Kim Dotcom gains access to seized property from 2012 raid

[Shawn Knight]

Kim Dotcom wins another battle as the New Zealand High Court on Friday ruled that warrants used during a raid on Dotcom’s home in 2012 were illegal. As such, police are now required to provide copies of all evidence used in the prosecution of Dotcom. What’s more, they must return all non-relevant assets to Dotcom and three associates.

It is good news for Dotcom as up until now, his defense team didn’t have access to any of the evidence seized by police during the raid – putting them at a clear disadvantage. Shortly after the raid it was revealed that some $42 million in assets were seized from Dotcom and the file sharing service Megaupload.

The court also demanded that US authorities must destroy any copied material sent their way that contained data irrelevant to the case as well as all information pulled from the copies. Storage devices that contain a mix of relevant and irrelevant data can remain in the custody of police but they must provide copies of the data to Dotcom’s legal team first.

Afterwards, they are permitted to provide copies to US authorities but not before deleting all personal photos and videos. In the event that that such copies have already been sent to the US, officials are asked to delete personal pictures and videos.

Dotcom is still scheduled for a hearing in August to determine if he will be extradited to the US to face piracy charges from the operation of Megaupload.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52753-kim-dotcom-gains-access-to-seized-property-from-2012-raid.html

 

[spydercanopus]

This will end up being the biggest advertisement Kim could possibly have hoped for. He'll be a martyr and untouchable in future cases.

 

[psycros]

This will end up being the biggest advertisement Kim could possibly have hoped for. He'll be a martyr and untouchable in future cases.

I'd say you're probably right. Certainly he's a bit of a dirtbag who clearly didn't mind the fact he was getting filthy rich off the misdeeds of copyright infringers. However, the authorities, both US and otherwise, did almost *everything* wrong in going after him. If nothing else I'm glad that the out-of-control US Justice Dept. has received some richly deserved comeuppance. Now if we can just put Eric Holder on trial for his many crimes we might really make some progress.

 

[Guest]

Even though Kit Dotcom has gotten rich off of MegaUpload, he wasn't the one actually performing the copyright infringement. While the U.S. government and others can be justifiably angry, you can't come after an individual who did nothing wrong. They should be after the individuals who broke the law to begin with. Furthermore, he doesn't live in the U.S. and can't be subject to their laws because there is in fact no judicial standing. The same goes for Julian Assange, he was simply given the documents, but committed no crime himself. He didn't go and hack into any computer servers or went into military and diplomatic installations and covertly steal them.

It seems the U.S. will lose this one as they were too aggressive and violated numerous laws themselves to try to bring him and his empire down. Laws work both ways, both the government and the people must obey them.

 

[Tgard]

They got what they wanted anyways, which was MegaUpload damaged and shut down. Whether they win or not was always secondary to actually showing their power and shutting it down imo.

 

[Guest]

And why won't they go after some huge companies that are laundering money using legal loopholes, would the cases be harder to go after ?

 

[Tygerstrike]

Yes Mr. DotCom didnt do the copyright infringment personally, but he did facilitate so others could. Its like the drug dealer. They dont use the drug but they sell it to others that do. As for Julian, he diseminated information that was not his to release. If it was marked as confidential and he released it anyways then he is as guilty as the one who stole it. Stop trying to make them out as innocent. They are not. They have commited crimes. Kim DotCom was busted for embezzeling previously. Julian is wanted for rape. Dont fall for the hype, they are guilty and should face the music for their crimes. No amount of money or fame should exempt ANYONE from facing justice.

 

[Wendig0]

As the warrants used were deemed illegal to begin with, making the raid itself illegal, wouldn't that mean that everything seized during the raid is inadmissible as evidence?

 

[Guest]

Yes Mr. DotCom didnt do the copyright infringment personally, but he did facilitate so others could.

Oh so Megaupload was designed to host pirated material? Did they advertise to it's users: "Need a place to dump your illegal files? You've come to the right place!" It's like saying a corner store owner should be arrested because he/she set up the store so others could steal. Neither the corner store owner or Kim Dotcom had the intentions of managing a place solely to commit crimes. The only individuals that should be arrested are the perpetrators.

Also: Just because Kim Dotcom has previously committed a crime, doesn't mean he's the villain in every situation. Sure, existing policies could have been stronger and further inforced, but the doesn't mean privacy infringment was encouraged on the site.

 

[captaincranky]

Oh so Megaupload was designed to host pirated material? Did they advertise to it's users: "Need a place to dump your illegal files? You've come to the right place!" It's like saying a corner store owner should be arrested because he/she set up the store so others could steal. Neither the corner store owner or Kim Dotcom had the intentions of managing a place solely to commit crimes. The only individuals that should be arrested are the perpetrators.

Also: Just because Kim Dotcom has previously committed a crime, doesn't mean he's the villain in every situation. Sure, existing policies could have been stronger and further inforced, but the doesn't mean privacy infringment was encouraged on the site.

So, what you're saying is, everybody that uploaded material to "Megaupload" should be prosecuted. Or maybe the RIAA / MPAA should sue them? While Dotcom who made millions in ad revenue off these stolen materials should just walk away scott free?

What don't you spare us the BS and double talk, and go convince Dotcom that YOU should be his laywer.

While you're on the way, take a few moments to look up the terms, "tacit", and "exculpatory". I think you'll find the answers you do not want to hear or believe there, "hot air hopper".

Go listen to Frank Sinatra sing, "That's Life". Especially the part about, "you're riding high in April, shot down in May". At least Kimbo's still on the streets. The size of his greedy, over consumptive a**, would appear to shrink the average prison cell down to the size of a closet.

And I'm not even arguing any moral issue. When you go all in like Dotcom did with "Megaupload", sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you. It's that simple. This just happened to be the bear's turn to win.

 

[Guest]

About that analogy for him being a drug dealer, it's inaccurate.
A drug dealer knowingly sells you an illegal product. Kim didn't sell you illegal media, he sold you faster download speeds. He didn't control what was put on the site, it was the users from around the world that posted.
A more appropriate analogy would be he was the owner of a trap house, but had nothing to do with drug delivery or pickup. He would just charge a fee for quicker access to the house.
Whether he knew about the drugs or not is up for debate, and the court may have been able to prove he did in fact know about them and promote it had they not royally screwed up the entire procedure, and overstepped their bounds.
The US only has itself to blame for not being able to nail this guy, due to their arrogance and putting on a show.

 

[Tygerstrike]

Yeah lets forget the hundreds of millions of dollars that those artists will never get now because of Mega. Yea lets focus on the legality of the warrent. Not the victims. Thats the right way to go. Really ever bit of copy right protected material should be completly dismissed, simply because ppl want to screw the man.
You know, Im realy tired of the idjits trying to make this guy out as some form of internet saint. Use whatever anology that helps you understand what he did.