
New Zealand court rules Kim Dotcom can be extradited to US - hdivider
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35166113
======
Mandatum
The New Zealand government spent $5.8M NZD prosecuting a man for a law that
holds a maximum fine of $150,000 in the country he's being prosecuted in.

Bollocks.

~~~
tptacek
I'm not sure I'm reading this right, but criminal copyright infringement has
much worse penalties than that in the U.S.

~~~
meric
If U.S. citizen who does not reside in New Zealand who is not a New Zealand
citizen broke an New Zealand law while living in the U.S. operating a U.K.
operation, I don't think he will be extradited to New Zealand.

If I wanted to be subject to U.S.'s laws I'd go to the U.S.

The content owners should be forced to file lawsuits in Hong Kong or New
Zealand.

Otherwise it'd be as if New Zealand and Hong Kong are mere U.S. satellite
states, like East Germany to the Soviet Union.

~~~
vacri
Welcome to 'international treaties', the new kind of law that you can't change
by simply voting in a different party.

~~~
tacos
Welcome to 'contract law', the old kind of law that you can't change by voting
in a new CEO. Not sure that I want President Trump being able to nullify the
1947 Paris Peace Treaties.

There are clear procedures for modifying and ratifying treaties for good
reason.

------
bediger4000
I've got to say that this looks like it was fixed to me. The judgement was
predetermined at the behest of the US government and the MPAA, a commercial
entity.

I confess that I'm not well traveled, and that I've never been to the Southern
Hemisphere, but how independent is the NZ judiciary?

~~~
philliphaydon
We are completely independent. But that doesn't stop our political leaders
from bending over to make a good impression with the United States. I wouldn't
be surprised if the United States threatened trade agreements to have things
bent in its favour.

~~~
ikeboy
Why did it take 4 years, then?

~~~
SolarNet
Negotiations and bribes sometimes take awhile? Especially when you are trying
to not make it look like those things.

------
iaw
This just feels like a waste of taxpayer money, is Kim Dotcom worth
extraditing?

~~~
ikeboy
He made $100 million via (alleged) illegal copyright infringement. If that
isn't worth it, how much would be?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Devil's Advocate: Has anyone been prosecuted for the 2008 economic collapse?
And you don't even have to extradite someone from NYC.

But a few hundred million from a guy in New Zealand? Nail him to the cross so
the MPAA gets what they want.

~~~
the_hangman
A simple Googling will help you answer this query:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/magazine/only-one-top-
bank...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/magazine/only-one-top-banker-jail-
financial-crisis.html?_r=0)

~~~
saurik
(That was assuredly a rhetorical question, and while this article shows that
one person did, it almost demonstrates the point more than refutes it...)

------
whiteboarder
The people who break copyright laws are heros, not criminals. The whole reason
the industry is moving forward is because of people like him, the pirate bay,
and nabster.

If it weren't for rampant copyright infringement, the industry would still be
stuck in the dark ages.

------
jstoiko
This is the end of the dotcom era.

~~~
Malstrond
I thought that when House of Coolness got busted, but he came out on top by
offering user data to law enforcement.

------
barney54
This reminds me of a fantastic picture of Kim Dotcom:
[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/kim-dotcom-is-
tot...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/kim-dotcom-is-totally-
stoked-to-get-his-cars-and-money-back/)

It is over-the-top and ridiculous--just like Kim Dotcom.

~~~
grmarcil
This is actually a still from this also-fantastic video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf3bjKwwlMM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf3bjKwwlMM)

TL;DW: A lap of the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife in Kim Dotcom's fleet of
three Mercedes Benz CLK DTMs. The drivers are Kim Dotcom, his CMO from
Megaupload, and Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen.

From the video description: "The production involved 30 cameras, 100+ crew, 2
helicopters, 2 camera cars and one fixed wing aircraft."

Edit: The pic you linked is probably not a still from the video, technically
speaking, but a promo shot done on site the same day.

~~~
ChuckMcM
The thing I like about that video is how he re-creates scenes from the Konami
game.

------
revelation
The precedent here being that you may be extradited to a country you have
never even visited on the basis of something on the internet.

If your country is friendly with Uganda, try not discussing your
nontraditional sexual orientation online.

There's a bigger picture here. We desperately need to rethink what laws and in
particular which jurisdiction applies. The previous approach ("all of them,
all of the time") has produced any number of nonsensical results and
tremendous damage in the form of forum shopping.

~~~
grecy
This is the slippery slope that terrifies me.

It's also not worth mentioning online you drink alcohol unless you want to be
extradited to certain middle eastern countries.

Females might not want to mention online they've had sex before marriage
unless they want to extradited to certain countries.

Americans might not want to mention online they have semi and fully automatic
weapons unless they want to extradited to Canada/Australia/UK/Etc.

etc. etc. etc. The list is endless when a country a person has never been to
can have anyone in the world extradited for something they did online which
breaches local laws.

------
beedogs
Extradited for copyright infringement. Brilliant. This is what we've come to.

------
forrestthewoods
This probably goes against popular HN opinion, but good. I'm glad. He's a
scumbag who profited TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS off content that he knew to
be copyright infringing. He deserves prison time.

~~~
downandout
And Google has made billions from infringing content through YouTube. Are you
going to say that Larry and Sergey should be arrested too?

~~~
fixermark
There are significant differences.

For starters, YouTube worked with the government to establish a framework for
making copyright management even vaguely tractable online where it wasn't
before.
[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2807622?hl=en](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2807622?hl=en)

Kim Dotcom, in contrast, basically tried to thumb his nose at several hundred
years of intellectual property law shared among the former members of the
British Empire. That's not going to win you any friends among those who
enforce those laws.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> Kim Dotcom, in contrast, basically tried to thumb his nose at several
> hundred years of intellectual property law shared among the former members
> of the British Empire. That's not going to win you any friends among those
> who enforce those laws.

You would think not existing in the jurisdiction would be enough. Apparently
not.

------
dang
This is a dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10781610](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10781610).

------
asdfzxc
Only Russia fights on...

------
ubhibbd
Who else has the guts to speak the truth? This is an abortion of justice, a
naked use of force by a corrupt government looking to destroy someones life on
behalf of powerful corporations.

~~~
reddytowns
Anybody and everybody on the internet has learned to whine, err "speak the
truth", about nearly everything. That doesn't mean they accomplish much.

------
csseinpoont
Lol, the evil empire strikes again. These corrupt people who control the
government understand nothing but power and violence.

~~~
csseinpoont
Lol, reflexive down votes from those who defend state power and corruption,
way to go HN.

~~~
xupybd
I think it's more the way you went about it. You kind of just threw out an
opinion but didn't really add to the conversation.

------
xupybd
Unrelated, but does `Bollocks` mean anything to people outside of NZ?

~~~
pheroden
Literally, it means testicles, but more colloclially it means bullshit in
every English speaking country I know of.

edit: Apparently not. Just messaged my American buddy, and he thought it might
be a wig for cows... So, maybe not Americans.

~~~
schrodinger
I'm an American, and I think most Americans would recognize it as meaning
"bullshit"; I certainly did. it's not commonly used but it is commonly
understood.

------
tacos
Shady guy, shady service, shady investigation, shady trial, shady judgement,
shady result. Did I miss anything?

~~~
clamprecht
Just a source or an argument.

