

Kim Dotcom Granted New Zealand Supreme Court Appeal Over U.S. Evidence - Lightning
http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-supreme-court-appeal-over-u-s-evidence-130516/

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ChuckMcM
I find it particularly refreshing that New Zealand has pushed back on this as
hard as they have.

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will_brown
I find this whole case very interesting (maybe I am wrong but I don't see the
difference between MEGA and dropbox or Google Drive), but I too found the New
Zealand push back to be eye opening and refreshing as well. As a US citizen,
reading about the paramilitary assault style arrest, I figured there would be
the typical international outrage - that the US/FBI is pulling the strings of
foreign governments.

I never once gave consideration to the notion that governments using
helicopters and military style weapons in an arrest, would offend the
sensibilities of ordinary citizenry. NZ's condemnation of the military style
assault and the actual apologies from NZ officials was the most eye opening.
This made me realize how engrained and accepted these types of operations are
in the US (at least for me personally), even for non-violent crimes - a local
example that comes to mind was the military style extraction of Elian
Gonzalez.

There is even a phrase used among lawyers that you can beat the rap but you
can't beat the ride, meaning you will be arrested guilty or not, the time to
make your case is not during the arrest but in a court of law...I used to
laugh about this phrase, now it disgusts me.

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youngerdryas
Kim loved to pose with automatic weapons and is a felon, the only thing NZ had
to apologize for in regards to how they handled the raid was not realizing he
is a clown.

Edit: No one seems to be arguing that he is not a clown, but I can't blame
them as that is a hard argument to make.

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bd_at_rivenhill
This is no indication that he would violently resist arrest, which is the only
reasonable justification for these types of raids. Military tactics should be
confined to the cases where there is a risk of violence; intimidation should
not be a part of the process of serving an arrest warrant in the average case.

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princess3000
Kim Dotcom is one of my favorite personalities... he's basically a real life
James Bond villain, except that he's kind of the good guy. It's awesome to see
him stand up to this stuff and even win against systems that want to see him
fail completely.

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tzs
So your notion of "good guy" is someone with convictions for embezzlement,
insider trading, and trafficking in stolen goods? Someone who only appears to
have ever engaged in non-criminal businesses when he was on parole from prior
convictions and so HAD to keep clean?

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stfu
It depends on your own moral compass. I, for example, never got the idea of
why white collar crime is such a big deal. I see money as a "temporary" thing
which you have to manage based on your individual risk perspective. I know
that this is an unpopular view, but I never understood why Madoff got such a
long sentence, longer than someone murderer get. Physical integrity is
irreplaceable while money comes and goes.

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nutmeg
Might want to change the title to note that it is the New Zealand Supreme
Court, not the US Supreme Court.

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ihuman
The title is exactly the same as the post's title, as per HN guidelines.

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lostlogin
Now that's a tough one. Follow the rules when the rule is (in this case)
wrong.

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contingencies
This makes me proud to be a New Zealand citizen and to be considering moving
there permanently after many years around the world. A hearty congratulations
to fellow global internet-using (or not) citizens, and to Kim: you all
deserved this win.

Or as kiwi youth would nominally mumble: 'wicked cher bro'.

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e40
As a US citizen, it makes me very happy that someone has stood up to the
bullshit my government tries to pull.

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kzrdude
Your government is exporting corruption. The best place to fight it would be
at home, and it needs more attention (you know what's wrong, do something!).

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youngerdryas
Was the minister held at gunpoint? No but NZ gets a pass. Great next time they
don't have to worry they know everyone will give them a pass.

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aclevernickname
I'm curious as to who you work for. Your post history seems to show that you
respond to specific types of posts, and you're regularly downvoted to oblivion
here.

Forgive me for the Ad Hominem.

As to your comment, a proper court was convened, and the process was correct.
An excessive show of force was used, not for Dotcom particularly, but as a
message/deterrent done in good faith to show others interested in going down
this same path (of running an encrypted file locker, I guess). This is fully
in accordance with all Commonwealth law systems, NZ included. I don't think
anyone is making the argument that the NZ police were doing anything more than
marching to the orders given to them (and ultimately supervised) by the US.
None of the police on the scene were ever charged or reprimanded for any
wrongdoing in the Dotcom Case. Why? Because they were just doing their job on
a special day. They've all had terrorism training, and they were about to
assist in the apprehension of an international terrorist (you know, like
Assange, and Neij).

Now, with this in mind, why did a public official resign due to this fully
lawful raid? because the people demanded that he did. The people were unhappy,
and wanted someone to take responsibility for this massive screw-up. When that
happened, someone resigned. This means that NZ's government still listens to
(and fears) its people, and that might hold true for the rest of the
Commonwealth as well. Could you imagine if the US government actually listened
to its people? Could you imagine if the US citizens actually cared?

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youngerdryas
I work for the committee against internet hippies.

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aclevernickname
So how long have you been working for the movie industry? I hear it's nice
work. Hopefully, you're being paid for it. They tend to use a lot of "Useful
Idiots" to spread their message free of charge, but I'm sure that's not you.

I take it you're in agreement with everything else I said, as well?

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ziko
I quite liked Kim. But lately he's been nothing else than a guy that's in
media so much he becomes incredibly annoying (to hear news about
him/her/them).

Something similar to Lana del Rey in music business, Julian Assange in
politics, Messi in football and Ryan Gosling in film.

Meh.

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zimbatm
Do you mean he's not entertaining you anymore ?

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rhizome
Fight for your rights like a friendly puppy, or else.

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umsm
I'm sure the New Zealand Supreme Court is awesome, but I wonder how much
traction this would've gotten if it was not publicized all around the world...

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te_chris
I'm not sure what you're trying to say? That NZ has a corrupt judiciary? It
may be incestuous, but I think that's a (very big) stretch to call it corrupt
and imply that, were it not for the media attention, it would be for sale.

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umsm
Not at all. When this story first made headlines, I thought: Why did the NZ
government allow the US to do this on their land in the first place? I just
noticed that in the states, sometimes you don't necessarily get treated fairly
in edge cases until you make a lot of noise (blogs, videos, etc.).

Of course, IANAL and I have no idea how the legal system works...

