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I'm not declaring this a conspiracy. It could have been as easily as some prosecutor somewhere letting zeal exceed judgement. But... I somehow get the impressi

by sown 14y ago

I'm not declaring this a conspiracy. It could have been as easily as some prosecutor somewhere letting zeal exceed judgement. But... I somehow get the impression that what ever forces perpetrated this don't really care it wasn't legal, so long as MU got ruined for some reason, any reason. Even if it was by accident.

mxxx 14y ago
Yeah, from what I've read the FBI took copies of everything they need and will essentially just flip the bird to NZ authorities. Go team USA.
- caf 14y ago
  NZ authorities are used to being flipped the bird by erstwhile allies. Mossad agents using forged NZ passports, French agents assassinating Greenpeace activists in NZ, French nuclear testing in the south Pacific...
  - lancewiggs 14y ago
    And we caught and shamed them all. It's a small country and we have a strong sense of fairness. This has backfired on the MPAA and other corporate-owner-rights advocates.
    - locusm 14y ago
      Yes we caught them, and then got paid off to let them go. They served 2 years for bombing and killing an unarmed man.
    - yardie 14y ago
      So the punishment for murder is...public shaming?
      - lancewiggs 14y ago
        This ham-fisted affair bought shame to the police, politicians and judiciary, and, now squarely in the public eye, they are endeavouring to do the right thing. There were, I would argue, a few bad calls by a few people who should have followed the normal processes, but they likely made them under pressure from within and from the USA, who in turn were pressured by the MPAA. There was not, I surmise, a lot of decision making happening that was informed by the likes Hacker News readers. That is getting fixed. We have some very smart judges, who are getting across all of this - Judge Harvey springs to mind as someone who got his head around a lot of the online issues. The politicians read the newspapers - and are on twitter, and they are watching the wind and get it too. The Police do not like to be seen to over react and conduct swat raids at the behest of a foreign entity (the MPAA) - I can't see that happening again. Meanwhile @kimdotcom is fantastic on twitter - open, disarmingly candid and sympathetic.
  - Gmo 14y ago
    As far as I know, the whole South Pacific does not belong only to NZ. (i.e. the nuclear tests have been conducted on French soil) Note that I'm not against your point per se, just a small precision.
    - grecy 14y ago
      Awesome. France should conduct a nuclear test at their embassy in Washington, seeings it's French soil and all.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- rsanchez1 14y ago
  This administration seems to like flipping the bird to judges' rulings, and not just in NZ.
earl 14y ago
it was not accidental
joering2 14y ago
I'm not sure. Such a ruling like this one would give Mr. Dotcom "do not touch this guy" status (if he wins, expect him coming back from ashes and starting this or another online business, whether on the edge of legality, or not, still making big bucks), that means next time a prosecutor will try to go after him whether due to RIAA/political pressures or not, they will be highly discouraged by the outcome of this case. Such a ruling would also encourage others to do things on the edge of the law because others got away with it. So no, by any means they wanted to put Mr. Dotcom behind bars and keep him there while thousands of his hard drives rot and fall apart.
- adventureful 14y ago
  I wouldn't assume the authorities in question had any of this well mapped out (their preparation indicates they didn't), nor that they're all that interested in this case (it's not that high on the todo list). If this were strictly a matter of stopping Dotcom, and it were that critically important, they'd simply kill him if they couldn't beat him in court (heart attack, he is after all morbidly obese). We kill foreigners 24/7 around the globe for all sorts of reasons (war on drugs, war on terrorism, who knows what else), they could just internally label him an intellectual property terrorist, Obama signs off on an assassination order, and goodnight. I believe destroying MU was thrown together mostly haphazardly out of desperation. This is an annoying sideshow for an organization like the FBI. They're doing the bidding of a higher up master, that is doing the bidding of the money in Hollywood.
  - legutierr 14y ago
    "We kill foreigners 24/7 around the globe for all sorts of reasons (war on drugs, war on terrorism, who knows what else), they could just internally label him an intellectual property terrorist, Obama signs off on an assassination order, and goodnight." Seriously, what are you suggesting? That the US assassinates prominent citizens of allied nations inside allied nations for no other reason but to support the business interests of large multinational corporations? Are we really seen to be such a mafia state as this, now? Honestly, when has this ever happened?
hef19898 14y ago
Yeah, the whole story has a certain ... smell to it. Hard to put the finger on it so.

by sown 14y ago

mxxx 14y ago

Yeah, from what I've read the FBI took copies of everything they need and will essentially just flip the bird to NZ authorities. Go team USA.

caf 14y ago
NZ authorities are used to being flipped the bird by erstwhile allies. Mossad agents using forged NZ passports, French agents assassinating Greenpeace activists in NZ, French nuclear testing in the south Pacific...
- lancewiggs 14y ago
  And we caught and shamed them all. It's a small country and we have a strong sense of fairness. This has backfired on the MPAA and other corporate-owner-rights advocates.
  - locusm 14y ago
    Yes we caught them, and then got paid off to let them go. They served 2 years for bombing and killing an unarmed man.
  - yardie 14y ago
    So the punishment for murder is...public shaming?
    - lancewiggs 14y ago
      This ham-fisted affair bought shame to the police, politicians and judiciary, and, now squarely in the public eye, they are endeavouring to do the right thing. There were, I would argue, a few bad calls by a few people who should have followed the normal processes, but they likely made them under pressure from within and from the USA, who in turn were pressured by the MPAA. There was not, I surmise, a lot of decision making happening that was informed by the likes Hacker News readers. That is getting fixed. We have some very smart judges, who are getting across all of this - Judge Harvey springs to mind as someone who got his head around a lot of the online issues. The politicians read the newspapers - and are on twitter, and they are watching the wind and get it too. The Police do not like to be seen to over react and conduct swat raids at the behest of a foreign entity (the MPAA) - I can't see that happening again. Meanwhile @kimdotcom is fantastic on twitter - open, disarmingly candid and sympathetic.
- Gmo 14y ago
  As far as I know, the whole South Pacific does not belong only to NZ. (i.e. the nuclear tests have been conducted on French soil) Note that I'm not against your point per se, just a small precision.
  - grecy 14y ago
    Awesome. France should conduct a nuclear test at their embassy in Washington, seeings it's French soil and all.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
rsanchez1 14y ago
This administration seems to like flipping the bird to judges' rulings, and not just in NZ.

earl 14y ago

it was not accidental

joering2 14y ago

I'm not sure. Such a ruling like this one would give Mr. Dotcom "do not touch this guy" status (if he wins, expect him coming back from ashes and starting this or another online business, whether on the edge of legality, or not, still making big bucks), that means next time a prosecutor will try to go after him whether due to RIAA/political pressures or not, they will be highly discouraged by the outcome of this case. Such a ruling would also encourage others to do things on the edge of the law because others got away with it. So no, by any means they wanted to put Mr. Dotcom behind bars and keep him there while thousands of his hard drives rot and fall apart.

adventureful 14y ago
I wouldn't assume the authorities in question had any of this well mapped out (their preparation indicates they didn't), nor that they're all that interested in this case (it's not that high on the todo list). If this were strictly a matter of stopping Dotcom, and it were that critically important, they'd simply kill him if they couldn't beat him in court (heart attack, he is after all morbidly obese). We kill foreigners 24/7 around the globe for all sorts of reasons (war on drugs, war on terrorism, who knows what else), they could just internally label him an intellectual property terrorist, Obama signs off on an assassination order, and goodnight. I believe destroying MU was thrown together mostly haphazardly out of desperation. This is an annoying sideshow for an organization like the FBI. They're doing the bidding of a higher up master, that is doing the bidding of the money in Hollywood.
- legutierr 14y ago
  "We kill foreigners 24/7 around the globe for all sorts of reasons (war on drugs, war on terrorism, who knows what else), they could just internally label him an intellectual property terrorist, Obama signs off on an assassination order, and goodnight." Seriously, what are you suggesting? That the US assassinates prominent citizens of allied nations inside allied nations for no other reason but to support the business interests of large multinational corporations? Are we really seen to be such a mafia state as this, now? Honestly, when has this ever happened?

hef19898 14y ago

Yeah, the whole story has a certain ... smell to it. Hard to put the finger on it so.