11 ms·

Mega-man: The fast, fabulous, and fraudulent life of Kim Dotcom

184 points by llambda 15y ago

rdl 15y ago
What amazes me about Kimble is that it's not 100% fake; he did hype things up by a large factor (renting private jets and putting stickers on them for photos, vs. owning them outright as he claimed), but still, there was real revenue from some (illegitimate or fraudulent) sources.
- sachingulaya 15y ago
  A true example of how ugly the 'fake it til you make it' mantra can be.
- rorrr 15y ago
  He still comes off as a douche with a huge inferiority complex, trying too hard to impress people.
  - hessenwolf 15y ago
    I'm not going to be the one to throw the first stone for that.
- mpclark 15y ago
  I wonder if it is possible for anyone to make a fast profit once they cross to the other side of the legal/illegal line, or if one has to be just as skilful as a successful legitimate businessperson to do it...
zmanji 15y ago
This honestly looks like the plot of a movie.
- mdonahoe 15y ago
  It reminds me of Lord of War http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/
  - zmonkeyz 15y ago
    Lord of the Onion Rings
    - trefn 15y ago
      Goodness, a fat joke. How humorous!
      - weekendlogic 15y ago
        Goodness, a fat joke. How humongous. FTFY
- felixfurtak 15y ago
  This film should be made. Perhaps he could sell the movie rights to those guys over in Hollywood.
- neotorama 15y ago
  72 min movie.
Jun8 15y ago
I found his story more sad than funny, this guy clearly had some inadequacy issues. Evidently he was a hacker of some ability; had he stayed that way today he could have been leading a medium sized legit startup perhaps. But what's even sadder is the cavalier attitude Germany has shown towards him: after his first set of crimes, during the extradition from Thailand he should have got a more severe punishment it seems (what good that would have served with a guy like that is another question altogether). Insider trading was not a crime until 1995? It was banned around 1930s in the US I think.
- moe 15y ago
  Evidently he was a hacker of some ability I was actually (digitally) in touch with kimble and his BBS in my own BBS-days and feel a need to set straight that, to my knowledge, he was never very tech-savvy, and never a "hacker" by any standard. Instead he quickly made a name for himself for being a full-on fraudster of the sociopath kind. Here's a (german) article that sheds some light on his earliest endeavours: http://www.gulli.com/news/12565-nachruf-guenter-freiherr-von-gravenreuth-2010-02-22 http://www.gulli.com/news/12565-nachruf-guenter-freiherr-von... The gist is: Kimble started out by running a warez-bbs and dealing calling cards (which was quite common back in that day). Things turned nasty when his BBS got busted. He did not only cooperate with the cops but there-after partnered with an infamous german lawyer to set up traps for other BBS operators and sell them (literally) to the authorities. This went on for years in an organized fashion. From all accounts that I've heard he was not strong-armed into it but rather made money that way and even bragged about it. From there I think the ars article is mostly correct. But I wouldn't like to see him get away with his self-proclaimed "hacker"-image. In the german BBS-scene of the 90s the hate for him was unrivaled. There were quite a few graphic kimble-related ascii-banners on some post-login screens.
  - nikcub 15y ago
    I can confirm this. I was part of a few groups back in the 90s and was there when Kimble first showed up. He shot up in notoriety rapidly, but we figured him out as not having any skills pretty quickly. He would take 'hacks' from others and then claim them in the media for himself. The first time he did this with one of the groups was when he went to the media with the NASA hack. What happen was somebody on the channel had dumped shell accounts on a few jpl.nasa.gov boxes, and a day later the story was in the media that Kimble had done it. I then watched him get kicked from other groups when he would do the same thing - either claiming hacks as his own or taking exploits, ripping out the attribution and putting his own name in. He became a subject of derision with these groups so he then setup his own group and bought in some fans - claiming he was going to 'hack' all of us. Nothing ended up happening. There is truth to most of his claims - for eg. the 'military secrets' claim comes from a hack where some Indian and Iraqi military networks where hacked and documents leaked. Around 20 people on IRC had access to them, and Kimble claimed that one as well (one of the other guys ended up getting arrested for it because he tried to sell the documents to an undercover agent). Funnily the media attention that Kimble bought to himself bought a lot of attention to Undernet and the groups that were on there at the time. It ended up driving us to private SIRC servers and renaming most of the groups as a large number of newbies (and probably federal agents) flooded onto the servers and tried to gain access to the group channels. A couple of years later he re-appeared with his security company and then racing videos. We would be in conflict with him continuously - he would email us with taunts and we would return them. The website of his security company was defaced numerous times and his home directory dumped. He then tried to call a 'truce' and to hire a few of us, I was on a few conference calls that Kimble was on. I then bumped into him again a little later on, after he started MegaUpload. I wasn't surprised at all that he was behind the site. What we did back then and with him was a bit childish and we grew out of it - but Kimble definitely isn't a hacker in that old regard. He does have skills in promoting himself and getting people to believe in his ideas.
donaldc 15y ago
I'm amazed he was convicted/pled guilty three separate times in Germany and yet never had to do any prison time. After going easy on him twice didn't work, you'd think they'd want to try something else.
- celticninja 15y ago
  Not every crime requires a prison sentence. One of those crimes was insider trading, do you know that is also illegal in the United States too, with the exception of it being carried out by US Politicians. Perhaps get your own house in order before you start complaining about the legal systems of other countries.
  - adestefan 15y ago
    There have been many people in the US that have gone to prison for insider trading. Martha Stewart is probably the most famous.
    - celticninja 15y ago
      I dont doubt it, your SEC goes after it agressively, however that it is not illegal for US politicians makes the whole thing a bit of a joke really as they are the people who will have the most opportunity ot profit from some actiosn given that theyc an influence and cotnrol policy which would significantly affect share prices.
      - adestefan 15y ago
        Inside trading is specific to a single stock. Most politicians only hold single stock in a blind trust so they can't really perform insider trading. Instead, the flap over "insider trading" for politicians is when they, supposedly, change entire sectors and then trade broad, sector based funds. However, I don't think that has actually been proven with more than a look at these financial disclosures. Does it look bad? Sure. Is it illegal? Nope.
Toddward 15y ago
I have to say - living a life that was a constant misrepresentation of itself must have been exhausting.
joeblau 15y ago
I remember going to his websites back when I was in college. I was amazed at the things that he had in flash. He had the trailing pointer, the 3D vector text rotating for MonkeyBank site and his Kimble.org site was amazing at the time. I wanted to be Kim, but at the time I had no idea what he did. Now I realize that he didn't have any idea what he was doing either :).
webwanderings 15y ago
What's the point of glorifying such people who are no role models for the world?
- cluda01 15y ago
  "If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning." - Catherine Aird Best served with a dose of parenting.
- ramblerman 15y ago
  Is the article glorifying the truth? Or does a part of us find some of his jetset, bikini clad model, high roller life glorious? Your certainly correct he is no role model, but as long as making a million bucks is the ideal of a good life, the problem goes deeper than this one man.
  - webwanderings 15y ago
    People's jetseting ambitions are no big deal, the Hollywood types portray lot worse. But the tech-media seems to be fascinated by this guy's choices in living his life, perhaps tech-media is finding an opening for the first time to compete with the Hollywood media? No wonder there is a clash between the two industries.
veb 15y ago
As a New Zealander, I'm not quite sure what to think. I really don't think he should be extradited to the United States, rather his trial be held here. (I believe justice will be served more fairly here... no $250,000 per download crap - but that's just my opinion)
- te_chris 15y ago
  As a fellow Kiwi I know what you mean. I don't want him to be extradited and feel the precedent of cooperation on something like copyright is a betrayal of our sovereignty, but at the same time, there's so much detail to this case and there is so much bullshit swirling that a (lengthy) trip to the supreme court in the US would seem to be worth the risk if it can establish some precedent which moderates the ever-strangling enforcement of IP legislation at the moment.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - jacques_chester 15y ago
    Extradition is not a violation of sovereignty; it's an affirmation of sovereignty. The US has to politely ask for the accused to be turned over and the NZ courts will decide whether the request is legally valid under New Zealand law.
- ErrantX 15y ago
  I'm on holiday here at the moment (lovely country, btw? :)) and it was nice to see that reaction on the news and radio. It's similar to the UK reaction to the kid the US started extradition against a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see it "on the ground" as it were - I had not idea he was NZ based.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- muyuu 15y ago
  From the outside, the whole process looks faulty and even corrupt. Regardless of how guilty a man can look or be made look, there are rights you cannot trample upon. Looks like the US Grand Jury is trying to set an example, and it does so in their usual heavy-handed, cowboy fashion. Wilful copyright infringement (so far, alleged) is not a crime worth 50 years in the oven. As I read somewhere, killing Michael Jackson cannot be a 4y offence while allowing someone to put his songs for download is a 50y one. Not in a civilised country like New Zealand. How is seizing his property even legal before trial? not talking about servers, but cars, houses, etc. I could go on for a long time because the list is long, but to sum it up it looks like they are doing their best to damage the guy as much as possible before trial.
mahyarm 15y ago
I really don't understand why the really rich with personal cooks let themselves stay fat. This guy could of have bacon and eggs for breakfast everyday with a ketogenic diet, have all of his nutrients and portions tracked and lost weight with zero effort very quickly but he get's his private cook to cook obvious crap for him all the time.
- hyperbovine 15y ago
  I'm looking at a picture of this guy standing in front of his ludicrously large private yacht in Monaco, with a scantily-clad swimsuit model frolicking in the surf at his feet. Sorry, why were we losing weight again?
  - InclinedPlane 15y ago
    Indeed. People decide to lose weight due to some motivation, and that depends upon their chosen lifestyle. A lot of people want to lose weight in order to be more attractive to the opposite sex, but that is somewhat moot if you are satisfied with being "attractive" due to wealth or other factors. Other folks desire to be in shape for entirely different reasons, but Mr. Dotcom probably didn't share those reasons.
  - firefoxman1 15y ago
    That's such a good point. Haha why should he care?
  - cschep 15y ago
    Losing 20 lbs. changed how I feel everyday in such a positive way.. I can't even imagine 100! And like the poster said, you can eat amazing food and lose weight.
  - mahyarm 15y ago
    'Cause he hired that model. And loosing weight has a lot of benefits other than just the ladies too.
    - 15y ago
baby 15y ago
> the No. 1 player worldwide in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer. I smell so much bullshit in this. How can you be number 1 when matches are 5 vs 5? edit: Okay it's on Xbox live (hahahahaha), on FFA (hahahahaha) and for a few minutes at most. This is just a big joke, the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l-ltcCF_cAQ# http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l...! edit2: I know it's a very tiny part of the article, but I just bugged me that you could write something like "Kim is also the number 1 player in Call of Duty", it's just plain false and sensationalism.
- lawnchair_larry 15y ago
  No, that claim is from his current standing on all-time leaderboards. Not saying it is legitimately held, nor do I care, but ars wasn't being false or sensational.
PaulAnunda 15y ago
I wonder if the outcome would've been different if he were to have kept a much lower profile and didn't seemingly thumb his nose at those who were seeking his downfall
ck2 15y ago
Did he rape, kill or physically assault any American citizen? Was he selling drugs to children? No? Well then we had no right to extradite him. Law enforcement is created by society to protect PEOPLE not corporations.
- badclient 15y ago
  Law enforcement is created by society to protect PEOPLE not corporations. So, are you arguing that corporations should not be protected or that law should protect him or both?
  - muyuu 15y ago
    Not overriding other countries' legal systems.
    - mato 15y ago
      IANAL, but it doesn't work that way. See specifically sections 7 and 11 of the Extradition Act 1999 (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1999/0055/latest/whole.html#DLM25689 http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1999/0055/latest/w...). Further, the Extradition Treaty between NZ and the US ( http://newzealand.usembassy.gov/uploads/images/o16y8MOyHW2l-jJTxaMpeQ/ExtraditionUSNZ.pdf http://newzealand.usembassy.gov/uploads/images/o16y8MOyHW2l-...), Article V, which states: "Neither of the Contracting Parties shall be bound to deliver up its own citizens under this Treaty, but the executive authority of each shall have the power to deliver them up, if, in its discretion, it be deemed proper to do so." So there's a bilateral opt-out for both parties, at least in the case where their own citizens are involved.
      - muyuu 15y ago
        The problem with that is the asymmetry between the US and New Zealand in terms of power and trade. Having both parts being able to opt-out effectively means that the smaller part will be free to do exactly as they're told, or else. I hope New Zealand deals with this case and does so fairly and ignoring external pressure. Sadly, this looks unlikely.
stef25 15y ago
He was also a participant in, and won once, the Gumball Rally. He made plans to start his own rally ("Ultimate Rally") and got lots of people excited. He was looking for stewards to assist in the race, they were asked to pay quite a serious sum to get this non paying role in the event. It never happend and people may have lost money on it by entry tickets not getting refunded; I know because I communicated with him on this issue. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/30/kimble_rally/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/30/kimble_rally/ Post 9/11 he also claimed to have the details of Bin Laden's bank accounts in Sudan without offering a shred of evidence http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/18/bin_laden_hackmeister_flees_germany/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/18/bin_laden_hackmeiste...
clone1018 15y ago
Bahahaha, more and more I read into this story, the more I realize, this guy lived a more exciting life then more then 90% of us, even if he's going to jail.
trtwn 15y ago
Legends may sleep, but they never die.
kahawe 15y ago
Working in Germany, the really sad part for me is seeing how TÜV and Lufthansa, of all companies, blindly bought into his shenanigans. This should tell you how absolutely clueless people were about all things IT, Internet and PC back then.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
_func 15y ago
adestefan, did you miss the recent impromptu session held by the nz parliament to amend nz employment law to make specific accomodations for a us corporation: a movie studio? no need to mention the upcoming film that was for. everyone should know which one. and in general, it's probably true that nz wants to be a preferred site for filming by hollywood. the potential upside is undoubtedly far greater than whatever mr kimble can offer. from a cost/benefit perpsective, saying no to nuclear weapons and saying no to hollywood are two very different things.
westicle 15y ago
Dotcom is being extradited for, inter alia, copyright crimes. While reading the article, did anyone else wonder whether Ars got the permission of the rightsholders to the images hosted on kimble.com? Maybe Kim should commence proceedings to have Sean Gallagher extradited for copyright infringement.
throwaway1970 15y ago
Many of the articles about Kim Schmitz / Dotcom / Kimble quickly brush over the calling card fraud in 1994. I think it is an important part of the story. For those of you not familiar with the early 90's phreaking scene, calling card fraud came to the fore as a timely replacement to blueboxing (which the telcos had recently killed off). Calling cards also had a inherent transferable value, so they had the added attraction that you could use them as a means of barter. A large number of people were busted at the same time (late 1994)(worldwide) for trading calling card numbers that cost MCI, GTE and AT&T millions in the early 90's. I've heard numbers up to $50 million quoted as combined losses. My guess is that Kimble has been on the US Secret Service watch/hit list since 1994 when they failed to have him extradited to the US to face the calling card fraud (conspiracy) charges. Many of those busted in the USA went to prison. James Lay was the guy that wrote the software to intercept the card numbers at the switch level and then went on to sell on an estimated 60,000 card numbers through a worldwide network of dealers. I think Kimble was one of those card dealers in Germany. A large number of the accused were barely 18 years old when they were busted and US extradition requests were denied due to their age. The Secret Service busts were well organised and had to be executed and coordinated quickly worldwide (no mean feat). This took a great deal of negotiation with foreign governments and cost a great deal of effort and money. They then had to watch as one by one those accused abroad were given hand slaps, charges were dropped, deals were done, and court cases collapsed or never even made it as far as a court room. That must have been very frustrating after all of that effort. Many of those busted were thought to have been 'turned'. It was also reported that Kimble 'put himself forward' and allegedly 'offered' to help crack a pirate software BBS group. Also worth noting is that many of the cards that came into Europe went directly east to the mafias in those new border countries that had previously been the other side of the iron curtain before the Berlin wall fell. Being in Germany (at this time being a EU external border country) meant that Kimble may well have had some contacts in those countries that the BND (German Federal Intelligence Service) might have been very interested in. tl;dr The Secret Service never forgets! http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+ring+leader.-a019474647 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+ring+leader.-a019474647 http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/business/calling-card-fraud-goes-high-tech.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/business/calling-card-frau... http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-01/business/fi-57359_1_beverly-hills http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-01/business/fi-57359_1_b... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_European_Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_Europea... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU_Enlargement_2004.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU_Enlargement_2004.png

184 points by llambda 15y ago

rdl 15y ago

What amazes me about Kimble is that it's not 100% fake; he did hype things up by a large factor (renting private jets and putting stickers on them for photos, vs. owning them outright as he claimed), but still, there was real revenue from some (illegitimate or fraudulent) sources.

sachingulaya 15y ago
A true example of how ugly the 'fake it til you make it' mantra can be.
rorrr 15y ago
He still comes off as a douche with a huge inferiority complex, trying too hard to impress people.
- hessenwolf 15y ago
  I'm not going to be the one to throw the first stone for that.
mpclark 15y ago
I wonder if it is possible for anyone to make a fast profit once they cross to the other side of the legal/illegal line, or if one has to be just as skilful as a successful legitimate businessperson to do it...

zmanji 15y ago

This honestly looks like the plot of a movie.

mdonahoe 15y ago
It reminds me of Lord of War http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/
- zmonkeyz 15y ago
  Lord of the Onion Rings
  - trefn 15y ago
    Goodness, a fat joke. How humorous!
    - weekendlogic 15y ago
      Goodness, a fat joke. How humongous. FTFY
felixfurtak 15y ago
This film should be made. Perhaps he could sell the movie rights to those guys over in Hollywood.
neotorama 15y ago
72 min movie.

Jun8 15y ago

I found his story more sad than funny, this guy clearly had some inadequacy issues. Evidently he was a hacker of some ability; had he stayed that way today he could have been leading a medium sized legit startup perhaps. But what's even sadder is the cavalier attitude Germany has shown towards him: after his first set of crimes, during the extradition from Thailand he should have got a more severe punishment it seems (what good that would have served with a guy like that is another question altogether). Insider trading was not a crime until 1995? It was banned around 1930s in the US I think.

moe 15y ago
Evidently he was a hacker of some ability I was actually (digitally) in touch with kimble and his BBS in my own BBS-days and feel a need to set straight that, to my knowledge, he was never very tech-savvy, and never a "hacker" by any standard. Instead he quickly made a name for himself for being a full-on fraudster of the sociopath kind. Here's a (german) article that sheds some light on his earliest endeavours: http://www.gulli.com/news/12565-nachruf-guenter-freiherr-von-gravenreuth-2010-02-22 http://www.gulli.com/news/12565-nachruf-guenter-freiherr-von... The gist is: Kimble started out by running a warez-bbs and dealing calling cards (which was quite common back in that day). Things turned nasty when his BBS got busted. He did not only cooperate with the cops but there-after partnered with an infamous german lawyer to set up traps for other BBS operators and sell them (literally) to the authorities. This went on for years in an organized fashion. From all accounts that I've heard he was not strong-armed into it but rather made money that way and even bragged about it. From there I think the ars article is mostly correct. But I wouldn't like to see him get away with his self-proclaimed "hacker"-image. In the german BBS-scene of the 90s the hate for him was unrivaled. There were quite a few graphic kimble-related ascii-banners on some post-login screens.
- nikcub 15y ago
  I can confirm this. I was part of a few groups back in the 90s and was there when Kimble first showed up. He shot up in notoriety rapidly, but we figured him out as not having any skills pretty quickly. He would take 'hacks' from others and then claim them in the media for himself. The first time he did this with one of the groups was when he went to the media with the NASA hack. What happen was somebody on the channel had dumped shell accounts on a few jpl.nasa.gov boxes, and a day later the story was in the media that Kimble had done it. I then watched him get kicked from other groups when he would do the same thing - either claiming hacks as his own or taking exploits, ripping out the attribution and putting his own name in. He became a subject of derision with these groups so he then setup his own group and bought in some fans - claiming he was going to 'hack' all of us. Nothing ended up happening. There is truth to most of his claims - for eg. the 'military secrets' claim comes from a hack where some Indian and Iraqi military networks where hacked and documents leaked. Around 20 people on IRC had access to them, and Kimble claimed that one as well (one of the other guys ended up getting arrested for it because he tried to sell the documents to an undercover agent). Funnily the media attention that Kimble bought to himself bought a lot of attention to Undernet and the groups that were on there at the time. It ended up driving us to private SIRC servers and renaming most of the groups as a large number of newbies (and probably federal agents) flooded onto the servers and tried to gain access to the group channels. A couple of years later he re-appeared with his security company and then racing videos. We would be in conflict with him continuously - he would email us with taunts and we would return them. The website of his security company was defaced numerous times and his home directory dumped. He then tried to call a 'truce' and to hire a few of us, I was on a few conference calls that Kimble was on. I then bumped into him again a little later on, after he started MegaUpload. I wasn't surprised at all that he was behind the site. What we did back then and with him was a bit childish and we grew out of it - but Kimble definitely isn't a hacker in that old regard. He does have skills in promoting himself and getting people to believe in his ideas.

donaldc 15y ago

I'm amazed he was convicted/pled guilty three separate times in Germany and yet never had to do any prison time. After going easy on him twice didn't work, you'd think they'd want to try something else.

celticninja 15y ago
Not every crime requires a prison sentence. One of those crimes was insider trading, do you know that is also illegal in the United States too, with the exception of it being carried out by US Politicians. Perhaps get your own house in order before you start complaining about the legal systems of other countries.
- adestefan 15y ago
  There have been many people in the US that have gone to prison for insider trading. Martha Stewart is probably the most famous.
  - celticninja 15y ago
    I dont doubt it, your SEC goes after it agressively, however that it is not illegal for US politicians makes the whole thing a bit of a joke really as they are the people who will have the most opportunity ot profit from some actiosn given that theyc an influence and cotnrol policy which would significantly affect share prices.
    - adestefan 15y ago
      Inside trading is specific to a single stock. Most politicians only hold single stock in a blind trust so they can't really perform insider trading. Instead, the flap over "insider trading" for politicians is when they, supposedly, change entire sectors and then trade broad, sector based funds. However, I don't think that has actually been proven with more than a look at these financial disclosures. Does it look bad? Sure. Is it illegal? Nope.

Toddward 15y ago

I have to say - living a life that was a constant misrepresentation of itself must have been exhausting.

joeblau 15y ago

I remember going to his websites back when I was in college. I was amazed at the things that he had in flash. He had the trailing pointer, the 3D vector text rotating for MonkeyBank site and his Kimble.org site was amazing at the time. I wanted to be Kim, but at the time I had no idea what he did. Now I realize that he didn't have any idea what he was doing either :).

webwanderings 15y ago

What's the point of glorifying such people who are no role models for the world?

cluda01 15y ago
"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning." - Catherine Aird Best served with a dose of parenting.
ramblerman 15y ago
Is the article glorifying the truth? Or does a part of us find some of his jetset, bikini clad model, high roller life glorious? Your certainly correct he is no role model, but as long as making a million bucks is the ideal of a good life, the problem goes deeper than this one man.
- webwanderings 15y ago
  People's jetseting ambitions are no big deal, the Hollywood types portray lot worse. But the tech-media seems to be fascinated by this guy's choices in living his life, perhaps tech-media is finding an opening for the first time to compete with the Hollywood media? No wonder there is a clash between the two industries.

veb 15y ago

As a New Zealander, I'm not quite sure what to think. I really don't think he should be extradited to the United States, rather his trial be held here. (I believe justice will be served more fairly here... no $250,000 per download crap - but that's just my opinion)

te_chris 15y ago
As a fellow Kiwi I know what you mean. I don't want him to be extradited and feel the precedent of cooperation on something like copyright is a betrayal of our sovereignty, but at the same time, there's so much detail to this case and there is so much bullshit swirling that a (lengthy) trip to the supreme court in the US would seem to be worth the risk if it can establish some precedent which moderates the ever-strangling enforcement of IP legislation at the moment.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- jacques_chester 15y ago
  Extradition is not a violation of sovereignty; it's an affirmation of sovereignty. The US has to politely ask for the accused to be turned over and the NZ courts will decide whether the request is legally valid under New Zealand law.
ErrantX 15y ago
I'm on holiday here at the moment (lovely country, btw? :)) and it was nice to see that reaction on the news and radio. It's similar to the UK reaction to the kid the US started extradition against a few weeks ago. It was interesting to see it "on the ground" as it were - I had not idea he was NZ based.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
muyuu 15y ago
From the outside, the whole process looks faulty and even corrupt. Regardless of how guilty a man can look or be made look, there are rights you cannot trample upon. Looks like the US Grand Jury is trying to set an example, and it does so in their usual heavy-handed, cowboy fashion. Wilful copyright infringement (so far, alleged) is not a crime worth 50 years in the oven. As I read somewhere, killing Michael Jackson cannot be a 4y offence while allowing someone to put his songs for download is a 50y one. Not in a civilised country like New Zealand. How is seizing his property even legal before trial? not talking about servers, but cars, houses, etc. I could go on for a long time because the list is long, but to sum it up it looks like they are doing their best to damage the guy as much as possible before trial.

mahyarm 15y ago

I really don't understand why the really rich with personal cooks let themselves stay fat. This guy could of have bacon and eggs for breakfast everyday with a ketogenic diet, have all of his nutrients and portions tracked and lost weight with zero effort very quickly but he get's his private cook to cook obvious crap for him all the time.

hyperbovine 15y ago
I'm looking at a picture of this guy standing in front of his ludicrously large private yacht in Monaco, with a scantily-clad swimsuit model frolicking in the surf at his feet. Sorry, why were we losing weight again?
- InclinedPlane 15y ago
  Indeed. People decide to lose weight due to some motivation, and that depends upon their chosen lifestyle. A lot of people want to lose weight in order to be more attractive to the opposite sex, but that is somewhat moot if you are satisfied with being "attractive" due to wealth or other factors. Other folks desire to be in shape for entirely different reasons, but Mr. Dotcom probably didn't share those reasons.
- firefoxman1 15y ago
  That's such a good point. Haha why should he care?
- cschep 15y ago
  Losing 20 lbs. changed how I feel everyday in such a positive way.. I can't even imagine 100! And like the poster said, you can eat amazing food and lose weight.
- mahyarm 15y ago
  'Cause he hired that model. And loosing weight has a lot of benefits other than just the ladies too.
  - 15y ago

baby 15y ago

> the No. 1 player worldwide in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer. I smell so much bullshit in this. How can you be number 1 when matches are 5 vs 5? edit: Okay it's on Xbox live (hahahahaha), on FFA (hahahahaha) and for a few minutes at most. This is just a big joke, the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l-ltcCF_cAQ# http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l...! edit2: I know it's a very tiny part of the article, but I just bugged me that you could write something like "Kim is also the number 1 player in Call of Duty", it's just plain false and sensationalism.

lawnchair_larry 15y ago
No, that claim is from his current standing on all-time leaderboards. Not saying it is legitimately held, nor do I care, but ars wasn't being false or sensational.

PaulAnunda 15y ago

I wonder if the outcome would've been different if he were to have kept a much lower profile and didn't seemingly thumb his nose at those who were seeking his downfall

ck2 15y ago

Did he rape, kill or physically assault any American citizen? Was he selling drugs to children? No? Well then we had no right to extradite him. Law enforcement is created by society to protect PEOPLE not corporations.

badclient 15y ago
Law enforcement is created by society to protect PEOPLE not corporations. So, are you arguing that corporations should not be protected or that law should protect him or both?
- muyuu 15y ago
  Not overriding other countries' legal systems.
  - mato 15y ago
    IANAL, but it doesn't work that way. See specifically sections 7 and 11 of the Extradition Act 1999 (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1999/0055/latest/whole.html#DLM25689 http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1999/0055/latest/w...). Further, the Extradition Treaty between NZ and the US ( http://newzealand.usembassy.gov/uploads/images/o16y8MOyHW2l-jJTxaMpeQ/ExtraditionUSNZ.pdf http://newzealand.usembassy.gov/uploads/images/o16y8MOyHW2l-...), Article V, which states: "Neither of the Contracting Parties shall be bound to deliver up its own citizens under this Treaty, but the executive authority of each shall have the power to deliver them up, if, in its discretion, it be deemed proper to do so." So there's a bilateral opt-out for both parties, at least in the case where their own citizens are involved.
    - muyuu 15y ago
      The problem with that is the asymmetry between the US and New Zealand in terms of power and trade. Having both parts being able to opt-out effectively means that the smaller part will be free to do exactly as they're told, or else. I hope New Zealand deals with this case and does so fairly and ignoring external pressure. Sadly, this looks unlikely.

stef25 15y ago

He was also a participant in, and won once, the Gumball Rally. He made plans to start his own rally ("Ultimate Rally") and got lots of people excited. He was looking for stewards to assist in the race, they were asked to pay quite a serious sum to get this non paying role in the event. It never happend and people may have lost money on it by entry tickets not getting refunded; I know because I communicated with him on this issue. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/30/kimble_rally/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/30/kimble_rally/ Post 9/11 he also claimed to have the details of Bin Laden's bank accounts in Sudan without offering a shred of evidence http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/18/bin_laden_hackmeister_flees_germany/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/18/bin_laden_hackmeiste...

clone1018 15y ago

Bahahaha, more and more I read into this story, the more I realize, this guy lived a more exciting life then more then 90% of us, even if he's going to jail.

trtwn 15y ago

Legends may sleep, but they never die.

kahawe 15y ago

Working in Germany, the really sad part for me is seeing how TÜV and Lufthansa, of all companies, blindly bought into his shenanigans. This should tell you how absolutely clueless people were about all things IT, Internet and PC back then.

deleted 15y ago
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_func 15y ago

adestefan, did you miss the recent impromptu session held by the nz parliament to amend nz employment law to make specific accomodations for a us corporation: a movie studio? no need to mention the upcoming film that was for. everyone should know which one. and in general, it's probably true that nz wants to be a preferred site for filming by hollywood. the potential upside is undoubtedly far greater than whatever mr kimble can offer. from a cost/benefit perpsective, saying no to nuclear weapons and saying no to hollywood are two very different things.

westicle 15y ago

Dotcom is being extradited for, inter alia, copyright crimes. While reading the article, did anyone else wonder whether Ars got the permission of the rightsholders to the images hosted on kimble.com? Maybe Kim should commence proceedings to have Sean Gallagher extradited for copyright infringement.

throwaway1970 15y ago

Many of the articles about Kim Schmitz / Dotcom / Kimble quickly brush over the calling card fraud in 1994. I think it is an important part of the story. For those of you not familiar with the early 90's phreaking scene, calling card fraud came to the fore as a timely replacement to blueboxing (which the telcos had recently killed off). Calling cards also had a inherent transferable value, so they had the added attraction that you could use them as a means of barter. A large number of people were busted at the same time (late 1994)(worldwide) for trading calling card numbers that cost MCI, GTE and AT&T millions in the early 90's. I've heard numbers up to $50 million quoted as combined losses. My guess is that Kimble has been on the US Secret Service watch/hit list since 1994 when they failed to have him extradited to the US to face the calling card fraud (conspiracy) charges. Many of those busted in the USA went to prison. James Lay was the guy that wrote the software to intercept the card numbers at the switch level and then went on to sell on an estimated 60,000 card numbers through a worldwide network of dealers. I think Kimble was one of those card dealers in Germany. A large number of the accused were barely 18 years old when they were busted and US extradition requests were denied due to their age. The Secret Service busts were well organised and had to be executed and coordinated quickly worldwide (no mean feat). This took a great deal of negotiation with foreign governments and cost a great deal of effort and money. They then had to watch as one by one those accused abroad were given hand slaps, charges were dropped, deals were done, and court cases collapsed or never even made it as far as a court room. That must have been very frustrating after all of that effort. Many of those busted were thought to have been 'turned'. It was also reported that Kimble 'put himself forward' and allegedly 'offered' to help crack a pirate software BBS group. Also worth noting is that many of the cards that came into Europe went directly east to the mafias in those new border countries that had previously been the other side of the iron curtain before the Berlin wall fell. Being in Germany (at this time being a EU external border country) meant that Kimble may well have had some contacts in those countries that the BND (German Federal Intelligence Service) might have been very interested in. tl;dr The Secret Service never forgets! http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+ring+leader.-a019474647 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+ring+leader.-a019474647 http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/business/calling-card-fraud-goes-high-tech.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/business/calling-card-frau... http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-01/business/fi-57359_1_beverly-hills http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-01/business/fi-57359_1_b... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_European_Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_Europea... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU_Enlargement_2004.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU_Enlargement_2004.png