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From Kim's response [1]: “This Mega takedown was possible because of corruption on the highest political level, serving the interests of the copyright extremis
by redthrowaway 15y ago
From Kim's response [1]:
“This Mega takedown was possible because of corruption on the highest political level, serving the interests of the copyright extremists in Hollywood,” he says. “Mega has become a re-election pawn.”
The sad thing is, as flamboyant a character as he is, he's probably right.
[1] http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-lashes-out-against-corrupt-us-government-120420/ http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-lashes-out-against-corrup...
- jmspring 15y agoI don't know about "re-election" pawn. But this whole thing is certainly a pawn in the game between popular media consumption and rights holders. I really can't see left or right taking a stand in favor of Mega's position in this.
- redthrowaway 15y agoI can quite easily see this as a move by the Obama DoJ to mollify the content industry after SOPA fell through, so they wouldn't follow through on their threat to not donate. Colour me jaded, but I can easily see him (or any recent US politician) doing that.
- AJ007 15y agoMore than just conjecture, they openly threatened not to support the re-election campaign. Procedural errors indicate to me that someone put a "rush" on the case and the results were sloppy.
- read_wharf 15y agoThe results were as intended, the business was destroyed. Bonus: the govt doesn't have to spend money on a trial, and risk an innocent verdict. Mission accomplished.
- waterlesscloud 15y agoThis is far from ideal for the government. It seems extremely likely the government could have proved that Megaupload was built on copyright infringement. But instead they're just going to come out discredited, making it harder for such actions to succeed in the future. All that's happened here is that they've taken down one player among many, and their ability to get the rest is lessened. That's not what they wanted here.
- dmix 15y agoIncompetence is almost always to blame over conspiracy.
- drucken 15y agoOn the contrary, one could easily overlook: 1. the intimidation factor of the US government willing and able to do anything to any company over "intellectual property", including foreign ones, even if it falls well outside the legal jurisidiction of any state. 2. forcing the hand of foreign jurisidictions to expedite US government processes to carry out these types of activities on pain of economic issues, e.g. the infamous trade blacklists, or other on-going diplomatic relations. 3. the acquisition of assets and resources for the federal governments budget (this runs into billions every year that is siezed). 4. minimum total resource usage for highly effective results means that very little political or judicial capital risks being spent. Someone somewhere in government has likely benefitted greatly from this outcome or certainly will in future even just for the potential to recreate the same type of results. 5. the creation of precedent that causes jurisidictions formulating their own domestic rights and justice system around new technology to reconsider what is the norm or what is pragmatic based on global "standards" or actions. This is particularly strong pressure for English-speaking/Anglo countries. All this without judicial oversight and no domestic political repurcussions because of the accepted plutocratic culture of the US. If this had been the actions of China or Russia against a US company, e.g. against Google/Youtube, I wonder how people would have felt then... TL;DR. One could say this is about as "ideal" as it gets: "we, the US government, can get you anytime, anywhere, for anything with little effort or reason - laws are irrelevant".
- read_wharf 15y agoI doubt if it's make-up corruption to apologize for SOPA, it smells like mere corruption.
- R_Symtex_II 15y agoYour nose doesn't lie. MU was supposed to have one of the biggest IPOs before it was raided. And given that the minds that conspire to 'make the Market' are fixated on this new tech bubble its quite likely that this isn't over. http://tinyurl.com/7ojbvdh http://tinyurl.com/7ojbvdh SOPA has turned into CISPA. So its not like they stopped trying to coerce their way into legislation.
- ximeng 15y agohttp://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/17/megaupload-close-to-multi-billion-dollar-public-offering-before-raid-report/ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/17/megaupload-close-to-mu... is the story linked above.
- chc 15y agoWhat does CISPA have to do with SOPA? In its current form, it doesn't even mention intellectual property rights.
- R_Symtex_II 15y agoLegalese is the underlying factor in both, while SOPA clearly denoted its intention to target the biggest players in so called IP battles clear, CISPA still tries to achieve the same (State sponsored and enforced Corporate protectionism) using less defined, broad and wide spread powers. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/04/12/expert-new-cispa-bill-isnt-sopa-but-still-attacks-constitutional-rights http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/04/12/expert-new-ci... Consider that protest has now been classified as a low level form of 'terrorism' according to the DHS. How easy will it become for someone who is sharing a leaked rip of the next upcoming 'blockbuster' a cyber criminal? (It will likely be an issue raised by all the proponents of SOPA and PIPA whose IP/Hollywood lobbyists are wine-dining as we speak.) You make the deadly assumption that they intend to enforce the letter of the Law as its 'clearly defined,' and nothing more. You also clearly neglect just how tightly bound Corporate and State alliances are, I would argue they are one in the same, you do realize that insider trading is legal for Congress/Senate members, right? http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trad...
- jmspring 15y agoI just think the same thing would have occurred regardless of who was in office. Gotta protect the old incumbent industries. Hollywood actors != Hollywood Businesses.
- tankenmate 15y agoJoe Biden has long supported Hollywood; one of the reasons Obama chose him as a running mate was because of this support. Biden's track record on the Senate Judiciary Committee speaks for itself.
- yukyukyuk 15y agoIn my opinion, it would be more accurate to say fund-raising pawn. Here is one scenario. Obama administration sics the FBI on Dotcom, Obama super-pac gets sudden infusion of Hollywood cash...a little quid-pro-quo set up by Chris Dodd. I have no evidence for any of this, it is just my own speculation. But I suspect that this is the underlying dynamic, and the reason I suspect this is because it would fit the pattern reported on here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/461/take-the-money-and-run-for-office http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/461/t...
- MrJagil 15y ago“It is just a matter of time until the truth comes out. We are working on that and we are making good progress,” Dotcom concludes. Was the more interesting bit for me. This could actually have serious ramifications. Kim seems devoted.
- bo1024 15y agoCould. Too bad the alternative is Romney....
- zotz 15y agoDon't kid yourself. Obama and Romney are owned by the same interests. All users of the internet are threatened by any politician that is backed by Daddy Warbucks Inc.
- tankenmate 15y agoMAFIAA has rapidly descended from regulatory capture (anti trust et al) to legislative capture (DCMA, Sen Dodd) to finally executive capture (White House, DoJ, international arrests). Where they intend to go from here is anyone guess... Dictatorship? Hyperbole maybe, but only of the thinnest variety.
- zotz 15y ago> Dictatorship? Hyperbole maybe... Not in the least. It's a very real possibility.