Posts tagged sopa
Megaupload founder granted bail by NZ court
Photo: Kim Dotcom was arrested on January 20.
The German founder of file-sharing website Megaupload has been granted bail by a New Zealand court after a month in custody.
Kim Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, is preparing to fight US extradition hearings over internet-piracy and money-laundering charges.
“I’m relieved to go home and see my family, my three little kids and my pregnant wife,” the 38-year-old told reporters in Auckland after being granted bail.
Dotcom was arrested on January 20 after about 70 armed New Zealand police raided his country estate at the request of the FBI.
Prosecutors say Dotcom - also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor - was the ringleader of a group that netted $US175 million ($164 million) since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorisation.
Dotcom’s lawyers say the company simply offered online storage and that he strenuously denies the charges.
Earlier this month, the High Court supported a lower court judge’s ruling that there was a significant risk Dotcom, who had passports and bank accounts in three names, might try to flee the country.
But on Wednesday, Judge Nevin Dawson granted bail on strict conditions, accepting that no new evidence of undisclosed funds has been found.
The other three co-accused had already been granted bail.
Last week, a US grand jury added more charges against Megaupload and its executives, alleging they took copyrighted material from sites such as YouTube for its own service.
Reuters
(Source: abc.net.au)
Megaupload founder fighting for bail
The founder of online file-sharing website Megaupload has argued in a New Zealand court that he is innocent of internet piracy and said authorities were trying to portray the blackest picture of him.
A judge has reserved his decision on whether to grant bail to Kim Dotcom ahead of an extradition hearing on charges of internet piracy and money laundering.
US authorities want the alleged internet pirate to remain in custody, fearing he is an extreme flight risk and might re-offend.
“Given the breadth of issues covered in this bail application and the seriousness of the issues, I am going to reserve my decision,” Judge David McNaughton said.
Dotcom, a German national, was arrested in Auckland last week over alleged copyright infringement and money-laundering.
His lawyer had argued for bail, saying he posed no threat of absconding or restarting his business.
“Mr Dotcom emphatically denies any criminal misconduct or wrongdoing and denies the existence of a mega conspiracy,” defence lawyer Paul Davison told the court.
But prosecutor Anne Toohey said Dotcom posed a flight risk “at the extreme end of the scale” because it was believed he had access to funds, could easily arrange transport, had multiple identities and had a history of fleeing criminal charges.
Mr Davison argued Dotcom’s passports had been seized, his funds frozen, he had cooperated with authorities and wanted to make New Zealand his permanent home.
US authorities want to extradite Dotcom on charges he masterminded a scheme that made more than $175 million in a few short years by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorisation.
Megaupload’s lawyer has said the company simply offered online storage.
The court hearing comes as media reported that Dotcom ordered around $3 million of renovations to the sprawling mansion that he leased near Auckland, with its manicured lawns, fountains, pools, palm-lined paths and extensive security.
Tougher legislation
The case is being heard as the debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where the US congress is trying to craft tougher legislation.
Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation on Friday, postponing a critical vote in a victory for internet companies that staged a mass online protest against the fast-moving bills.
The movie and music industries want congress to crack down on internet piracy and content theft, but major internet companies, like Google and Facebook, have complained current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.
The situation reached fever-pitch last week when online encyclopaedia Wikipedia staged a 24-hour blackout in protest of drafted new legislation.
Critics of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) quickly showed their opposition to the shutdown of Megaupload.com, with hackers attacking the public websites of the Justice Department, the world’s largest music company Universal Music, and the two big trade groups that represent the music and film industries.
Reuters
(Source: abc.net.au)
SOPA is the end of us, say bloggers
The conservative and liberal blogospheres are unifying behind opposition to Congress’s Stop Online Piracy Act, with right-leaning bloggers arguing their very existence could be wiped out if the anti-piracy bill passes.
“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist,” wrote a blogger at Red Mass Group.
Some have asserted that the controversial measures would criminalize pages and blogs that link to foreign websites dedicated to online piracy. In particular, this has concerned search engines like Google, which could face massive liability if some form of the bill passes, some say.
“Of course, restrictions of results provided by Internet search engines amount to just that: prior restraint of their free expression of future results. Google and others, under SOPA, are told what they can or can’t publish before they publish it. Kill. The. Bill,” conservative blogger Neil Stevens argued at RedState.
Liberals had their own spin on it, cheering on the fact that corporate support for SOPA was starting to subside.
In particular, GoDaddy, a domain registration firm, suffered a spectacularly bad round of PR when it came out in support of the measures. But after a grass-roots campaign to boycott the firm, driven by Reddit, an online community, and others, GoDaddy reversed course and renounced its support.
“Some good news on the SOPA front: Its corporate base of supporters is starting to crumble,” David Dayden wrote at Firedoglake. “GoDaddy is not alone. Scores of law firms are requesting their names be removed from the Judiciary Committee’s official list of SOPA supporters.”
In the blogosphere, the trajectory of the bill seemed set — that it is destined for failure if the pressure of the online community is kept up.
“The dynamic is clear. Once SOPA — and its Senate counterpart, Protecting IP Act, or PIPA — became high-profile among the Internet community, the lazy endorsements from companies and various hangers-on became toxic. And now, those supporters are scrambling, hollowing out the actual support for the bill. Suddenly, a bill with ‘widespread’ corporate support doesn’t have much support at all,” Dayden said.
Conservatives took a slightly different tact, though with similar disdain for the anti-piracy measures.
Indeed, blogger Erick Erickson said that he would encourage a primary for any Republican who supports the bill.
“I love Marsha Blackburn. She is a delightful lady and a solidly conservative member of Congress. And I am pledging right now that I will do everything in my power to defeat her in her 2012 reelection bid” due to her co-sponsorship for SOPA, Erickson wrote at RedState. “Congress has proven it does not understand the Internet. Perhaps they will understand brute strength against them at the ballot box. If members of Congress do not pull their name from co-sponsorship of SOPA, the left and right should pledge to defeat each and every one of them.”
