
Megaupload case: New Zealand court wants FBI evidence - sdoering
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19280898
======
snowwindwaves
I was recently in new Zealand and friends in their late 40s and early 50s were
upset by the raid on a new Zealand citizen by foreign authorities, in new
Zealand. Some of them used mega upload and some hadn't heard of it prior to
the raid.

NZ told the us navy they didn't want their nuclear ships in the Harbour, which
makes no sense to me, but does show that they have a spine. I wouldn't be
surprised if the Mpaa doesn't get their way on this one.

~~~
knz
Some context on the nuclear free policy in NZ -
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealands_nuclear-free_zone>

It's an important part of the New Zealand national identity. There has been
talk of allowing nuclear power generation but given how geologically unstable
the country is most kiwis seem content to maintain the current policy.

~~~
archangel_one
Nuclear power generation isn't extremely practical for NZ, because it normally
comes in large chunks which we don't have the population to support in most
places.

Plus we've got like 70% hydro or something anyway, so we're already doing
relatively well as far as burning fossil fuels for power goes.

~~~
Lazare
Of course, we have high emissions from agriculture. (All those sheep farts...)

------
brink
> Prosecutors allege that pirated movies and other content shared through his
> site cost copyright holders more than $500m (£322m) in lost earnings, making
> it one of the biggest cases of its kind.

I doubt the point / accuracy of this statement. Those who downloaded the
content would have just gotten the content somewhere else. As much as the FBI
would like to, you really can't point the finger at Dotcom for this loss of
revenue.

~~~
lindenr
That's not the point. This whole case has been just testing the water for the
FBI - seeing how far the public (and the NZ government) will let them go.
Whether they have grand designs for after Dotcom nobody knows (conspiracy!),
but this case is clearly about more than all that money copyright holders
supposedly lost (I'm in agreement with you on that - I doubt they would have
lost any less without MU).

~~~
sageikosa
I never suspect conspiracy when incompetency is much easier. Men with badges
hiding behind organizations often forget the scope and source of their vested
powers.

~~~
Wingman4l7
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor>

------
grecy
>In June a judge ruled that the warrant for the initial raid on his mansion
and the way evidence was seized were illegal.

It's amusing the case still exists at all when it's clearly been identified
the raid and evidence seizure were illegal.

I wonder why we even have laws when the authorities can so blatantly ignore
them without consequence.

~~~
sp332
Unlike the USA, a lot of jurisdictions allow evidence to be used in court even
if it was collected illegally.

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gitarr
I am surprised the NZ courts didn't have the evidence to begin with. How could
they decide over the validity of the extradition request without it?

~~~
ncallaway
Apparently the NZ courts came to the same critical question that you did.

In all honesty, it seems ridiculous that the FBI thought they could withhold
evidence.

