Dotcom raid illegal

[Soldim]

It seems those crying foul over megaupload practices have are not beyond illegal methods themselves on several instances:

The U.S. piracy case against MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom appears to have run aground, with a New Zealand court ruling that the warrants issued for the property seizures in January were invalid.

New Zealand High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann ruled today that the warrants did not adequately describe the offenses alleged, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald. "Indeed they fell well short of that," she said. "They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid.''

She also ruled that it was unlawful for the data confiscated in the raid to have been sent offshore, saying "the release of the cloned hard drives to the FBI for shipping to the United States was contrary to the 16 February direction" [given by the court] "that the items seized were to remain in the custody and control of the Commissioner of Police."

See the rest of the article here.

Edited to add this link to the PDF of the ruling.

[maxiart]

Excellent

[Lynx-lynx]

Here's some of AFP's story:

----------------------

New Zealand court rules Megaupload raid was illegal

(AFP) – 46 minutes ago


In a separate legal move, the US District Court in Virginia is scheduled to hear a motion from Megaupload's lawyers Friday to dismiss the case against the company and its executives.

The motion will argue that the US Justice Department and FBI had no right to take action against Megaupload because the Hong Kong-registered company has no presence in the United States.

Police said in a statement that they were considering the judgement and deciding what further action is now required.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...e539022156.991

[Lynx-lynx]

My thoughts ..... I knew the Kiwis would get their legal act together and stick the balance of trade, eh!!!

[mr ploppy]

I heard his idea to pay musicians per download is back on. Hopefully he will do something similar with ebooks too.

[Sil_liS]

Justice prevails?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Justice prevails?

Justice? Someone who's made millions out of encouraging and facilitating copyright infringement? Where's the "justice"?

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Justice? Someone who's made millions out of encouraging and facilitating copyright infringement? Where's the "justice"?

The US still has the concept of innocent until proven guilty. They didn't play by their own rules. Unfortunately they won't be punished for the way they mocked the justice system.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

The US still has the concept of innocent until proven guilty. They didn't play by their own rules. Unfortunately they won't be punished for the way they mocked the justice system.

And the exclusionary rule, often referred to the "fruit of the poisoned/poisonous tree" rule. Evidence obtained by illegal methods isn't admissible in court, no matter how damning.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by teh603

And the exclusionary rule, often referred to the "fruit of the poisoned/poisonous tree" rule. Evidence obtained by illegal methods isn't admissible in court, no matter how damning.

So if they start playing by the rules now, they can't touch Dotcom for what he did.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

The US still has the concept of innocent until proven guilty. They didn't play by their own rules. Unfortunately they won't be punished for the way they mocked the justice system.

And neither, it appears, will Mr Dotcom, who has "mocked the justice system" infinitely more. And that's a far greater injustice.

[misling]

Originally Posted by HarryT

And neither, it appears, will Mr Dotcom, who has "mocked the justice system" infinitely more. And that's a far greater injustice.

I'll have to disagree with you. For one company to make a mockery of the law and justice system is bad.
For the law and justice system to make a mockery of itself is worse.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by misling

I'll have to disagree with you. For one company to make a mockery of the law and justice system is bad.
For the law and justice system to make a mockery of itself is worse.

For law enforcement officials to screw up their procedures is bad, yes (if that's what in fact did happen), but you're surely not comparing it to the crimes of a man who's made millions from brazenly encouraging and facilitating people to infringe copyright, are you? That seems a bizarre comparison to me.

[Soldim]

Originally Posted by HarryT

And neither, it appears, will Mr Dotcom, who has "mocked the justice system" infinitely more. And that's a far greater injustice.

I have to admit that I don't particularly feel sorry for Dotcom; however, for me the precedent of countries not bothering to adhere to rule of law seems infinitely more serious than 'facilitating copyright infringement'.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For law enforcement officials to screw up their procedures is bad, yes (if that's what in fact did happen), but you're surely not comparing it to the crimes of a man who's made millions from brazenly encouraging and facilitating people to infringe copyright, are you? That seems a bizarre comparison to me.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this.