Megaupload Taken Down

[Just18]

If I mis-interpreted you, please say so, and I apologize (only you know your intent, ultimately).

nothing of that nature and no apology needed of course .....  I am self censoring 

Your comment may be close to the truth of what I was considering .....

[menotu]

By David Fisher - Sunday Mar 18, 2012 (nzherald)

Police court order Dotwrong

Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom's cash, cars and property were seized using a court order which should never have been granted.

A judgment from Justice Judith Potter on Friday declared the restraining order "null and void" and having "no legal effect".

The blunder might now lead to the beleaguered internet mogul getting back everything that was stripped away in the surprise dawn raid on his mansion eight weeks ago.

Police commissioner Peter Marshall and the Government's legal advisers at the Crown Law Office have admitted making an embarrassing "procedural error" when filing documents to seize Dotcom's property.

Potter said Marshall's application for the restraining order had "confused" legal moves by opting for one in which Dotcom was not given a chance to mount a defence. It meant Marshall applied for the "incorrect order".


Full article

[Just18]

I will be surprised if his property is returned.

[Abraxas]

From menotu's link:

But Dotcom is not guaranteed to get his property back.

Canterbury University professor Ursula Cheer said the law made allowances for mistakes and the case would only be fundamentally affected if Dotcom's lawyers were able to produce evidence showing a lack of good faith.

This was "so high profile, anything like this looks extremely bad," she said.
By David Fisher .

Could someone explain what that means please, my Legal brain isn't working ... ?
"...produce evidence showing a lack of good faith."
Seems a odd way of expressing the arrest.
I suppose FBI have a job to do, which involves seizing naughty people's wealth, "in good faith."   
There's a transcript of an interview with Kim Dotcom I posted awhile back HERE.
He expresses a very succinct defense, as far as Megaupload's mechanism of storing people's files, once they have agreed to their Terms of Service, it has nothing to do with Dotcom, or Megaupload as the uploaders have agreed to the TOS, thus breaking that agreement if copyrighted data is uploaded to MU. Too easy 
Thus, any properties gained offering the Megaupload service seem legally his, and the company.

A landmark case with plenty of precedents evolving...

[George Underwood Edwards]

From menotu's link:

But Dotcom is not guaranteed to get his property back.

Canterbury University professor Ursula Cheer said the law made allowances for mistakes and the case would only be fundamentally affected if Dotcom's lawyers were able to produce evidence showing a lack of good faith.

This was "so high profile, anything like this looks extremely bad," she said.
By David Fisher.

Could someone explain what that means please, my Legal brain isn't working ... ?
"...produce evidence showing a lack of good faith."

I take it to mean, "the accused must prove that the Gov. had evil intent when they did the paperwork wrong" - a time consuming process at best.

[Abraxas]

Aha, thankyou George Underwood Edwards

[Just18]

From menotu's link:

But Dotcom is not guaranteed to get his property back.

Canterbury University professor Ursula Cheer said the law made allowances for mistakes and the case would only be fundamentally affected if Dotcom's lawyers were able to produce evidence showing a lack of good faith.

This was "so high profile, anything like this looks extremely bad," she said.
By David Fisher .

Could someone explain what that means please, my Legal brain isn't working ... ?
"...produce evidence showing a lack of good faith."
Seems a odd way of expressing the arrest.
I suppose FBI have a job to do, which involves seizing naughty people's wealth, "in good faith."   
There's a transcript of an interview with Kim Dotcom I posted awhile back HERE.
He expresses a very succinct defense, as far as Megaupload's mechanism of storing people's files, once they have agreed to their Terms of Service, it has nothing to do with Dotcom, or Megaupload as the uploaders have agreed to the TOS, thus breaking that agreement if copyrighted data is uploaded to MU. Too easy 
Thus, any properties gained offering the Megaupload service seem legally his, and the company.

A landmark case with plenty of precedents evolving...

In this case it is the NZ authorities who are involved, Mr. Dotcom being a resident there and the actions in question performed by the NZ authorities. 

[weirdwolf]

From arstechnica

New Zealand's High Court decreed the court order used to seize the assets of Kim Dotcom and MegaUpload in January was "null and void," after the New Zealand police applied for the wrong kind of restraining order. Dotcom's legal team is arguing this should result in the return of the seized property, reports TorrentFreak.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/new-zealand-high-court-megaupload-asset-seizure-order-null-and-void.ars

[Abraxas]

Just18 said:

In this case it is the NZ authorities who are involved, Mr. Dotcom being a resident there and the actions in question performed by the NZ authorities.  

Yes, sure this action and subsequent 'stuff up' in the paper work were performed by the NZ authorities, but don't forget this is more importantly an FBI investigation.  
I'm sure the FBI is not impressed with the NZ authorities 
The points made here are very important in what is essentially a major FBI operation.

Thank you for the link .. it is the first I have read of his reaction.

What I find most interesting is this ....

JC: So every member of the Motion Picture Association, every film studio who is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America had direct delete access to Megaupload.com to take out copyright-infringing material – is that the case?

KD: Absolutely.

coupled with ...

JC: CNET, in an article that looked pretty well researched to me and well sourced said, and I quote, “among the copyright owners who’ve accused Megaupload of piracy, including software and video game companies none of them presented the FBI with more, quote, significant evidence, end quote, about Megaupload than the MPAA. Did any members of the MPAA come to you and say “we have concerns, Kim, about what’s going on in Megaupload”.

KD: Never. And I gotta tell you this – if you are a company that is hurt so much by what we are doing, billions of dollars of damage, you don’t wait and sit and do nothing. You call your lawyers and you try and sue us and try to stop us from what we are doing.

JC: And yet the FBI indictment against you alleges, and I quote, “Copyright infringement on a massive scale with estimated harm to copyright holders well in excess of 500 million US dollars”.

KD: Wel,l that’s complete nonsense. If you read the indictment and if you hear what the Prosecution has said in court, it’s at least 500 million of damage where just music files and just within a 2-week time period. So they are actually talking about 13 billion US damage within a year just for music downloads. The entire US music industry is less than 20 billion dollars. So how can one website be, you know, responsible for this amount of damage, it’s completely mind-boggling and unrealistic.

It sure makes me wonder about what is really going on  

[menotu]

By Ernesto - March 26, 2012 (torrentfreaK)

Kim Dotcom: The US Government is Wrong, Here’s Why

For the first time since his arrest in January, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is responding to allegations in what he calls the “MPAA-sponsored” indictment. Eager to fight back, Dotcom refutes several “nonsense” claims made by the Government. In addition, he shows that Mega wasn’t a big bad pirate haven, but a legitimate service that may have been shutdown for political reasons.

For a man who’s the main defendant in one of the biggest criminal cases ever brought in the US, Kim Dotcom is surprisingly composed.

The Megaupload founder is convinced of his innocence, and instead of letting fear or anger get to him, he is excited. Deep into the night, Dotcom digs through heaps of paperwork, collecting evidence that shows how he was framed by the US Government.

Talking to TorrentFreak by phone, he gives example after example of why he thinks the indictment twists the truth. While Megaupload’s lawyers are still working on the first motion in response to the indictment, he agreed to exclusively share the first details with us.
Stealing from 50 Cent?

One of the claims of the US Government is that Kim Dotcom personally shared copyrighted files on Megaupload, so-called ‘direct infringement’. He supposedly shared a link to a 50 Cent song, but the indictment fails to include the necessary context.

“A link distributed on December 3, 2006 by defendant DOTCOM links to a musical recording by U.S. recording artist ’50 Cent’. A single click on the link accesses a Megaupload.com download page that allows any Internet user to download a copy of the file from a computer server that is controlled by the Mega Conspiracy,” the indictment reads.

Dotcom told TorrentFreak that the file in question wasn’t infringing at all. He explained that he actually bought that song legally, and that he uploaded the file in private to test a new upload feature. He quickly picked a random file from his computer, which turned out to be this song.

“The link to the song was sent using the private link-email-feature of Megaupload to our CTO with the file description ‘test’. I was merely testing the new upload feature,” Dotcom said.

“The URL to this song had zero downloads. This was a ‘private link’ and it has never been published,” he added.

Aside from the above, Dotcom told us that the US may not even have jurisdiction over the issue. The song was uploaded from a Philippine IP-address to a European server. Also, since the upload occurred in 2006, the statute of limitations renders the evidence unusable.

Full article

[djohnston]

The Megaupload founder is convinced of his innocence, and instead of letting fear or anger get to him, he is excited. Deep into the night, Dotcom digs through heaps of paperwork, collecting evidence that shows how he was framed by the US Government.

Let's hope he gets his day in court. It appears he has more than enough evidence to have all charges dismissed. Even so, if he wins, will he get the domain back? And if he does, will the damage to the reputation of the Megaupload name have taken its toll?

[Just18]

I hope he gets his day in a NZ court to dispute the charges against him

[nok]

I hope he gets his day in a NZ court to dispute the charges against him

I hope so too, but my money says he'll be extradited eventually.

[George Underwood Edwards]

It will be interesting to see how many similar sites close down. Like 'BT Junkie' did 2 weeks ago.

[Abraxas]

I would love to see Kim Dotcom tried in the U.S., as I feel he has great defense against the charge of the biggest copyright offender ever; plus the rest, but that would be a no win situation I would think on U.S. soil.

djohnston:

Let's hope he gets his day in court. It appears he has more than enough evidence to have all charges dismissed. Even so, if he wins, will he get the domain back? And if he does, will the damage to the reputation of the Megaupload name have taken its toll?

Yes, definitely, he should get his day in court. He certainly has a lot to say.
Also I'd like to see people who had legit files hosted on Megaupload have them returned, by the FBI.
All this commotion has really shaken up the 'Upload' host type sites. A lot only allow you to download your own uploaded files now. There is fear out there ... which is why it is heartening to see Mr. Dotcom confidently go through all the charges laid against him, as far as we know, with confidence.