8 ms·

Kim Dotcom is an evil genius and a remarkable marketing guy. During his whole career no doubts he made a fortune out of other people work BUT, still, he can't b

Kim Dotcom is an evil genius and a remarkable marketing guy. During his whole career no doubts he made a fortune out of other people work BUT, still, he can't be considered responsible for it because - in fact - he had MILLIONS of users who actually used the pirated content megaupload made available (and i dare anyone here to throw the first stone if they never used megaupload). So, while i'm not yet sure i like the guy, i still consider the megaupload affair a huge mistake. What is astonishing anyway is what he made out of the whole situation. No doubt most of the people out there would have been simply destroyed by events. Not only he wasn't, but he managed to launch two different businesses that still surely has a lot to show in the future. Regarding this specific music project, i can only say that i agree with him. Paying for the music you like IS the new model , so far he looks like one of the few who understood it (together with Spotify, which is in fact doing the same). PS: I really like the album he made available for free.

smoyer 13y ago
I never used megaupload ... but casting the first stone is always dangerous.
zwdr 13y ago
Kimble is a fraud and an asshole. The only things he's good at are marketing and scamming. Just take a look at his history- insider trading, selling userdata from a BBS he ran to a lawyer, scamming the german telcos... the list is quite long. He's a good marketer, but one of the worst people I've read about. There's a file of his quotes (from the CCC mailing list) circulating, if you know german you should try reading that. Really gives some insight into him. For example how that l33t hacker cred he has is all for show– I wouldn't buy anything about free speech from him either. He's only interested in money. I remember one quote from one of his teachers about how Kimble was the most antisocial kid he ever teached LOL. TLDR: You really shouldnt like the guy, read a bit about him and you'll figure out why. EDIT: Here's the quote file: http://babsi.de/KIMBLE.txt http://babsi.de/KIMBLE.txt
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  > "Merry X-mas & a hacky new year by KIMBLE" > 19 - 21 December 1996 He's horrible! In all seriousness, I've had a quick read through (with the finest of Google's translations) and I'm not sure what you're drawing exception to. There's stuff that just sounds like satire and other BS, but I can't figure out why you wrote what you wrote.
  - zwdr 13y ago
    :S EDIT: For a bit of background: He and the CCC were never really friendly with each other. He tried to fit in the german hacker culture, but everyone knew he was a fraud. For example, he tried to recruit young people on the mailing list into shady jobs with promises of easy money (that he didn't have back then). There are a few other stunts, but generally he behaved like a 14 year old asshole with a big ego and too much time on his hand. Didn't help that he tried to bullshit everyone about how much money he made (DATAPROTECT LOL). Maybe that didn't get through the translation.
    - rfnslyr 13y ago
      Yeah, and this is why I'm still trading the precious hours of my life for a few dollars to write code nobody is ever going to use, look at, or benefit from, while he is bathing in money. The scummy shit he did is negligible.
      - zwdr 13y ago
        I think the fact that he's good at marketing doesn't change the fact that he did a lot of morally questionable things. And I don't think they're negligible– at least not from an ethical point of view.
    - yapcguy 13y ago
      > He tried to fit in the german hacker culture, but everyone knew he was a fraud. Meanwhile readers of "HackerNews" and all the self-proclaimed "Hackers" at YC start-ups and all the trendy new "Growth Hackers" of course have much more in common with the CCC and hacker culture... > he tried to recruit young people on the mailing list into shady jobs with promises of easy money Like every entrepreneur at venture backed start-ups, right?!

smoyer 13y ago

I never used megaupload ... but casting the first stone is always dangerous.

zwdr 13y ago

Kimble is a fraud and an asshole. The only things he's good at are marketing and scamming. Just take a look at his history- insider trading, selling userdata from a BBS he ran to a lawyer, scamming the german telcos... the list is quite long. He's a good marketer, but one of the worst people I've read about. There's a file of his quotes (from the CCC mailing list) circulating, if you know german you should try reading that. Really gives some insight into him. For example how that l33t hacker cred he has is all for show– I wouldn't buy anything about free speech from him either. He's only interested in money. I remember one quote from one of his teachers about how Kimble was the most antisocial kid he ever teached LOL. TLDR: You really shouldnt like the guy, read a bit about him and you'll figure out why. EDIT: Here's the quote file: http://babsi.de/KIMBLE.txt http://babsi.de/KIMBLE.txt

kintamanimatt 13y ago
> "Merry X-mas & a hacky new year by KIMBLE" > 19 - 21 December 1996 He's horrible! In all seriousness, I've had a quick read through (with the finest of Google's translations) and I'm not sure what you're drawing exception to. There's stuff that just sounds like satire and other BS, but I can't figure out why you wrote what you wrote.
- zwdr 13y ago
  :S EDIT: For a bit of background: He and the CCC were never really friendly with each other. He tried to fit in the german hacker culture, but everyone knew he was a fraud. For example, he tried to recruit young people on the mailing list into shady jobs with promises of easy money (that he didn't have back then). There are a few other stunts, but generally he behaved like a 14 year old asshole with a big ego and too much time on his hand. Didn't help that he tried to bullshit everyone about how much money he made (DATAPROTECT LOL). Maybe that didn't get through the translation.
  - rfnslyr 13y ago
    Yeah, and this is why I'm still trading the precious hours of my life for a few dollars to write code nobody is ever going to use, look at, or benefit from, while he is bathing in money. The scummy shit he did is negligible.
    - zwdr 13y ago
      I think the fact that he's good at marketing doesn't change the fact that he did a lot of morally questionable things. And I don't think they're negligible– at least not from an ethical point of view.
  - yapcguy 13y ago
    > He tried to fit in the german hacker culture, but everyone knew he was a fraud. Meanwhile readers of "HackerNews" and all the self-proclaimed "Hackers" at YC start-ups and all the trendy new "Growth Hackers" of course have much more in common with the CCC and hacker culture... > he tried to recruit young people on the mailing list into shady jobs with promises of easy money Like every entrepreneur at venture backed start-ups, right?!