- 15 Jun 2023 16:04
#15276979
The U.S. justice system used its legal power to prosecute a group of foreign citizens living in New Zealand who ran a website.
The website allowed people to share copyrighted videos.
The website was very profitable because it collected advertising revenue from banners placed at the top of its pages.
I find this questionable or somewhat concerning because, in a fundamental way, it involves the criminalization of information, in an international way, and one country punishing people in other parts of the world for running a website (which could be seen as freedom of information, freedom of the press). While it is understandable that government wants to prevent copyrighted videos from being shown, it also sets worrying legal precedents.
New Zealand had a special law which prohibited extradition for copyright infringement, which is why the group had located themselves in New Zealand. However, when the U.S. pushed to prosecute and extradite these people, the courts in New Zealand came up with legal excuses to arrest them.
The legal justification the judge in New Zealand used to extradite the owner of the website to the U.S. was that it constituted "fraud" in the U.S., and so therefore it was comparable to a law that existed in New Zealand, therefore Kim Dotcom should be extradited to the U.S.
"Fraud" is kind of a vague all-encompassing term, and the extradition went against the spirit of New Zealand's law.
New Zealand authorities had, at the behest of U.S. authorities, conducted a special armed police raid with tactical officers on Kim Dotcom's mansion. Kim hid in a secret panic room hidden in the mansion, as the tactical police team smashed walls with a sledgehammer trying to search for him, until finally a domestic employee at the mansion gave away the location where he was hiding.
The people who ran the website never posted copyrighted material to the website themselves, but allowed other people on the internet to post videos to their site.
The main reason the website was so popular was because it allowed copyrighted video to be hosted, and made no effort to remove the videos from its hosting services.
There was no exchange of money, the videos were watched for free.
The men who ran the website were Kim Dotcom (Kimble Schmitz, originally from Germany), Andrus Nomm (originally from Estonia), Finn Batato (originally from Germany), Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk.
The site was called Megaupload and operated from March 2005 to January 2012.
One of the reasons why it sets a concerning precedent is the worry that government could use copyright laws in the future as an excuse to shut down freedom of the press and arrest people for messages authorities dislike.
Even though copyright infringement is problematic, some people believe in the "freedom of information" including the right to share video when there is no exchange of money.
The website allowed people to share copyrighted videos.
The website was very profitable because it collected advertising revenue from banners placed at the top of its pages.
I find this questionable or somewhat concerning because, in a fundamental way, it involves the criminalization of information, in an international way, and one country punishing people in other parts of the world for running a website (which could be seen as freedom of information, freedom of the press). While it is understandable that government wants to prevent copyrighted videos from being shown, it also sets worrying legal precedents.
New Zealand had a special law which prohibited extradition for copyright infringement, which is why the group had located themselves in New Zealand. However, when the U.S. pushed to prosecute and extradite these people, the courts in New Zealand came up with legal excuses to arrest them.
The legal justification the judge in New Zealand used to extradite the owner of the website to the U.S. was that it constituted "fraud" in the U.S., and so therefore it was comparable to a law that existed in New Zealand, therefore Kim Dotcom should be extradited to the U.S.
"Fraud" is kind of a vague all-encompassing term, and the extradition went against the spirit of New Zealand's law.
New Zealand authorities had, at the behest of U.S. authorities, conducted a special armed police raid with tactical officers on Kim Dotcom's mansion. Kim hid in a secret panic room hidden in the mansion, as the tactical police team smashed walls with a sledgehammer trying to search for him, until finally a domestic employee at the mansion gave away the location where he was hiding.
The people who ran the website never posted copyrighted material to the website themselves, but allowed other people on the internet to post videos to their site.
The main reason the website was so popular was because it allowed copyrighted video to be hosted, and made no effort to remove the videos from its hosting services.
There was no exchange of money, the videos were watched for free.
The men who ran the website were Kim Dotcom (Kimble Schmitz, originally from Germany), Andrus Nomm (originally from Estonia), Finn Batato (originally from Germany), Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk.
The site was called Megaupload and operated from March 2005 to January 2012.
One of the reasons why it sets a concerning precedent is the worry that government could use copyright laws in the future as an excuse to shut down freedom of the press and arrest people for messages authorities dislike.
Even though copyright infringement is problematic, some people believe in the "freedom of information" including the right to share video when there is no exchange of money.
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