Tags
America, Copyright, DOJ, Hollywood, Kim Dotcom, MegaUpload, MegaVideo, New Zealand, US department of Justice
This morning Kim Dotcom tweeted some interesting facts about how he is being treated in what he calls “The biggest copyright infringement case in history”. Personally, I think that the US Department of Justice are acting as bullies, with no regard for the laws of New Zealand. In fact, it’s probably true that the US Department of Justice has little respect or regard for the laws of any country and will bulldozer in regardless.
Now, these facts that Kim has tweeted have not been checked, but there is little reason to believe they are lies.
I hope he is able to get the legal defence he needs.
He tweeted :
Fact #1: All my assets are still frozen. I have no funds to pay lawyers & defend myself in the biggest copyright case in world history.
Fact #2: NZ courts ruled: Restraining order illegal. Search warrants illegal. But I still have no access to my files. Not even copies.
Fact #3: NZ court ruled: FBI removed my data from NZ illegally. But the FBI reviewed my hard drives anyway and didn’t send them back.
Fact #4: The DOJ argues in US court that I should not get a penny unfrozen for my defense cause I should be treated like a bank robber.
Fact #5: The DOJ argues in US court that I should not have the lawyers of my choosing because of a conflict of interest with rights holders.
Fact #6: There is no criminal statute for secondary copyright infringement in the US. The DOJ doesn’t care. Let’s just be creative.
Fact #7: Only 10% of our users and 15% of our revenue came from US users. Yet the DOJ argues in US court that all assets are tainted.
Fact #8: The DOJ told the Grand Jury that Megaupload employs 30 staff. In reality 220 jobs were lost because of the US actions.
Fact #9: The DOJ shut down several companies for alleged copyright infringement including N1 Limited – A fashion label making clothing.
Fact #10: The DOJ is charging us with Money Laundering and Racketeering cause Copyright Infringement isn’t enough for Extradition from NZ.
Finally, he tweeted “@KimDotcom And the NZ government is an accomplice in this insanity: Guilty until proven innocent, without funds for lawyers or access to evidence.”
In my opinion, America, when it comes to copyright infringement is being swayed and directed by those in Hollywood, who (a) don’t understand the internet and (b) don’t know how to stop it – Kim Dotcom (silly name) developed a cloud storage service before we even knew what a cloud storage service was. He should be congratulated – because a few people took advantage of that service to store and share copyright materials doesn’t mean he should be prosecuted.
I have Google drive, if I copy an episode of Family Guy and save it to my G-Drive, does that mean that Google has committed copyright infringement? Of course not – because google is based in the US and pays a damn high amount of corporation tax..