I was recently in new Zealand and friends in their late 40s and early 50s were upset by the raid on a new Zealand citizen by foreign authorities, in new Zealand. Some of them used mega upload and some hadn't heard of it prior to the raid.
NZ told the us navy they didn't want their nuclear ships in the Harbour, which makes no sense to me, but does show that they have a spine. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mpaa doesn't get their way on this one.
Dotcom is not a New Zealand citizen. He is a resident alien with some extra restrictions due to his extensive criminal background (for example, he cannot own land in New Zealand).
If he wanted to become a New Zealand citizen, the criminal background could be a big hurdle.
It's an important part of the New Zealand national identity. There has been talk of allowing nuclear power generation but given how geologically unstable the country is most kiwis seem content to maintain the current policy.
Nuclear power generation isn't extremely practical for NZ, because it normally comes in large chunks which we don't have the population to support in most places.
Plus we've got like 70% hydro or something anyway, so we're already doing relatively well as far as burning fossil fuels for power goes.
I don't know much about it, but refusing the ships in the harbor could be due to crazy laws/restrictions the US has about them. For example, watercraft are not allowed within a certain radius of aircraft carriers, and if they get too close they can be shot without penalty. I don't remember the measurement, but it was large. Could really mess up the flow of a working harbor.
> Prosecutors allege that pirated movies and other content shared through his site cost copyright holders more than $500m (£322m) in lost earnings, making it one of the biggest cases of its kind.
I doubt the point / accuracy of this statement. Those who downloaded the content would have just gotten the content somewhere else. As much as the FBI would like to, you really can't point the finger at Dotcom for this loss of revenue.
Correct. They're probably trying to calculate that number by assuming that every person who downloaded something copyrighted would have otherwise purchased it. Pure bunk.
That's not the point. This whole case has been just testing the water for the FBI - seeing how far the public (and the NZ government) will let them go. Whether they have grand designs for after Dotcom nobody knows (conspiracy!), but this case is clearly about more than all that money copyright holders supposedly lost (I'm in agreement with you on that - I doubt they would have lost any less without MU).
I never suspect conspiracy when incompetency is much easier. Men with badges hiding behind organizations often forget the scope and source of their vested powers.
The legality of something such as evidence seizure effects how it can be used in court, not necessarily the whole case if they have other evidence they can use instead.
NZ told the us navy they didn't want their nuclear ships in the Harbour, which makes no sense to me, but does show that they have a spine. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mpaa doesn't get their way on this one.