numbers should be much higher.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2013 16:01 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:
http://techland.time.com/(...)ile-sharing-website/

Dit soort dingen kunnen het einde betekennen van het internet zoals we het kennen.

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US brands Kim Dotcom ‘fugitive of justice’ for refusing to extradite himself

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The Department of Justice has now branded Kim Dotcom and his former colleagues at the defunct file-sharing site Megaupload “fugitive[s] of justice” for refusing to travel to the United States where they face charges related to the website.

In paperwork filed this week, federal prosecutors for the DOJ’s Eastern District of Virginia division argue that Dotcom and his co-defendants do not have standing to challenge a complaint calling for them to forfeit their assets because their unwillingness to voluntarily enter the US has, according to government attorneys, rendered them unable to benefit from the resources of the court.

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With attempts to extradite the alleged conspirators to America having stalled for years, the US prosecutors argued in July that the seized assets should be surrendered. Attorneys for the defendants fired back, however, by calling the accusations imaginary.

“The crimes for which the government seeks to punish the Megaupload defendants do not exist. Although there is no such crime as secondary criminal copyright infringement, that is the crime on which the Government’s Superseding Indictment and instant Complaint are predicated,” Megaupload’s attorneys answered last month. “That is the nonexistent crime for which Megaupload was destroyed and all of its innocent users were denied their rightful property. And that is the nonexistent crime for which the government would now strip the criminal defendants, and their families, of all their assets.”

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Ira Rothken, an American-based lawyer for Dotcom, told Torrent Freak this week that “The DOJ is trying to win the Megaupload case on procedure rather than the merits.”

“Most people don’t realize that Kim Dotcom has never been to the United States,” Rothken responded.

“The United States doesn’t have a statute for criminal secondary copyright infringement,” he added. “We believe that the case should be dismissed based on a lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”

On Wednesday, Dotcom — a German-born businessmen with New Zealand citizenship — took to Twitter to reject the latest filing from the government.

“I have never ever been to the United States. My business had no office there. Exercising my right to oppose extradition makes me a fugitive?” he asked.

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Kim Dotcom: I Regret Not Taking Threat of Copyright Law and MPAA More Seriously

Kim Dotcom has spoken out about his long battle over copyright with the US government and his regrets about the events that have led to his arrest ahead of his bail breach hearing on Thursday that could see him return to jail in New Zealand.

"Would I have done things differently? Of course. My biggest regret is I didn't take the threat of the copyright law and the MPAA seriously enough," Dotcom said via live video link from his mansion in Auckland, New Zealand at the Unbound Digital conference in London on Tuesday.

"I thought that due to court decisions we were monitoring from our competitors like RapidShare who did exactly what we did and were winning in civil court proceedings, and YouTube was winning against Viacom – our sense was that we were protected by the DMCA law.

"We never for a minute thought that anyone would bring any criminal actions against us. We had in-house legal counsel, we had three outside firms working for us who reviewed our sites, and not once had any of them mentioned any form of legal risk, so I wish I had known that there was a risk."

"Officially broke right now"

It is clear that Dotcom is tired of the three-year-long legal battle. He has spent $10m (£6.4m) on his legal defence and says his legal team has now resigned since he has run out of money.

Despite this, his latest venture, an encrypted cloud file-hosting service called Mega, is earning revenues and will be valued at $210m once it merges with a publically-listed company in New Zealand.

"As of today, I don't have a single share in Mega – it's all held in trust by my wife and my five children," he said.

"The US government has taken all my assets up until the raid in all jurisdictions and after I invested money into the Internet Party, the MPAA sued me civilly to try to seize those assets too, so I'm officially broke right now."

Dotcom's Internet Party failed to gain enough support to get into parliament in the September elections in New Zealand and might now disband.

He admits that his entry into politics may not have done him any good.

"This battle is quite exhausting – it has taken a lot of resources, a lot of time and energy, and I think I'm being unfairly persecuted here in New Zealand by the media because I engaged politically to try to change things and that unfortunately backfired," he said.

"Before I started my political movement, I was quite popular in New Zealand. Everyone was cheering for me to win my case, but after I got involved in politics and the Prime Minister and his party attacked me viciously, labelling me as a Nazi and saying I'm only going into politics to stop my extradition, well the New Zealand public heard that narrative and now I'm a pariah.

"The witch hunt worked, everyone wants to see me burn, and on Thursday I might go to jail because of that."

Governments are still spying on us

Dotcom says that even you ignore his own experiences, the world needs to pay attention as the US government "is spying on everyone in the world".

"It's just so dirty now, I've lost my faith in the law and the judicial system. Jimmy Carter said that US government is breaking 50% of the rights on the human rights charter, and in Australia, there is now a law where you can't even release information on the government anymore – you go to jail," he stressed.
Kim Dotcom in one of his more flamboyant moments, surrounded by dancers at his opening party of Mega
Kim Dotcom in one of his more flamboyant moments, surrounded by dancers at his opening party for Mega(Reuters)

"More and more human rights organisations are pointing out how governments are becoming more aggressive in prosecuting people for revealing the truth.

"Today you go to jail for telling the truth and that can't be right, especially if the truth is that the government has been breaking the law and then lying to congress and parliament about it."

Dotcom said that copyright was always considered to be a civil offence and a decade ago, would have been considered to be on the same level as a parking ticket.

"Steve Wozniak spoke up about my case and said that you don't shut down the post office. When I started Mega Upload, it was about circumventing attaching big files to email. So how can someone who created a simple technology, who made 50 million people happy a year, now face 88 years in jail," he said.

"I'm an easy target because of my flamboyance. When you travel around on private jets and you go around with cars that have number plates saying 'God', 'Stoned' and 'Mafia' on them, it's probably not the best for keeping a low profile.

"Make sure you send me some cards in appreciation for what I'm trying to do – if I go back to jail, send me a photo of a cat."

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Megaupload Programmer Sentenced to a Year in Prison

Andrus Nomm, one of the Megaupload employees indicted by the United States, has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to a year in prison. Nomm signed a plea deal and admitted that he personally downloaded copyright-infringing files from Mega's sites.

After three years of relative inaction the criminal case against Megaupload and seven of its employees heated up this week.

Just a few days ago the U.S. authorities arrested Andrus Nomm, one of the indicted Megaupload defendants.

The 36-year-old programmer had been living in the Netherlands but came to the States to take a plea deal.

The Department of Justice just announced that Nomm pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement, and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

According to the DoJ statement Nomm acknowledged that he “was aware that copyright-infringing content was stored on the [Megaupload] websites, including copyright protected motion pictures and television programs, some of which contained the ‘FBI Anti-Piracy’ warning.”

“Nomm also admitted that he personally downloaded copyright-infringing files from the Mega websites. Nomm continued to participate in the Mega Conspiracy,” the statement continues.

The authorities are happy with their first vistory in this case and are determined to bring the other defendants to the U.S. as well.

“This outcome is the result of years of hard work by our office and our partners from the Criminal Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” U.S. Attorney Dana Boente said.

“The Mega Conspiracy engaged in massive criminal infringement of copyrighted works on the Internet, and we are confident that this case will be a sign to those who would abuse technology for illegal profit,” he added.

Meanwhile, Megaupload’s founder Kim Dotcom slammed the U.S. legal system in a comment, but says that he understands Nomm’s decision.

“The US Justice system: An innocent coder pleads guilty after 3 years of DOJ abuse, with no end in sight, in order to move on with his life,” Dotcom tweeted. “I have nothing but compassion and understanding for Andrus Nomm and I hope he will soon be reunited with his son.”

Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken told TF that the U.S. authorities might have taken advantage of Nomm. As an Estonian citizen living in a foreign country he was vulnerable, and running out of funds.

“The DOJ apparently used Andrus Nomm’s weak financial condition and inability to fight back to manufacture a hollywood style publicity stunt in the form of a scripted guilty plea in court,” Rothken says.

“The facts mentioned in court, like a lack of cloud filtering of copyrighted works, are civil secondary copyright issues not criminal issues,” he adds.

According to Rothken the “publicity stunt” reveals how weak the DoJ’s case is.

“The DOJ apparently convinced Andrus Nomm to say the conclusory phrase that Kim Dotcom ‘did not care about protecting copyrights’ and such point shows off the weakness in the DOJ’s case as Megaupload, amongst many other ways of caring, had a robust copyright notice and takedown system which gave direct delete access to major content owners and from which millions of links were removed.”

Nomm’s sentencing for criminal copyright infringement is raising eyebrows among several experts.

In the indictment there was only one example of possible copyright infringement, and that referred to watching a copy of a pirated TV-show. For now it remains unclear what other evidence the authorities have.

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Op zondag 15 februari 2015 09:38 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op zondag 15 februari 2015 10:55 schreef trancethrust het volgende:
Overwinning Veroordeeld voor het persoonlijk gebruik van mega voor (daar) illegale downloads, en dan PR spinning naar `veroordeling van Mega.com coder'. Wat een faalhalen.

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Mega downer: Kim Dotcom loses $67mn of assets to US govt

Megaupload streaming service mogul Kim Dotcom has just been slapped with a civil penalty from the US government. The lawsuit will cost him $67 million worth of assets, including cars, property and luxury goods.

The victory by the US court comes as he lost the right to contest the seizure of the assets.

Dotcom, who is wanted in the United States for copyright infringement through the former file-sharing website, told the Herald on Sunday that this is indicative of the “sad state” of the US justice system.

"By labeling me a fugitive, the US court has allowed the US government to legally steal all of my assets without any trial, without any due process, without any test of the merits,” he said, vowing to appeal the decision, which his legal team says would likely not hold up in New Zealand or Hong Kong courts.

. I never lived there I never traveled there I had no company there But all I worked for now belongs to the U.S. https://t.co/l3B0Cuj0tr
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 29, 2015

“The asset forfeiture was a default judgment. I was disentitled to defend myself,” the internet guru went on. "First the US judge ruled that I can't mount any defense in the asset forfeiture case because according to him I'm a 'fugitive'… Think about that for a moment. I have always said that I'm innocent. There was no conspiracy. I have done nothing wrong."

He also claims the US government had to act in this way to spare the New Zealand authorities from having to return all of his assets in mid-April, when he claims he will have gone to the Appeals Court and won them back.

"They would have had to return everything. Imagine all of the New Zealand media at the mansion when the police has to return everything, all my cars, my TVs, my servers and me directing them where to put my stuff."

The 40-year-old’s legal perils started in January 2012, when a police raid on his home in Coatesville, near Auckland, led to the shutdown of his file-sharing service Megaupload. An FBI-led investigation led to charges laid against him and his partners.

Earlier in March, the media mogul also successfully fended off an attempt by US attorneys to revoke his bail, under which he has been at liberty since 2012.

But Dotcom’s not out of the woods yet. Other defendants and former colleagues in the Megaupload case will be facing an extradition hearing in June. Dotcom had earlier asked for it to be postponed, but the request was denied.

Last month, a computer programmer and former colleague of Dotcom’s, Andrus Nomm, pleaded guilty to charges of internet piracy and struck a deal with US police, under which he agreed to testify against his former colleagues in exchange for reduced jail time.

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From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story | Ars Technica

Programmer Andrew Nõmm: "I had to be made an example of as a warning to all IT people."

Soon after the domain was registered in Hong Kong, the now-defunct Megaupload.com grew into one of the world's most popular file-sharing sites. At its peak, the site engaged nearly 50 million users a day and took up around four percent of the world's Internet traffic. Users uploaded nearly 12 billion files overall.

But the infamy of the site's rise is only matched by the infamy of its fall. In January 2012, US authorities closed down Megaupload.com and the network related to it. The feds arrested seven people and froze $50 million in assets. The FBI claims that the site not only failed to take down illegal material, Megaupload also helped to spread it. Perhaps it was simply a case of brazen arrogance. When the authorities finally raided founder Kim Dotcom's large villa in New Zealand, they found a number of luxury cars (Lamborghini, Maserati, Rolls Royce) with the license plates "God," "Mafia," "Hacker," "Evil," and "Police."

In total, seven men associated with the site were arrested and indicted on 13 charges (including copyright infringement and money laundering). Dotcom remains notably free and has been continually fighting in New Zealand against his extradition to the USA. Others were not as lucky.

Take for instance self-taught programmer Andrus Nõmm. The now 37-year-old grew up in a small Estonian town called Jõhvi. When he built up the Mega advertising platform Megaclick and the video hosting service Megavideo, Nõmm earned as much as $10,000 a month—more than he could've ever imagined as a child. But when US authorities came after the entire Megaupload operation, suddenly he found himself in the middle of the world's most sensational criminal copyright infringement scandal.

The legal saga dragged on for three years. In 2012, Nõmm was first arrested by authorities in the Netherlands and placed under house arrest. Like Dotcom, Nõmm next spent a significant amount of time fighting extradition. But eventually in 2015, he voluntarily traveled to the US and was arrested in Virginia. Nõmm pleaded guilty to felony copyright infringement and was sentenced to a year and a day in a US federal prison. The US Attorney General's office called the conviction, "a significant step forward in the largest criminal copyright case in US history.” In court documents, Nõmm acknowledged the financial harm to copyright holders "exceeded $400 million."

While in prison, Nõmm's teenage son and Turkish wife lived through all of this drama back in their home in Izmir, Turkey. Today, Nõmm is back with them. He' a free man looking to set his life back on track. And recently, he agreed to share his side of the story—from Megaupload glory through prison time—with Estonian journalist Toivo Tanävsuu.

The following Q&A is made of selected excerpts from Tanävsuu's interview, which was originally published in the Estonian weekly Eesti Ekspress this past April. It has been translated into English and lighted edited for clarity. It's reprinted here with permission from Tanävsuu.

Tanävsuu: Describe your life in the Netherlands up to February 2015.

Nõmm: I lived on Katendrecht Peninsula in Rotterdam. At first I had to wear a GPS device and stay within 500 meters of my home. The supermarket was 550 meters away. I had to walk to the edge of this area and wait there until someone bought my goods and brought them to me. After a while, they relaxed the restrictions and the area in which I was allowed to move increased until finally the GPS device was removed altogether. I was allowed to move around everywhere in the Netherlands, except anywhere within 50 kilometers of the border. When my son was visiting and we wanted to go to an amusement park in a town near the border, I had to get a special permit.

I wasn’t allowed to go to the airport either. Since most trains run through Schiphol, I had to drive the long way around to get from Rotterdam to Amsterdam.

Why did you initially fight against your extradition?

First of all, I couldn’t understand why I was being hunted down. The Dutch court papers didn’t include at least half of the accusations which had been in the media. For example, we do not have a single section in the law in Europe about racketeering, which in the USA automatically leads to a 25-year sentence. Secondly, I did not know what was going to happen to me if I went to the USA. The maximum possible penalty for all 13 counts would have been 55 years in prison.

Were you able to work?

The Netherlands wanted me to work. I didn’t have any money because my bank accounts in Turkey and Hong Kong had been seized and the US government confiscated about $40,000 from them. The FBI put me on the black list, which meant that I couldn’t transfer my earnings to a bank. I had to let them transfer my salary to a friend's account.

The Americans wanted to use you against Kim Dotcom. What were the FBI’s proposals?

They tried to get in contact with me, but when my lawyer asked why, they didn’t reply.

I had three lawyers in total. The first, appointed by the state, didn’t even notify me that the FBI were trying to get in contact. The second was famous but turned out to be a complete fake—taking money from clients, but not doing much at all and now facing trial. My last lawyer came through Megaupload and was really good. But Kim never paid the man a single cent. All Kim ever cared about was how to promote himself on Twitter. He has never given me any real help.

In February 2015, you voluntarily decided to fly to the US. Why?

The US prosecutors kept insisting that I should talk to them. Finally, we met with a couple of FBI representatives at my lawyer's office in Amsterdam. The Americans confirmed that they had strong evidence against me, and that I didn’t stand a chance. They claimed that I had either uploaded or downloaded some sort of illegal movie in Megaupload. Since I myself programmed the video converter system for the site, I downloaded and uploaded files constantly without watching them.

They wanted me to confess to knowing that Megaupload was earning big money from illegal movies. This I read only later on the Internet. I didn’t deal with financial issues in the company.

What options did you have?

I had the chance to fight for another 10 years and .00001 percent probability of winning in court, to live week-to-week worried about how to support my family. They would’ve extradited me sooner or later and I would’ve received a tough punishment in the USA: I most likely would have spent 5-10 years behind bars.

"I had the chance to fight for another 10 years and .00001 percent probability of winning in court, to live week-to-week worried about how to support my family. They would’ve extradited me sooner or later."

"I had the chance to fight for another 10 years and .00001 percent probability of winning in court, to live week-to-week worried about how to support my family. They would’ve extradited me sooner or later."

I chose a shortened procedure. I pleaded guilty to felony copyright infringement and made an agreement with the prosecutors to sit in prison for a year. All the bigger accusations, such as money laundering, dropped away since I wasn’t the owner of the company. I also had to sign my name to all of the evidence that had already been collected—for example, to the fact that Megaupload ignored complaints from time to time and did not remove illegal content fast enough. If anyone had any doubts about a file, Kim always calmed them down and said there was nothing to worry about. I had to be made an example of as a warning to all IT people who were intending to work in similar companies.

Deep down, did you feel guilty of anything?[/b]

I still think I shouldn’t have been on the list of defendants.

At the beginning, the Dutch Attorney-General was involved, then less and less important prosecutors until my case landed in the lap of some random intern. That shows how important the issue really was. It turned out that I was the only defendant in the last 29 years to voluntarily go from the Netherlands to the USA. I was asked to come to the police station 24 hours earlier. There I was shoved in the punishment cell with all the lowlifes. Since I’d been playing computer games and talking to my friends from dusk till dawn for two or three days in a row, I was so tired that I immediately fell asleep.


Bron: arstechnica.com

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Op zondag 15 februari 2015 13:43 schreef Salvad0R het volgende:

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intussen is http://mega.co.nz al jaren up

losers

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Op zaterdag 25 juni 2016 07:07 schreef Piet_Piraat het volgende:

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Het is verdacht stil om deze zaak.

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Op zaterdag 25 juni 2016 07:09 schreef donald_dick het volgende:

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kim herken je straks niet meer terug, zo vermagerd is hij straks als ie ooit nog wordt vrijgelaten

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Op zaterdag 25 juni 2016 16:05 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:

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stack is de chizzle

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Op zaterdag 25 juni 2016 16:05 schreef wolfrolf het volgende:

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stack is de chizzle

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Kim Dotcom loses appeal to keep millions

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The U.S. government can seize millions of dollars from Internet mogul Kim Dotcom, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

Dotcom, who founded the file-sharing website Megaupload, has since 2012 been fighting extradition from New Zealand to the United States on piracy charges. Prosecutors say that Megaupload produced at least $175 million in illegal assets from fees and ads for its owners and executives from its creation in 2005 to its demise in 2012. What’s left, they say, is the $75 million being kept in Hong Kong and New Zealand.

While both countries put restraining orders on funds held there, both have allowed Dotcom and his associates to withdraw millions for legal and living expenses. Additionally, the New Zealand restraining order could only last three years. So in 2014 the U.S. moved to seize Dotcom’s assets, along with those of his associates, in both countries.

They won a default judgment in Virginia federal court last year. But Dotcom and his co-defendants argued that they were unconstitutionally deprived of the right to defend themselves in that civil forfeiture case.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was unpersuaded, ruling that by refusing to face trial in the U.S. on criminal charges, Dotcom and the rest of the Megaupload team gave up their right to contest any civil proceedings. Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote that the defendants’ stated reasons for staying outside the U.S. were “utterly unpersuasive,” because “the claimants’ argument that they have legitimate reason to remain where they are, such as jobs, businesses, and families does not disprove that avoiding prosecution is the reason they refuse to come to the United States,” he wrote.

One of the three judges dissented. Judge Henry F. Floyd argued that the court could not control what foreign governments do and thus any ruling would only be advisory. The majority held that, based on the cooperation of Hong Kong and New Zealand so far, that wasn’t an issue.

Dotcom can now ask for a ruling from the entire Fourth Circuit. If that fails, he can appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the highest court in New Zealand is set to hear Dotcom’s extradition case this month.

At its peak, officials say, Megaupload was the 13th most popular site on the Internet. Dotcom's lawyers have argued that the site was essentially no different from other online storage providers and couldn't be held liable for users uploading pirated material.

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Op maandag 15 augustus 2016 22:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op dinsdag 30 augustus 2016 03:23 schreef MakkieR het volgende:
Heeft de FBI niet belangrijkere zaken op te lossen? zoals moord, terreur of doodslag?

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Op dinsdag 30 augustus 2016 05:16 schreef xaban06 het volgende:

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Het een sluit het andere niet uit.

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Kim Dotcom en Nederlander mogen worden uitgeleverd aan VS - rtlz.nl

Internetondernemer Kim Dotcom en zijn Nederlandse Megaupload-compagnon Bram van der K. mogen worden uitgeleverd aan de Verenigde Staten.

Dat heeft een hogere rechtbank in Nieuw-Zeeland besloten. De heren staan samen met twee andere Megaupload-medewerkers terecht voor allerlei misdaden, waaronder de schending van auteursrechten, fraude en witwassen.

De advocaat van Dotcom zegt tegen Reuters dat hij in beroep gaat tegen de uitspraak.

Amerikaanse autoriteiten zitten al jaren achter Dotcom en de andere Megaupload-medewerkers aan. De website, waar veel auteursrechtelijk beschermd materiaal werd gedeeld, zou de Amerikaanse entertainmentindustrie zo'n 500 miljoen dollar hebben gekost.

Met zijn website zou Dotcom zelf wél goed hebben geboerd: de internetondernemer, die berucht is vanwege zijn flamboyante levensstijl, heeft naar verluidt 175 miljoen dollar met Megaupload verdiend.

Dotcom en zijn drie medeverdachten werden in januari 2012 aangehouden. De operatie was grondig voorbereid. Een team van 70 agenten was betrokken bij de inval in Dotcoms enorme 'mansion' van 18 miljoen euro. Er kwamen zelfs helikopters aan te pas.

Na een paar weken kwamen Dotcom en de drie anderen op borgtocht vrij. De ondernemer zegt nog altijd dat hij onschuldig is. Volgens hem heeft Megaupload rechtenschendend materiaal altijd verwijderd als rechthebbenden daarom vroegen.

In de tussentijd startte Dotcom nog een nieuw project: Mega. Een clouddienst met 50GB opslag voor gratis gebruikers. Geüploade bestanden worden automatisch versleuteld, zodat niemand kan zien wat je bewaart.

Mega is inmiddels in handen van een Chinese investeerder en Dotcom heeft inmiddels forse kritiek op de dienst geuit. Volgens hem kun je het huidige Mega niet meer vertrouwen: "Je data is bij Mega niet meer veilig."

Bron: www.rtlz.nl