Megaupload Judge Calls U.S. "The Enemy" Pages 1 2 NEXT | |
Outlawing region-free DVD players? This means WAR! Seriously though, would one of you foreign countries PLEASE stand-up to our government? I assure those of us with working brains view it with just as much contempt as you do. | |
Oh well whatever the outcome of this current case, the US has got an instant grounds for appeal. This guy shooting his mouth off in public about the US being the enemy is going to be a clear case of bias against one of the parties involved. The guy is an idiot, if he kept his mouth shut and merely thought it, there wouldn't be a thing the US could do. | |
Psht! If we can't have region free DVD players due to our government being controlled by corperation-fueled lobbyists no one can! | |
It's a strange world when good news comes in the form of foreign judges calling the government of my country "the enemy." Good to see someone taking a stand against my government throwing elbows trying to get what it wants. As Three Dog says "Keep fightin' the good fight." | |
While I am amused by his comment, I am far from hopeful about this situation, or any situations related to it (including this region free DVD player bullshit in the article). | |
I'm a very patriotic man, but this case US IS the bad guy. I hope Dotcom wins this. | |
FREEDOM! From US oppression. I always though that I should move to Canada just as soon as I can afford it (yea right), but maybe I should go to New Zealand instead. | |
Its a shame my own politicians and judges won't do the same. Go New Zealand judge! | |
This just in, United States plans affirmative action against New Zealand for the harbouring of international terrorate Kit Dotcom and the illegal stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Duplication. Keep it up NZ, about time someone took a stand against the bought out politicians of the west. | |
Go Kiwis! | |
Of course he is biased! He is caring for the poeple of his country! | |
Yeah, here's hoping the US doesn't fuck over more of the rest of the world by forcing another trade deal down their throats. | |
hopefully the "internet issues" being discussed include the fact that in NZ we have rubbish over-priced internet | |
Who do we call the enemy, my children, my children? I like this. It was pretty obvious that the only way the US could win this case was getting a judge who was either biased or ignorant about the series of pipes, and they got the exact opposite of both those things. | |
agreed, some country really needs to stand against our copyright laws which are so completely unfair as to be an intellectual war crime. As for region free players thats just how they all should be and to do otherwise should be considered a unfair trade practice and banned. | |
Ha if that is enough for to appeal then the piratebay would have won their appeal as well some examples of bias "Only days before the trial began, one of the three appointed lay judges was discovered to be a member of a composers' association that among others works on protecting copyright" "In the aftermath of the trial, presiding judge Tomas Norström, the same judge that ordered the 2006 raid on The Pirate Bay's servers, came under scrutiny after allegations of bias. Sveriges Radio P3 News organized an investigation that found on April 23 that Norström had several engagements with organisations interested in intellectual property issues" "Norström however also sits in the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property,[96] which along with the SFU are the Swedish branches of International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI) and Association littéraire et artistique internationale (ALAI). AIPPI's website states that "the objective of AIPPI is to improve and promote the protection of intellectual property on both an international and national basis"," and there is much more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay_trial#Bias_allegations | |
the us government is either evil or criminally insane almost to a man. i have no problem with a judge saying that the united states is the enemy when we try to force our laws down the throats of other nations like copyright laws and the drug war. we do not like it anymore over here when the UN tries to ram their laws down our throats. like this small arms garbage. i cannot wait for china to call in our debt or the EU etc to pull our international monetary status, then watch as these monsters are too busy covering their own arses to bother sticking their noses onto the rights of other nations and commit illegal raids to boot. and to think this is all on the dollars of the lobbists of the poor suffering music and movie industry than cannot survive in this world of pirates, meanwhile churn out garbage at a clips so large it is amazing when you see a good movie out of hollywood, or a good cd out of the music industry, etc. wonder how many millions it takes to convince your nation's leaders to authorize an illegal raid in a foreign nation, then on top of it cause an international incident when they refuse to hand over the evidence they illegally seized, and demand on top it if that you guys follow our laws or else. yes we are the enemy. the enemy of freedom, the enemy of justice, and the enemy of the "american" way. | |
Precisely when did the judge at a public meeting call the Pirate bay evil?
His job is not to care or express his political opinion but to make a fair an impartial judgement in the matter of law in the case in front of him. If he wants to care for the nation then step down from the bench and stand for election. | |
A lot of DVD distributors declared war almost a decade ago.
Possibly more.
Why pick one? I say both! Plus, throw in ignorant for a complete picture. | |
So judges working for spotify or are member of a group that promotes stricter IP laws is less bias then a judge calling the US a enemy (not evil)? I would actually think its a better chance to get a non-bias answer from the person that thinks US is the enemy then the judges in piratebay case but that is just my opinion | |
Agreed on all accounts (with being a serviceman to boot). I think it's high time someone walked up to our government and kicked it in the shins with sharpened ice skates. | |
Honestly the good guy/bad guy thing tends to get overplayed in the US. My opinion/theory is that the US for the past 100+ years runs on a very simply concept: what's best for American business is best for the American people. This also extends to the international level, where US priority comes before fair dealing. For example, the US is so gun-ho about international copyright/IP laws because they are the largest creators and of distributed media. Something like international trademarks on local food brands on the other hand, that protects products such as Kobe Beef or Champagne, American farmers can make money by stealing these name brands and applying it to their own products. Or the recent SOPA fiasco, consider how close the US congress came to possibly breaking the internet for the rest of the world in favour of US Business. Then recently the UN brings up the idea of starting their own internet tax, possibly in an attempt to take control over the internet, and all of a sudden to many of the same people who supported SOPA the integrity of the internet must be protected at all costs! It's all just one big circle jerk really. | |
My thoughts exactly. While there is allot of things about my country that I love, our bought and paid for government is most definitively not one of them. | |
'THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM!' Hahaha...nope. They hate us because our government acts like jerks. | |
The lobbyists responsible for this will not stop because they have nearly limitless funds to work with. Until the ESA is viewed by the public as hostile and game publishers withdrawl support, this will just get worse and worse. The USA was just dumb enough to listen to the ESA. | |
So... Sudden Heart Attack, Fell Naked out of a Helicopter, or Shock Suicide? (Via self-inflicted throat slice coupled with bruises all down the arms and neck, while hands were duck taped) | |
Yeah, it really sucks that it's our[1] Department of Justice and our Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that really screwed the pooch on this one. For one thing this is a demonstrative example of how our law enforcement and justice departments are really agencies of big business (in this case legacy content providers) and not (as we've been taught and promised) agencies of the people, so yeah, when our gummint is a finger-puppet for big lobbies, they are the tyrants, and they are the enemy. I'm frightened also that either they're too ignorant to be aware what of what they did,[2] or are simply more interested in covering their assess than fixing what is essentially damage to the global economy. (Considering what I've read, I suspect it's the former) But both ICE and the DoJ need to be penalized severely, granted, at taxpayer expense, or it could take half a century for the economy to recover.[3] So, I'd like to say I'm sorry on behalf of the United States, but the bigger picture is: we now owe you guys reparations. 238U [1] As an American speaking on behalf of other Americans... [2] That is to say the consequences of busting Kim Dotcom like a terrorist (complete with swat-guys-through-the-windows) and then to refuse to respect the rights of the servers used by Megaupload (That's what you get for collaborating with criminals, according to the DoJ prosecuting attorneys) or consider the rights, and collateral damage caused to the legitimate clients of Mega). The upshot of this is that cloud-computing-dependent business models have been grossly chilled along with the services that provide for them. (Most cyberlockers just don't do business with the US anymore). [3] This article expresses the opinion that the big legacy influence on government agencies is only a fringe hypothesis, though a lot of fingers point at the RIAA and MPAA, and ICE has been behaving as Hollywood's thugs for some time. The article simply dismisses the notion saying our system is set up so that entities like RIAA/MPAA can't actually issue a memo to dictate who gets busted by the Feds, and how, but someone who understands how the system works could mobilize ICE similarly to the way the 20th-of-July Staffenburg coup took control of Nazi forces to overthrow Hitler's regime, and it's not like ICE's papers were exactly in order. The charges against Megaupload remain really vague, such as conspiracy and racketeering, so even if Dotcom was brought to a legitimate court, they'd have quite the chore getting any of it to stick. On the other hand, Mega's downtime might be enough to kill it permanently. | |
The whole region thing in movies and games is something that should go extinct. At this point there is no real reason for it aside from how uppity our species is. Don't like your movie being shown in Country A while it's showing in Country B? Why in the world should that even be a problem if they are still buying it!? God, there is just no pleasing some people. It's not enough that people buy their things legit, they have to do it in weird and specific ways to make the creators happy. Oh yeah, that won't help turn people to piracy at all! | |
+1000 to New Zealand. Edit: This whole DoJ busting Dotcom is insane and way out of line. I think that there needs to be a round of firings. | |
The inited state the ennemies? Exagerating a bit much maybe?Not taking side here but... well it seem pushing it a bit | |
Not really, the US has the most retarded copyright laws you could imagine. So with the US trying to shove their copyright standards down other coutnrys throat they are the enemy, hell they are the enemy of their own citizens. | |
Oi, Andy, you should probably link to the article on the judge stepping down from the case. | |
That's the actual policy in the US. That whole "Race to the Bottom" thing that politicians have convinced Americans to do. "Teachers are making HOW MUCH MONEY?! I'm not making that much! CUT THEIR SALARIES!" ...wut? Why not demand your job pay you a good wage and treat you like a human? "MADNESS! CUT IT! WE NEED MORE MONEY FOR BOMBS!" | |
Everyone kind of owes you a lot, England does at least, so it's really rude to say no to you guys sometimes. It'd be like if you bailed us out with a lot of money for years and allowed us to have the NHS and then a few years later we spat in your face. No wait, that's exactly what it would be. As much as I like the idea, it's going to be a while before we get to that point. OT: Awesome, I love it when America's unreasonable laws are jumped on. You guys really like your IP and copyright laws. | |
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Megaupload Judge Calls U.S. "The Enemy"
The judge presiding over Kim Dotcom's case in New Zealand says the United States is "the enemy."
The copyright infringement case against Megaupload founder Kit Dotcom has seen more than its fair share of twists and turns, as what appeared at first as a fait accompli has turned into a serious struggle for the United States government. New Zealand judges have since ruled that the raid on Dotcom's home was illegal and ordered the U.S. to turn over evidence to his defense team, something it had previously refused to do. An extradition hearing scheduled for August was recently pushed back into 2013 to give Dotcom's lawyers adequate time to prepare his defense.
And now it turns out that one judge on the case has an interest in the future of his country's intellectual property laws that goes way beyond just this one particular matter. Judge David Harvey, who ordered the disclosure of evidence to Megaupload lawyers in May, told a recent meeting of the "A Fair Deal" coalition that the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact currently being negotiated by New Zealand, the U.S., Australia and other Pacific Rim nations would have a very real effect on the everyday lives of New Zealanders.
The U.S. is pushing hard for New Zealand's intellectual property laws to be changed to conform with its own, something A Fair Deal opposes. As a specific example, Harvey said that if the New Zealand government caves to U.S. demands, region-free DVD players which are currently legal in the country would be made illegal.
"Under TPP and the American Digital Millennium copyright provisions you will not be able to do that, that will be prohibited... if you do you will be a criminal - that's what will happen," Harvey told his audience. "If I could use [journalist] Russell [Brown's] tweet from earlier on: we have met the enemy and he is [the] U.S."
It's not too difficult to see a bit of potentially troubling bias in the statement but Bill Hodge, a professor of law at Auckland University, said that while the comment may appear "unhelpful," it isn't necessarily inappropriate.
"It was part of a quasi-academic conference discussing developing areas of law," he said. "I think judges should be free to make comments, as long as it doesn't appear to show any predetermination with respect to the specific case in the court before them."
Along with his duties as a District Court Judge, Harvey is also a members of the advisory board of NetHui, a three-day conference dealing with "internet issues" in New Zealand, serves as a consultant editor for Butterworths Electronic Business and Technology Law and is a member of the Editorial Board for Butterworths Technology Law Forum. He is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Auckland, where he teaches "Law and Information Technology."
Source: New Zealand Herald
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