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

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

#401

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

commodoreboxer wrote: post #392
jokethrowaway wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Educate the next generations. Maybe we'll have a generation of people with a backbone again who will be able to free us from government oppression. The trend is going the other way, so I think we're heading to socialism-ville for a repetition of last century's lessons.

A lot of the best things we have in the modern world are "socialism". Libraries and parks are socialist. Socialism isn't a dirty word, nor is it an argument or a criticism.

> Socialism isn't a dirty word,

It is, for people like me, who have actually experienced living under a socialist regime.

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

#402

Post by [deleted] »

janderland wrote: post #395
OutOfHere wrote: post #312

YouTube has a thousand to a million times more copyrighted content than Megaupload ever had. And no, not all of it is via partnerships with the copyright holders. Kim's problem apparently was that he didn't bribe Congress.

This is a place where “intention” matters to the courts. A lot of these laws require the platform to make a “best effort” at preventing illegal uploads. YT is making an effort and claiming it’s their best.

[deleted]

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

#403

Post by twojacobtwo »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #196
preaching5271 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally fair point, but what can you do? This is how the world works. Fighting such beasts is pointless. You might tame them with lobby money, but no billionaire is interested. And we're now talking about the human spirit that cannot be chained, as also seen in Pirate Bay or Snowden. Sure, people do need heroes and hope from time to time. But I have become less romantic over the years, and more careful.

Educate the next generations. Maybe we'll have a generation of people with a backbone again who will be able to free us from government oppression. The trend is going the other way, so I think we're heading to socialism-ville for a repetition of last century's lessons.

Do you mean back to FDR-era policies, or are you using socialism as a stand in for the tyrannical communist governments of USSR et al?

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

#404

Post by OutOfHere »

gengwyn wrote: post #398
Permit wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kim's problem apparently was that he didn't bribe Congress. Can you elaborate? Is there concrete evidence of this or just a general feeling that it must have happened?

I'd hope we could be nuanced enough to differentiate lobbying and bribing. "Bribing" is what you do in Russia or Tunisia when a cop pulls you over and you slip him $100 to get him off your tail. Lobbying, while potentially nefarious, has completely non-nefarious uses. Private corporations have a right to be involved in the legislative process. If Congress was considering a federal ban on all electric cars in the Unit…

Lobbying and donations are just legalized bribery. As of 2024, the Supreme Court even strongly legalized financial gifts to government officials. Any distinction is morally tenuous.

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

#406

Post by thaumasiotes »

butlike wrote: post #345
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say that, myself. In the case of software (a creative product that many, here, have a vested interest in), pirating can actually lead to future sales. I think one of the most pirated programs out there, used to be Adobe Photoshop. This resulted in a huge number of folks that became expert Photoshop users, and that drove sales of the app, in their careers. The same probably cannot be said for games. I suspe…

Personal experience (sample size: 1), a lost sale when I was age 16 made a true believer out of me for some developers, so at 35 I buy their games no question day 1. A lot can change in 19 years, but I've gone back and bought most every game I pirated on steam now that the income isn't as scarce.

Who are these developers making reliably good games over 20 years?

Lemmings was a great game, but that isn't informative as to Grand Theft Auto, which isn't.

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

#407

Post by abdulobdul »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #255
snapcaster wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I understand when leaders in politics or industry make these character-assasination attacks as they do it for their own interests (political or economical) but why do you do it? Thanks for articulating this, similar idea behind my sibling comment. Sadly i think the conclusion is that the vast majority of people are small minded, spiteful, and more or less accept whatever narrative the empire feeds them. Wish it wasn…

I agree that Kim Dotcom is not likely to be on Russia's payroll, but, as you said, he's simply small minded, spiteful, and more or less accept whatever narrative that empire feeds them.

[flagged]

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

#408

Post by diggan »

treprinum wrote: post #207

Didn't YouTube get popular on pirated content first? What was the main difference of the initial phase of YouTube and MegaUpload? They both went legal later.

Spotify too (allegedly) had bunch of pirated content to bootstrap the service. I guess the difference is that they (and YouTube) tried to pivot away from it, compared to Megaupload which seemed to have leaned into it instead.

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

#409

Post by chii »

HeckFeck wrote: post #145
preaching5271 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally fair point, but what can you do? This is how the world works. Fighting such beasts is pointless. You might tame them with lobby money, but no billionaire is interested. And we're now talking about the human spirit that cannot be chained, as also seen in Pirate Bay or Snowden. Sure, people do need heroes and hope from time to time. But I have become less romantic over the years, and more careful.

You can adapt and fit in to the establishment, and I wouldn't suggest any moral problem with it. We definitely need stability - the raising of children requires it, trappings like clubs and societies and clean streets are great, but I think the spirit of mavericks like Kim is much more 'right' about something that institutions will always miss. I can't celebrate this at all, and I am never sympathising with legal thu…

While it's true the copyright lobby tried to make an example out of kim, it is completely useless in stopping piracy nor any form of copyright infringement that will inevitably continue to happen.

> It is just naked power exerting itself

and it's a relatively minor showing of it. Compare it to direct assasination of foreign nationals (of which both the US as well as russia has done). The chinese stationing covert forces to try to police their migrant nationals overseas (spy stuff basically), or if what snowden leaked is as widespread is it is alleged, the amount of hoovering of information and surveillance that exists!

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

#410

Post by tommi »

epolanski wrote: post #386
sandworm101 wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> this is a fight against america playing world police That is how Dotcom wants it characterized. Everyone else sees a fly-by-night website run by an eccentric millionaire making money by playing fast and loose with the law. It is one thing to be an outlaw subverting oppression by distributing free bread to poor people. It is another to be a bootlegger selling vodka under the table and then throwing huge invite-only…

I don't think your point stands. How would US citizens would feel if another country, say China, wanted to extradite a US citizen because he allegedly violated Chinese copyright law? Dotcom is absolutely right in saying that US is playing world police.

It can be that while US is playing world police, characterising Dotcom's MegaUpload and Mega as a fight against it not a fitting description of them.

International crime can be a tough problem to solve. Who gets to decide what is a crime, how it should be judged and punished?

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