Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand • Hacker News Board

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#271

Post by SXX » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:31 PM UTC

retinaros wrote: post #224

thor-rodrigues wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your line of thought. The question with Kim was not about open-source, was about copyright and intellectual property all along. As other comments noted, the man literally made millions distributing copyrighted material, while completely aware of what he was doing.

chatgpt is doing just that and they re being praised for it. hell they even break deal with gov agencies

But it's run by Altman and Microsoft. They bring money to US so allowed to do it.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#272

Post by SXX » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:34 PM UTC

macintux wrote: post #132

Tade0 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tweet about opposing war in ukraine arguing that NATO is outdated and not in the interest of Ukrainians? Oh pay no attention to him -- he is on the communist payroll. Hailing from a country that joined NATO in the 90s I wouldn't brand a person arguing this as being on communist payroll - just ignorant beyond measure. Russia has been a consistently bad neighbour for decades now and I for one am happy that in my coun…

Why do people who oppose the war in Ukraine feel it's Ukraine's responsibility to roll over and die, instead of Russia's responsibility to turn around and go home?

This is usual tactics of Putins' shills. They all very much against war, but it's certainly must be stopped as is on the current frontline. So Ukraine not controlling part of it's territories and can't get into NATO, so Putin can prepare better for next invasion.

Unfortunately EU and US governments are not much better since they all put dumb limits on weapons usage and never supplied Ukraine enough weapons to actually get any superiority.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#273

Post by echelon » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

BowBun wrote: post #176

agpl3141592 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know that they pushed it left and right as 'dropbox' share everything platform targeting pirate groups with referral money right? He was not early or anything he was literally pushing pirated movies and TV shows

Wait until you hear how Crunchyroll got to where they did! Plex is on much the same trajectory. Heck, even Google Play Music used the strategy by letting people upload their pirated music libraries to get users. It's a tried and true strategy.

Google Play Music let you upload your own music library to your own account. They didn't check or assert where you got your mp3s. Nobody else had access to your collection.

From the beginning, Kim's company put itself front and center in the piracy world. It was advertised as an alternative to BitTorrent and you were meant to share links with others.

When licensors and eventually authorities asked him to stop, he laughed at them and doubled down.

He's played the pirate the whole time, and he's hated authority and venture capital and IP every step of the way.

There's a reason he would up where he is versus the other IP grey area companies and products that became wildly successful. He deliberately chose this path.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#274

Post by 7jjjjjjj » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:36 PM UTC

t-3 wrote: post #268

sandworm101 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> probably because a bunch of people dealing with their cases also start disliking them personally. More likely because those people remain naïve about the real world. In a past career I had some interaction with IP enforcement lawyers. They were stuck in the past then and have not really evolved. Their understanding of "the internet" extends only to those things discoverable via google search. Megaupload was knocke…

> Piracy is more alive now than ever, but as it is no longer visible via Google, the likes of the MPAA and IRAA cannot see it. How so? Google is a major distributor of most pirated material through YouTube and their search engine still makes finding stuff easy. I'd argue that p2p is nearly irrelevant nowadays and server-oriented distribution is the main model.

P2P is still where you go if you don't want potato quality video.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#275

Post by tzs » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:36 PM UTC

diggan wrote: post #26

ionwake wrote: post #18

Anyone know why this is prioritised? Wasn't this copyright stuff from like 2 decades ago? Just genuinely curious.

If the media industry is successful in using DMCA against foreign residents to put them in US jail, it'll be a huge deterrent against any other similar people hosting similar platforms in countries with US extradition treaties.

They aren't using the DMCA against him. Where DMCA comes into the picture is that for hosting sites DMCA compliance can be used as a defense against a charge of copyright infringement in the US.

The underlying problem for Megaupload is that what they were doing is illegal in over 180 countries (basically any country that is a party to a major international copyright treaty or convention).

A good general rule of thumb is that if you want to host something that is illegal in country X hosting it in country Y without an extradition treaty is not sufficient. You should pick a Y where it is not illegal there. Otherwise even if Y does not care enough to go after you, if Y has good trade or other relations with X the may respond positively to encouragement from X to go after you.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#276

Post by squidbeak » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

finikytou wrote: post #25

popcalc wrote: post #2

One-way flight to Russia? His Twitter feed for the last decade does give merit to the idea that he's been on the payroll.

sad to see that kind of comments in HN. I feel that 10 years ago there was more room for accepting that a political opponent should be free to speak up. now our educated masses are pushing for prison and extradition because they don't belong to the axis of good.... you def cannot be for opensource and its values and say things like that

It isn't 'a difference of opinion'. Dotcom has relayed Russian disinformation to an impressionable mass audience and heartily cheerled an invasion. It's not surprising that people who disagree with him politically find themselves amused or glad at the prospect of due process being served in this individual's case - where they might otherwise have been indifferent or grudgingly sympathetic.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#277

Post by account42 » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #203

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Destroying commercial art culture really might not be a bad thing. The overwhelming majority of visual artists, writers and musicians don’t make money from their art, and would continue doing it even if the big corporate parasites went bankrupt.

> The overwhelming majority of visual artists, writers and musicians don’t make money from their art I wouldn't be so sure about that. The overwhelming majority don't make big money, but many, many creatives make a living on their art, and a lot of them are OK with being fairly low-paid (I know quite a few). They do what they love, and get paid enough to keep doing it. As a musician friend of mine says "You know what…

> "You know what's great? I get to play music for people, and then they pay me for it, when I'm done!"

This transaction does not need IP protection at all.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#278

Post by Daedren » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

fluoridation wrote: post #263

codetrotter wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be misremembering things here but AFAICR, it went something like this: MegaUpload existed as a file hosting service. It was widely used by pirates, and MegaUpload earned a lot of money off of hosting pirated files because users would buy subscriptions to MegaUpload specifically because of the pirated content that they could download, without the limitations that are placed on the users of the free tier. With…

Thanks, I had no idea that's how it worked. Embedding the key in a part of the URL that's not sent to the server is a stroke of genius. I still find it surprising that so many people use Mega (at least enough that it can stay in business) when BitTorrent can easily saturate a downlink and is free.

Hosting pirated content is a liability, and putting it on MEGA helps clear it. Many countries have issues with torrenting such data too, as it's an easy way to get a notice at home from your ISP if you're not on a VPN. I assume many kids in dorms and whatnot may have bittorrent traffic blocked as well.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#279

Post by Terretta » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

tedk-42 wrote: post #21

As an Aussie observer, I'm seeing more US influence in our region. With some 'diplomacy', Julian Assange was brought home after near 15 years fighting for BS extradition charges. The news and politicians in Australia follow almost lock step with whatever our US overlords allow us to say. It's been more of a thing lately with them trying to secure the pacific away from China's sphere of influence and the biggest 'dumb…

> As an Aussie observer, I'm seeing more US influence in our region.

You got our attention by filling all our streaming channels with your shows.

As is common in the international film and television sector, a key driver of Australia’s ongoing production upswing came from an enhancement to its incentive schemes.

In July, the country’s national government increased the location offset program in its annual budget from 16.5 percent to 30 percent. Thanks to those changes, films spending at least A$20 million dollars (about $13 million U.S. dollars) in the country can claim back 30 percent of all expenditures on goods and services upon completion of the project.

Previously, it often was [already] possible for especially savvy producers to add to the guaranteed 16.5 percent offset and bring total support to 30 percent by cobbling together prior grant schemes — but the increases introduced last year provided global producers with a much-needed sense of ease and surety.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/planet-o...

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#280

Post by sandworm101 » Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

t-3 wrote: post #268

sandworm101 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> probably because a bunch of people dealing with their cases also start disliking them personally. More likely because those people remain naïve about the real world. In a past career I had some interaction with IP enforcement lawyers. They were stuck in the past then and have not really evolved. Their understanding of "the internet" extends only to those things discoverable via google search. Megaupload was knocke…

> Piracy is more alive now than ever, but as it is no longer visible via Google, the likes of the MPAA and IRAA cannot see it. How so? Google is a major distributor of most pirated material through YouTube and their search engine still makes finding stuff easy. I'd argue that p2p is nearly irrelevant nowadays and server-oriented distribution is the main model.

Probably the largest source of piracy is the widespread normalization of VPNs. Once upon a time VPNs did not advertise so as to not attract IP enforcement attention. They constantly shifted host locations to stay ahead of blocklists. Now VPNs openly advertise on youtube, touting the ability to "access contend not available in your country". That's piracy 101 stuff, at least it used to be. I just watched a youtube by LLT on how to bypass encryption to rip your own Blu-ray disks and upload the resulting files to your plex server. Even talking about such tech was considered criminal only a few years ago. The laws haven't changed. We just now have a generation of adult decision makers who have grown up with piracy as a norm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Speech_Flag