Questions to ponder as appeal process begins
It was always a longshot for Kim Dotcom and others when the evidence against them included emails such as: “We are the pirates here.”
The FBI’s trawl through the online chat accounts of Dotcom and the other defendants provided rich fodder to argue the case should be heard at a trial in the United States.
The question of whether that evidence is any good was never going to be argued here. That’s what a trial is for, and the law on this issue suggests the Megaupload accused will have a much better shot of arguing against the FBI case.
From the US side, Crown lawyers had to deal with copyright not being an extraditable offence. They told the court Megaupload was a “conspiracy to defraud” rightful copyright owners.
Judge Nevin Dawson accepted the argument, based on a “liberal interpretation of the [extradition] treaty”. Stand by for the appeals. In the meantime, take a breather and consider some unanswered questions after four years on the Dotcom rollercoaster. How was Dotcom able to be in New Zealand for the raid? He was given residency by Immigration NZ — with the knowledge of the Immigration Minister at the time, Jonathan Coleman — despite Dotcom’s declaration he had convictions for hacking and insider trading (wiped by Germany’s clean-slate law). Immigration NZ gave him residency even though it knew Dotcom was being investigated by the FBI. Did John Key know about Dotcom before the raid? This was The Big Question for some time. The Prime Minister says no, Dotcom says yes.
Consider — Dotcom moved into the most expensive house in Mr Key’s electorate and upset enough locals they rang the Prime Minister’s electorate office repeatedly to complain.
Meanwhile, Key’s ministers have a difference of opinion over allowing Dotcom to buy the mansion and, when it is decided, one minister’s office rings one of the Prime Minister’s aides to let him know.
Also, the GCSB ran its illegal operation against Dotcom while Key was minister of the intelligence agencies. Did he know? In my opinion, someone might have mentioned something but I doubt it registered in any meaningful way. Does it matter? Not really. Is there a conspiracy against Dotcom? Of a sort, in the sense Hollywood has had great success lobbying the US government over copyright, to the extent the White House appointed a copyright tsar and elevated the issue to one of national security.
From this position, the US justice apparatus took a world view on copyright infringement.
The global adventurism at play became clear a few years later when Dotcom’s prosecutor spoke of how internet traffic passing through West Virginia, which is swollen with servers, gave the US jurisdiction on the world.