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NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

thehill.com

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Re: NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

#51

Post by logfromblammo »

syshum wrote: post #29
koolba wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short of political assassination, is anything done by the US government outside the US illegal under US law?

It should be, the US Constitution should apply to government actions ANYWHERE not just actions on US Soil, the US Constitution was never designed to be geographically limited, it was designed to limit what the government was allowed to do, period, in all cases in all lands, everywhere Sadly the US Court Systems has stated it does not have the authority to apply the Constitution to the US Government when the US Govern…

If the IRS can collect taxes from expatriate US citizens living and working overseas, the federal courts can certainly prosecute US citizens for breaking other federal laws while abroad.

Otherwise, those people might as well wipe their backsides with their Form 2555s and mail them back without checks attached!

Re: NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

#54

Post by slg »

adrianratnapala wrote: post #45
wildmusings wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US intelligence apparatus exists to protect the interests of the citizens of the United States. A foreigner who violates millions of dollars of intellectual property belonging to American citizens and companies is a threat to our interests, and also of the interests of the nearly 200 nations that participate in the global copyright regime, whose copyrights he was also violating. Foreigners on foreign soil have no…

You are right, or something resembling right, as regards Kim Dotcom in relation to the US. But there is still something troubling here for Americans, because it means that there is an existing mechanism (and/or set of social relations) in place by which American copyright interests can turn the intelligence agencies into their servants. Once such machinery exists, it is at least as dangerous to Americans as it is to…

I am not usually in the "if you have nothing to hide..." crowd, but this isn't some kid in Minnesota who downloaded a Metallica album. This is someone who created a business enterprise to circumvent US law. This is someone who pulled in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars from this business. For a time this business was the single biggest source of pirated content in the world. All of this was done basically in the open. If this guy was an American citizen I doubt there would have been any resistance to getting warrants for this information. The slope would have to be very slippery for it to get to the level that the average American citizen would be the target of this type of investigation.

Re: NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

#55

Post by elihu »

koolba wrote: post #4
gozur88 wrote: post #3

Unlawful in New Zealand. I'd be surprised if what they did wasn't legal under US law.

Short of political assassination, is anything done by the US government outside the US illegal under US law?

If it's done by a member of the United States military, there's the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I'm not sure if it applies to the NSA or CIA, though.

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

Re: NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

#57

Post by quirkot »

slg wrote: post #54
adrianratnapala wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, or something resembling right, as regards Kim Dotcom in relation to the US. But there is still something troubling here for Americans, because it means that there is an existing mechanism (and/or set of social relations) in place by which American copyright interests can turn the intelligence agencies into their servants. Once such machinery exists, it is at least as dangerous to Americans as it is to…

I am not usually in the "if you have nothing to hide..." crowd, but this isn't some kid in Minnesota who downloaded a Metallica album. This is someone who created a business enterprise to circumvent US law. This is someone who pulled in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars from this business. For a time this business was the single biggest source of pirated content in the world. All of this was done basically…

> someone who created a business enterprise to circumvent US law

Kinda like Uber? rim shot

But I'm still kinda serious. Your whole comment works if you swtich "pirated content" for "unlicensed, unregistered taxi service"

Re: NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

#58

Post by [deleted] »

benevol wrote: post #48
1024core wrote: post #16

Since when did the NSA become the copyright industry's police? There were no security implications of Kim's operation; why was he targeted by the NSA?

If you remember the Snowden revelations, then you also remember that the NSA had been using their power for other then "legal" purposes, such as for economic espionage, and for a long time already.

[deleted]

Re: NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

#59

Post by moomin »

jonknee wrote: post #44

The only mention of NSA seems to come from Kim... His logic appears to be that as a Five Eyes member the NSA and GCSB have some shared resources and that means the NSA used those resources to spy on him. That might be true, but he has no evidence that the NSA cares one bit about him. I seriously doubt the NSA was tasked with working a non-terrorism related piracy case, but that's me. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.c…

Worth pointing out at this point that Kim is a heavily-documented liar.

If he told me the sky was blue, I'd go outside to check.

Re: NSA Unlawfully Surveiled Kim Dotcom in New Zealand

#60

Post by __jal »

slg wrote: post #54
adrianratnapala wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, or something resembling right, as regards Kim Dotcom in relation to the US. But there is still something troubling here for Americans, because it means that there is an existing mechanism (and/or set of social relations) in place by which American copyright interests can turn the intelligence agencies into their servants. Once such machinery exists, it is at least as dangerous to Americans as it is to…

I am not usually in the "if you have nothing to hide..." crowd, but this isn't some kid in Minnesota who downloaded a Metallica album. This is someone who created a business enterprise to circumvent US law. This is someone who pulled in tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars from this business. For a time this business was the single biggest source of pirated content in the world. All of this was done basically…

So what happens when a US citizen starts publishing stuff China (or Russia, or the UAE, or England, or any other state that doesn't protect free speech as we do) doesn't like?

What happens in 40 years, when the US is on much less-firm footing as de facto World Cop?

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