Kim Dotcom : ‘U Mad?’
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom was recently given a huge boost in court when a judge in New Zealand declared that the warrants used by police officers to raid Dotcom’s Auckland mansion were invalid. Dotcom is currently facing charges of criminal copyright infringement, but he maintains that his cloud storage service operates within the confines of U.S. intellectual property law.
Many users are upset that their files – stored on the now-seized website – have been turned over to the FBI and remain inaccessible despite the lack of evidence proving they’ve broken any laws. In response, the Internet advocacy organization Demand Progress filed a legal brief last Wednesday urging the court “to facilitate all non-party Megaupload users in retrieval of all files (or copies of files) they stored on Mega Servers.” U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady plans to issue an order on the property acquisition soon.
Helen Winkelmann , the aforementioned New Zealand Chief Justice, also ruled that the transfer of Dotcom’s personal computer data to the FBI was illegal. The finality of her decision will most assuredly change the way the U.S. government proceeds in the prosecution of Megaupload’s high-ranking employees, especially if the majority of its evidence depends upon files seized from the computers in question.
Kim Dotcom – quite happy about recent court rulings – has even taken the narrative to Twitter , gleefully taunting U.S. authorities with photographs of his luxurious lifestyle despite their attempts to invalidate his earnings. Figures as famous as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have come out in support of Dotcom’s innocence, and this appeal isn’t new. In December 2011, Dotcom released a music video for the wildly popular ” Megaupload Song ” in which individuals like Kanye West, The Game and Kim Kardashian openly touted their use of Megaupload’s services. Many of the same artists, Dotcom explains, have signed on to his new venture, Megabox , which aims to compensate artists through advertising revenue while offering the music to listeners for free. The essential goal is to cut out the ” dinosaur record labels ” and other middlemen.
Guilty of Lulz
Two British members of the hacker group LulzSec have now pleaded guilty to various computer crimes. Jake Davis, known by the online handle “Topiary,” was joined by Ryan Cleary in the plea. The two admitted to hacking websites ranging from Sony Pictures to an FBI affiliate in Atlanta. Two other LulzSec members – Ryan Ackroyd , who went by the handle “Kayla,” and an unnamed 17-year old – pleaded not guilty to similar charges.
All four arrests stemmed in part from the complicity of Hector Xavier Monsegur ( “Sabu” ), a hacker who had been providing information to the FBI as an informant for nearly a year. Background details of this story can be found Parmy Olson’s new book, We Are Anonymous . Still, the past notwithstanding, it’s still difficult to determine the route Ackroyd’s lawyers will take in proving his innocence.
Among the defense possibilities is certainly Monsegur’s dubious credibility as a witness. If the FBI’s proof is more solid than the expected chat logs, though, the question of whether the agency’s actions constitute entrapment – especially if it knew about plans for the Stratfor attack before it happened – will continue to loom over the courtroom.
