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I am from New Zealand, and I had a friend who was working for Kim Dotcom leading up to the time of the raid. I never got close enough to actually see anything,

I am from New Zealand, and I had a friend who was working for Kim Dotcom leading up to the time of the raid. I never got close enough to actually see anything, but just from the stories I heard I was deeply suspicious. It didn't sound like much was done "by the book", people were paid in cash, stuff was hushed up... it all seemed really, really shady. At the time, Dotcom was loathed by his neighbours in Coatesville for driving sports cars really fast around the area, scaring people on horseback, antagonizing the neighbours, and generally being an asshole. I met a few of them once and they all had the same opinion - they just didn't want this guy around any more. Since the raid he's been on a PR kick, including releasing an album called "Good Times" with pictures of his face holding a flower all over buses around the country: https://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/story_imgs/BeZ4ZHwCAAAigLt.jpg https://www.nbr.co.nz/sites/default/files/story_imgs/BeZ4ZHw... I don't know nearly enough about the by-the-book legality of what was happening with Megaupload. But to your average Kiwi he's a bit of a disingenuous prick with enough talk of criminal bullshit to make him unpopular. Our small island nation's culture is precious to us.

metaphorm 10y ago
> Our small island nation's culture is precious to us. Peter Thiel...
djsumdog 10y ago
His debate with John Key was spectacular though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcFQOOwjTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcFQOOwjTE ..and he did organize the broadcast with the Internet/Mana Party, Snowden and Assange. That CD of his, terrible. So terrible. "oh the good good life," fuck it's stuck in my head now. Sure he's a huge asshole. The American film industry is worse. The MPAA has a lot of pull in NZ because of all the contracts that go from Hollywood to Wetta. Regardless of what you think of Kim Dotcom personally, the way his assets were seized and this whole process carried out should be of great concern to all Kiwis because of the far reaching legal implications. Remember, the GCSB bill that allowed spying was just making legal what the government was already doing. The original spying on Kim Dotcom was totally illegal, and no one is in jail for it.
appleflaxen 10y ago
Even the biggest asshole in the world deserves due process. "He's a bad person and deserves something bad, even if this isn't why he deserves it" is a short-sighted policy that people would never be willing to apply to themselves. "The ends justify the means" is a pathway to authoritarianism.

metaphorm 10y ago

> Our small island nation's culture is precious to us. Peter Thiel...

djsumdog 10y ago

His debate with John Key was spectacular though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcFQOOwjTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcFQOOwjTE ..and he did organize the broadcast with the Internet/Mana Party, Snowden and Assange. That CD of his, terrible. So terrible. "oh the good good life," fuck it's stuck in my head now. Sure he's a huge asshole. The American film industry is worse. The MPAA has a lot of pull in NZ because of all the contracts that go from Hollywood to Wetta. Regardless of what you think of Kim Dotcom personally, the way his assets were seized and this whole process carried out should be of great concern to all Kiwis because of the far reaching legal implications. Remember, the GCSB bill that allowed spying was just making legal what the government was already doing. The original spying on Kim Dotcom was totally illegal, and no one is in jail for it.

appleflaxen 10y ago

Even the biggest asshole in the world deserves due process. "He's a bad person and deserves something bad, even if this isn't why he deserves it" is a short-sighted policy that people would never be willing to apply to themselves. "The ends justify the means" is a pathway to authoritarianism.