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DOTCOM saga - updates
wraith808:
Everyone knows the US is a terrorist police state.
-Renegade (June 29, 2012, 08:48 PM)
--- End quote ---
Maybe this should be taken to the soapbox? I ignore it for a reason. I might not believe in everything that the US does, and disagree with quite a bit. But to stand by while such flamebait is posted? A little too much to ask. And I don't want to bring such things into the mainstream of DC- doesn't usually work out.
Renegade:
Everyone knows the US is a terrorist police state.
-Renegade (June 29, 2012, 08:48 PM)
--- End quote ---
Maybe this should be taken to the soapbox? I ignore it for a reason. I might not believe in everything that the US does, and disagree with quite a bit. But to stand by while such flamebait is posted? A little too much to ask. And I don't want to bring such things into the mainstream of DC- doesn't usually work out.
-wraith808 (June 30, 2012, 12:23 PM)
--- End quote ---
Good point. In the future, I'll try to start a topic in Soap Box and simply refer to that there. I know I can be extreme at times.
So, point taken. I'll try to keep it out of the Living Room.
TaoPhoenix:
Heh - it's only extreme until it's you. Time to make a Canary Server!
"Today I was not arrested for copyright violations".
"Today I was not arrested for copyright violations".
"Today I was not arrested for copyright violations".
(Crickets)
IainB:
@TaoPhoenix:
^ +1 Very droll. Loved it. :Thmbsup:
IainB:
Everyone knows the US is a terrorist police state.
-Renegade (June 29, 2012, 08:48 PM)
--- End quote ---
Maybe this should be taken to the soapbox? I ignore it for a reason. I might not believe in everything that the US does, and disagree with quite a bit. But to stand by while such flamebait is posted? A little too much to ask. And I don't want to bring such things into the mainstream of DC- doesn't usually work out.
-wraith808 (June 30, 2012, 12:23 PM)
--- End quote ---
Good point. In the future, I'll try to start a topic in Soap Box and simply refer to that there. I know I can be extreme at times.
So, point taken. I'll try to keep it out of the Living Room.
-Renegade (June 30, 2012, 12:33 PM)
--- End quote ---
I did not perceive what you said as being worthy of the label "flamebait".
"Dangerous anarchic rebellious speech", perhaps ;D - but I certainly didn't suppose that you were intending to goad anyone to debate the point. On the contrary, it seems that you were just stating your POV.
Everyone - including you and @wraith808 - is entitled to their POV, no matter how wrong they may be. ;)
And what you said didn't goad me or make me feel obliged to respond either. It was harmless.
So please don't censor yourself on my behalf - I usually take what you say with a pinch of salt anyway... ;D
Likewise, I would not deem to censor you.
The subject is the DOTCOM saga - updates, and the news shows what really would seem to be such an enormous need by the US government authorities to pursue DOTCOM that they are prepared to breach due legal process to do it, regardless, and NZ government seems to have been complicit in this.
The reason why this could be of interest to the Internet community - never mind the general public - is that we have recently come out of a major worldwide protest blackout (including the DCF website and thousands of others around the world). This was a protest against censorship of the Internet by/at the instigation of the US (SOPA, etc.). The protest was apparently successful, having got the thing stalled - for a time, at any rate.
But the DOTCOM thing looks like it could be intended as a major and deliberately exemplary attack by the RIAA/MAFIAA on what is apparently only supposed to be a fraudulent file-sharing operation. I say "supposed", because the NZ lawyers have apparently asked for evidence/substantiation of the criminal charges the US have against DOTCOM, which would back up the extradition request, but so far reports indicate that this evidence has not been provided.
Maybe it has, but it can't be declared/published and must be kept secret for some quite valid reason.
I've suggested before the view that the NZ police/SS are, as a rule, generally highly proficient and don't do things without good reason.
The exception to this for many NZers' could be the incredible and excessive police violence apparently authorised by the government to suppress the 1981 protests against the racially-biased Springboks rugby tour to NZ. (If this all doesn't make sense to you, then read up on it.)
That seemed to have caused a great deal of civil unrest, and certainly was not to be repeated.
So, up until the point of the publication of the ruling of New Zealand High Court judge Helen Winkelmann, the Dotcom raid had seemed disquietingly and unnecessarily excessively violent, but the public assumption would probably generally have been that Dotcom et al must have been involved in some pretty dodgy business for the authorities to take such extreme measures in the arrests - and there were reported to be about 10 arrests/raids involved, not just the one on Dotcom's residence.
As per the article in the Sydney Morning Herald: (my emphasis)
Dotcom's US-based lawyer, Ira Rothken, said the ruling was an embarrassment, especially as US authorities have called the case the largest in copyright history.
''One would think, with such a large case, that they would have a higher standard of care in how they conducted themselves,'' he said. ''In terms of egregious behaviour, this is at the high end of the scale of egregious, wrongful intrusion on privacy.''
Mr Rothken said the ruling supported the view that NZ police were acting at the FBI's beck and call.
--- End quote ---
I think the reasonable question to ask here could be "Why was this done and in this manner?", and then wait for a clear and open explanation.
Sans explanation, some people could draw their own conclusions and might well feel justified in saying that it illustrates that NZ is becoming a police state - never mind the US - though I couldn't possibly agree on ether count, of course.
But the central issue for me is whether this sorry affair is actually really just another major political onslaught on Internet freedoms by the US government, through the agency of the FBI.
Presumably it is not for nothing that Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc. and a founding member of the nonprofit EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has sought to return frozen Megaupload files to users, and said that authorities need to release some of Dotcom's frozen financial assets so he can pay his mounting legal fees - see here.
The raid on Dotcom's home - which he reportedly does not own, but rents(?) - took place in a suburb called Coatesville, Auckland, NZ. Auckland is a relatively small city, but the largest in NZ, with a pop. of approx. 500K. I live in Auckland. This raid was virtually "on my doorstep". Aucklanders might be forgiven for feeling uneasy and intimidated around police officers at present - as might the inhabitants of Evansville, USA. In the Aucklanders' case though, it could be inferred from the High Court judgement that potentially it could be anybody's turn next, and seemingly on any pretext.
And there is this too: Little fish caught in Dotcom net
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