Displaying items by tag: US DoJ

Ever since the take down of Napster the copyright industry has taken a much more aggressive stance on piracy. This stance had taken the form of new laws, increased lobbying and a push to make ISPs responsible for policing everyone’s activities on the internet. They have even sought for, and are still trying to get, trade agreements that allow the US to push their laws onto other countries in the form ACTA and the TPP. Now all of these measures have their seedier side to them, but so far none are exactly illegal (immoral and potentially unethical? That is another question)… At least not until you start looking at some of the trials and arrests that have happened in the last few years.

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Remember all of the data that was collected from the Dotcom raid? You know the stuff, the raid that was ruled legal even if the warrants that were used to justify it were not. Well it seems that there is some movement on the return of the data taken from the Dotcom house as a court of appeals has ruled that clones of the drives taken need to be returned to Kim Dotcom as soon as convenient.

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When Edward Snowden revealed the extent of US Government surveillance and just how much corporations cooperated with them to accomplish their goals everyone was shocked. Many could not believe that the companies we trust would betray us in the ways that Snowden showed. Even as the clarifications and denials were being typed up by Microsoft, Google and others the consumer backlash was starting and not just in the US. Consumers here and overseas were pulling their data out and cancelling accounts. This change has (and will continue to) seriously hurt technology companies financially. As we all know, the only way to motivate big business is to hit them in the bank account.

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TPB Under attack

It seems that the French could be making some changes to the way they handle copyright law when it comes to movies, TV, Music and other titles. Although they admit that piracy is a problem they are joining a growing number of countries and governments that are concerned about the way the entertainment industry is dictating laws. Philippe Aigrain, co-founder of protest group La Quadrature du Net recently commented on this saying: “The government will be judged on its ability to resist the harmful influence of the entertainment industry to whom the conception of policies has been delegated by the governments one after the other.”

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megaupload1

You know you have to love the way the US Government acts in some of their dealings. There are times when they simply do not understand the implications of what they are doing… well either that or they have no respect for the intelligence of the common person. We are talking about a “new” development in the US DOJ’s case against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom. This trial has already become famous simply due to its timing and also for the inappropriate raid on the Dotcom mansion. Although the case has slipped out of the mainstream media many are still watching with great interest due to the siege tactics and the way the US has violated the laws in New Zealand (and possibly in the US).

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mega

The new site from Kim Dotcom made for file sharing will be called Mega and I will be located at the web address me.ga. The service should start around January 19th of the following year and Dotcom has tried to completely separate it from anything that has to do with the U.S. This means that the hosting company, domain, and partners will not be from the U.S. making it impossible, or at least the extremely hard, to shut down the service if someone tried...

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animal farm-pigs

Well, well, well, it seems the plot thickens as things unravel in the case against Megaupload. This morning we noticed a post on Megaupload founder, Kim Dotcom’s Twitter feed asking if there was any truth to the claim that US District Attorney Neil MacBride was still employed by a lobbying agency within one year of his appointment. We took a look and found something rather interesting which could indicate a little bit of bias in the way MacBride is dealing with the case and also may lend a little validation to Dotcom’s claims that the whole case was cooked up by the copyright Lobby.

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dotcom

The art of warfare has evolved over the centuries as each side (attacking and defending) has learned lessons from each battle. When towns were encircled by walls attackers developed methods for bringing them down or simply starving them out. From these tools and techniques the defenders learned to ensure that they could be self-sustaining by maintaining a water and food supply; you get the picture. The same thing has happened with just about any situation where there are two sides to the fight and it certainly is happening in the fight between Megaupload and the US Copyright Lobby. After losing their fight to put exceptionally draconian laws in place such as SOPA and PIPA the copyright industry used their influence to take out possibly the largest file sharing service on the Internet; Megaupload. There was no real evidence to support their attack on a site they (the MPAA and RIAA) once praised, instead it was a clear cut campaign to bankrupt the company and to seriously injure anyone involved with them (including the host and users of Megaupload servers).

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bill-of-rights

The system of Copyright, Patents and Trademarks has a long history in the US and around the world. Originally the system was developed to protect the individual inventor or artists. It allows them to benefit from their work or inventions for a limited period of time as a form of compensation for bringing a new technology or art to the world. This system worked very well when it was individuals who were seeking the protection. Patent laws at the time also required that the inventor be able to demonstrate their inventions before the patents were granted.

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Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and his legal team have won a fairly significant victory in the ongoing case with the US DoJ. A New Zealand Judge has ruled that the US MUST hand over all evidence it has against Dotcom. This is something that the US has resisted since the beginning for reasons known only to them, but there is speculation that they case was founded with no evidence at all. This type of blind accusation is actually something the MPAA and RIAA are used to. If you look back at their copyright lawsuits you will find that they often submit anonymous indictments which allow them to subpoena ISPs to get information on certain IPs. It seems they like doing things that way and have tried to push this to Megaupload.

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