US Gov't And Hollywood Have Turned Kim Dotcom Into A Beloved Cult Hero
from the incredible dept
Kim Dotcom is not a sympathetic individual. Anyone who’s followed his career over the years (even from well before Megaupload) has known that. He’s loud, obnoxious, ostentatious and seems to have little shame about his past efforts to be on the wrong side of the law. If there’s anyone out there who could easily be framed as “Dr. Evil,” it is Dotcom. So, it’s really quite stunning to realize that the US government and Hollywood have taken perhaps the easiest person to demonize around… and turned him into a lovable “cult hero.” Over the past six months, it appears that the US’s massive overreaction to Megaupload, at the urging of a typically clueless Hollywood, has done the exact opposite of what they hoped. Whereas they figured the prosecution of Megaupload and Dotcom was a slam dunk, and that it would act as a clear “education campaign” for others, the truth seems to be the exact opposite. People are realizing that the government and Hollywood overreacted, and it’s almost entirely rehabilitated Dotcom’s image.
Gavin Ellis, a senior political studies lecturer at the University of Auckland, said that over time the public had become less supportive of the police operation.
“Initially there was a sort of a ‘gee, whiz’ reaction. ‘Wow, look what the police have done, they’ve got this alleged master criminal,”’ Mr. Ellis said. “But then, as the media perception of him and the media portrayal of him changed, looking backward those things started to look heavy-handed.”
While Mr. Dotcom’s lawyers were making steady progress in court, Mr. Dotcom was gaining the public’s favor. A headline on the news Web site Stuff.co.nz in May read, “Dotcom’s straight talk wins over Kiwis.”
“There’s been a clear shift in the characterization of him, from this assumed criminality or alleged criminality, to a cult hero,” Mr. Ellis said.
The amazing thing to me, is that Hollywood and the US government should have known this was going to happen. They more or less did the same thing with the Pirate Bay years ago. Having the US government completely overreact and bring the power of the government down on almost anyone can make them look sympathetic. But even I doubted it would happen when it came to Dotcom, who was so over-the-top that he’s very, very easy to dislike. He must have seemed like a perfect target to US and Hollywood officials. To think that within just a few months he’s become this “cult hero” is pretty stunning and shows just how clueless both Hollywood and the feds are about the public’s reaction to their campaign.
Filed Under: doj, gavin ellis, hollywood, kim dotcom
Comments on “US Gov't And Hollywood Have Turned Kim Dotcom Into A Beloved Cult Hero”
This can only mean one thing
Next year, a blockbuster summer hit about DotCom the antihero. Followed by a score of action figures, some of which I figure legal action. Then games for all the usual platforms as well as Linux (because, you know Pirates! & Freetards!).
I’m tempted to break out the popcorn, but I doubt it’ll last that long.
Re: This can only mean one thing
Not only would it not last long, but copyright maximilists would stupidly claim that popcorn sellers are profiting off a criminal, stealing the money that is so obviously owed to the ‘artists’ that DotCom ‘stole’ from.
Re: Re: This can only mean one thing
“Not only would it not last long, but copyright maximilists would stupidly claim that popcorn sellers are profiting off a criminal, stealing the money that is so obviously owed to the ‘artists’ that DotCom ‘stole’ from.“
Does that mean that the MPAA would then order the DOJ to (illegally) raid and shut down all the movie theatres and confiscate all the projection equipment?
Re: Re: This can only mean one thing
“Not only would it not last long, but copyright maximilists would stupidly claim that popcorn sellers are profiting off a criminal, stealing the money that is so obviously owed to the ‘artists’ that DotCom ‘stole’ from.”
And then demand the popcorn business shutdown
Re: This can only mean one thing
I for one am glad Kim is fighting back and in a big way.I have hated Big Studios for years now and I have hated my US Government for even longer.I am in my later 50’s and I was there as a teenager Protesting Pollution, Vietnam, and the cheap slave labor-like products just to name a few.I went to my first punk rock show in 1976 and I was a member of the “No Business As Usual” Group and I also was a Y.I.P.P.I.E.
Keep up the good fight for us all Kim Dotcom !!! You are not a Saint that is for sure but then again you are a lot more Saintly than any of these Rich Corrupt Polticians, MPAA,RIAA, and my Government.
Re: Re: This can only mean one thing
+1 for the frightening similarities. thank you sir.
btw, 1976: the ramones in camden, nj :). amazing show, even remember the drive home it was so thrilling!
2012: sadness at the corruption of the american experiment by mpaa/riaa.
Re: Re: Re: This can only mean one thing
So jealous of you guys! When punk came out, I was just a little kid and it was just this weird thing my older cousin was into – but he was cool and definitely influenced my tastes…
Re: This can only mean one thing
I don’t know about next year. It took decades for the Larry Flynt movie to be made.
Re: This can only mean one thing
That’s one way to monetize “piracy”.
Cult hero, Masnick? Get with the times, man! He’s the Messiah of my select group of souls destined to survive the rapture.
/sarcmarc. Not hating on Mike or DotCom in any way, just having a laugh. If you flame me in response, then you’re an idiot for not having read this part.
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I read this and initially my mind wandered to him as John Connor (in the “messiah-end-of-the-world” sense).
But then I realized he could never reach the sex appeal of Christian Bale.
I smell a Kickstarter campaign to get this movie going.
It’ll even include a built in movie distribution agreement.
I will really laugh, if Hollywood picks it up.
Re: The board game is even worse
Don’t forget the board game, loosely modeled on The Game of Life.
“This fun game will teach your children all they need to know about illegal raids on foreign mansions, missing videotapes, embarrassed government officials and oafish entertainment lawyers.
Everyone will start the game with an objective. Some will get to play ‘the bad man’, others will raid – and wouldn’t you rather let them do this outside of WoW? It’s fun for the whole family!
Before you know it you’ll hear them bandy about such terms as search and seizure, writ of habeas corpus? corpulent you mean!, mens rea? isn’t that what you use those towels for, mom?“
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I wouldn’t put it past them to have started this whole mess for that specific reason…to get a movie out of it.
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I would download the hell out of this movie!
Why is this in the ‘incredible’ department? I think it needs to be in the ‘captain obvious’ department.
Dotcom would have to be drowning kittens or something to make people root for the American government.
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Just ask John Taplin. He thinks that what Megaupload was doing is the equivalent to drowning kittens.
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At this point, I don’t think anything short of Dotcom killing his own children in a Satanic ritual and filming it to show on Youtube would make people root for the American government.
(And for all I know, there might actually be MPAA execs out conducting Satanic rituals in order to curry favor with their master prior to the extradition hearing.)
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(They use curry in Europe. Dodd ketchup’s favor.)
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You wouldn’t d(r)ownload a kitten…
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I would and have! Downloaded a kitten that is, not drowned one. That’s harsh. That’s something the U.S. government or Chris Dodds would do, probably Jack Valenti too.
http://mikecane.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/kitten.jpg
Right click + Save As… + JPEG = 1 Kitten Downloaded
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I expect them to be into Kitten Huffing, personally, with Dodd favoring the orange ones.
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lol best time waster I’ve seen in a month!
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I second that!
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Or Thomas Edison showing how “evil” AC current is!
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You forgot the Copyright math… Having the kitten picture available on the Internet = 10,000 downloads, even if no one actually visited the site.
That’ll be 1.2 trillion dollars please…
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It seems that even if he was drowning kittens there’d still be fans.
They did not learn from history, which shows, corporate education campaigns only work in the short term, and future campaigns along the same lines are ridiculed. After 20 years you would think …
What is really a wonderful thing is you can not pay for this sort of publicity or cult status. It gives Kim Dotcom a huge amount of publicity for MegaBox. It also validates the concept of MegBox, Since people suspect the entrenched content players are trying to prevent MegaBox from happening.
I love the word Schadenfreude …. The next year or two are going to be fun to watch.
Re: People suspect?
People suspect it was all about Megabox? Well, I hope so, seeing as how that’s kinda been obvious since day 1…
Re: Re: People suspect?
I was just pointing out the general sentiment towards one of the two reason for the MegaUpload raid. The other reason being make the admins of File Lockers fearful.
To think that within just a few months he’s become this “cult hero” is pretty stunning and shows just how clueless both Hollywood and the feds are about the public’s reaction to their campaign.
I don’t think this issue has turned him into a cult hero, as much as it has put into perspective just how reviled Hollywood, the RIAA, and the MPAA are. I actually heard someone last week say, “sure Dotcom is a piece of scum and a dirtbag, but at least he’s not Chris Dodd.”
And in the end, they really don’t care about Dotcom’s image one way or another. All they care about is that they delayed his efforts to bring to market a potentially viable competing service by at least two years (and scared off a lot of other potential competitors who might have considered following suit). If it keeps their businesses afloat for another couple years longer, they wouldn’t care if people thought Dotcom was the second coming of Jesus.
True but at the same time, just about every other file locker service has changed their service to restrict public sharing of files.
Yes, the US was the bull in the china shop here, but when every other china shop then puts their glassware out of arms reach – can you really say the bull lost?
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Well, The thing that is yet to be seen is that when the bull charged in everyone jumped out of the way not knowing WTF was going on. Now that everyone is realizing there is a mad bull in the shop how long before someone gets the rifle to put him down?
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You know, looking back at last couple comments I have made on this site, I’m now just waiting for the flash bangs to come through the windows.
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Just remember, the moment anything that remotely looks like a flash bang comes through the windows do the following:
Close both eyes immediately
Put either shoulder to the corresponding ear to cover it (if possible, cover the other ear with a free hand)
Do both those things and the general effects of a flash bang will be greatly reduced. (I’m not saying they’ll be completely removed, just that the overall effects won’t be as harsh as usual, which basically is the point of them. To disorient in as quickly and extreme a manner as possible, thus preventing any possible response from the person they are being used on.)
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m sure there’s a couple of thugs… I mean government sanctioned law enforcement officers about to repel through my windows for having given out that useful information.
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Although that info might be useful to prevent us from having the ringing in the ears, blindness, and other effects of the flashbang, it still wouldn’t prevent us from staring down the barrel of an assualt rifle 10 seconds afterwards.
It would be priceless to hear an officer say “Damn, they avoided the flashbang, guess it’s over. Let’s pack up and head home.”
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Yeah, true. I forgot to mention it would be useful for ONLY the flash bangs part. Not the actual rifle in the face bit.
As for that last thing, man that would be hilarious.
Reminds me of this one time, I was at a relative’s house and we hear loud noises outside. We’re in a backroom, so we go to the front of the house and I open the front door and peak out and think “wtf”. I duck my head back in and I say, “Dude (to my cousin), your house is being raided!” And I open the door again and the lead cop screams from outside the huge gate, “Hey, come out here!” And I, not thinking, say, “No, you come in here.” And this is the part where I literally laughed out loud, the cop responds in perhaps the most hilarious “mom just said I can’t go out and play” voice ever, “I can’t. The gate’s locked.” At which point, after laughing, we start walking out and the other cops are further down the property trying to jump this insanely tall fence and the cop I said what I did to ask if so and so lives at this property and I say, “Uh no. That’s the person at the house next door.” At which point the cop cusses and starts yelling into his walkie, “We’re at the wrong house! Repeat, wrong house!” At which point, the guys half over the fence kind of grunt in a “fuck!” kind of way and then hop back over the other way and they all start running around the property to get to the house next door.
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you can’t buy that sort of (admittedly worrying) entertainment.
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Once Mega wins its case–well, really I should say once the courts reveal that the US had no case to begin with–Megaupload will be back stronger than ever, both in terms of popularity and legal standing.
Then the rest of the china shops will probably put their glassware back on the shelves.
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Yeah, since the US was the bull. MU did business with US companies (Carpathia) meaning tax revenue. That’s taxes the US government no longer gets. As well as the lost tax revenue from all the cyberlockers restricting themselves, thus losing custom.
Was there an appreciable gain in the sale of DVDs that could be directly linked to all this? Not to my knowledge.
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So piracy is over?
You’ve just described about half the people on the planet.
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>>You’ve just described about half the people on the planet.
True, but Dotcom had raised it to an art form.
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Wait, were we describing DotCom, or the MPAA/RIAA?
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And all of the ones on Usenet and this forum.
It’s scary to think about the amount of control the RIAA had in this situation with the DOJ.
A very convenient relationship, since the government ends up with all the blame and no responsibility in the legal long-run.
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And the American people get to foot the bill for the flights to New Zealand for the FBI and lawyers, plus all the legal fees. I’m just hoping the US judge finally realizes that Ira Rothken is right in that we have no jurisdiction on a foreign corporation and at least cuts some of the costs down.
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… consider what it looks like to an NZ citizen then.
Dotcom’s doing everything right, basically, but when an unpopular government makes a big public deal about using excessive force at the behest of an ALSO unpopular Foreign government, people taking the victim’s side is pretty much a gimme. when they do so with NO CASE and then BREAK THE LAW in the process, well…
let’s just say his PR skills are just taking a free cake and icing complicated artwork upon it in unbelievable detail.
never having met the man, i have no idea whether Dotcom is the type of person you say or not. to me that’s irrelevant. even if he is, it doesn’t give the US government or Hollywood the right to go after him in the way they did, using the methods they did, surely? if all it takes is for someone of power to say ‘i dont like him, go get him’ to any law enforcement agency anywhere in the world and manufacture ‘evidence’ that destroys that person, on a whim, what the hell chance does some ordinary person have that has nowhere near the resources he has to help in the fight to clear the accusations? sorry, but i think the whole Mega debacle shows that there are some people that have too much power for their own good (let alone anyone elses) and that they cant handle that power but certainly know how to abuse it!
Almost makes me wish they would notice me.
I think they should have realised that when UMG and others falsely took down the Mega Song video. People examined the facts then and soon realised UMG was in the wrong which is why YouTube soon jumped on the case and restored the video.
Then of course when Mega got raided Anonymous soon fired back in the most successful DDoS attack in their history. These people had well used MegaUpload and was very aware of the countless file/links that had been removed under DMCA. So this was clearly a step-up in the War on piracy and Anonymous was very angry as they shot back.
Well what do we have here but one chubby multi-millionaire with a shady history. To his credit though he has kept his nose clean for many years and past convictions have expired and were removed from his record. So for the most part he has been a clean living businessman who has now settled down with a wife and children.
I think the best thing I have heard Kim Dotcom say to date is that once this is over he intends to become a major funder of the EFF. Anyone who has read the news long enough well knows the countless battles the EFF have been involved with and all the good they do. Also the EFF do not have the resources to handle all worthy cases so Kim Dotcom wanting to fund them by millions would be a great thing indeed that would go on to help many thousands more people.
I do see one other aspect to this when the Internet is very good at organizing protests even to the point of Government overthrows in the Arab Spring. The problem in this though is that no natural leader emerges afterwards to take control and to bring about their goals. Kim Dotcom is a colourful and outspoken character in a leadership position and it seems to me he could easily pass into the shady world of politics. So it is true to say the file sharing world do need representatives like Kim Dotcom and maybe why his enemies saw him as such a threat.
Well the future is unknown and currently we all fight side-by-side in this War of Intellectual Activism.
I can’t agree more. I’d never heard of him before this case. My initial reaction was “Christ, what an asshole!” and figured it was an easy win for the government.
A few months later, and he’s a hero. Even if he goes to jail, he wins.
Suped up car, and a bat suit later……… nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah DOT–COMMMM
I want his babies………not really
Hollywood's Forte
Isn’t this exactly what hollywood is good at? Take an a-hole and make him look like a hero.
I don’t know that he is an asshole. Usually we’d see the people who he had assholed coming forward in the gossip rags to give him some come uppance. Everyone in the local community who has interacted with him seems to have a positive view of him.
He appears to be a good friend, a good family man, and a bit of a goof. He’s certainly done some things to not be proud of, but he appears to have rehabilitated. He’s probably an ok guy all things considered.
Americans love relative evil.
The “good guy” is always the one who happens to be less evil of the two. It’s pretty much the entire basis of modern American politics: all you have to do is be less of a douche than the other guy.
People (myself included) will only hear the first part of “so-and-so is unsympathetic defendant, but the US govt has overreached again” so many times. After awhile, they only hear the latter. Line up some sympathetic third parties who have been negatively affected by the hamfisted action and pretty soon you can have Darth Vader in there pushing crack to nuns and he’ll have fans.
And, yes, Masnick is right. The govt and **AA guys should have known this would happen. In fact, they probably did. The confusion is whether or not they care. I don’t think they do care.
Their mission is already accomplished. MegaUpload is toast. Anything bad that comes now is just a number on the receipt to be signed off after the last glass of wine is paid for.
Re: Americans love relative evil.
‘cept this came out of New Zealand.
our first public introduction to the guy was actually the scandal surrounding the fact that the current government basically let him buy his way past the immigration process. and even then no one had a problem with HIM over it, but with the government system that allowed it. (unpopular government, remember).
this came up because the government was flipflopping and being useless about letting him buy the (big and expensive) house he was renting, or some such. which lead to the media immediately talking to his neighbours to try to figure out why and getting Glowing responses about him.
THEN the whole Megaupload thing hit. and there was an attempt to spin him as this criminal whatever…
except, you know, we already knew about him with a contrary take on ‘who this guy is’. we already didn’t like the current government. then the US government, which, you know, most sane Kiwis are wary of, at best (we’ve watched our governments both successfully stand up to the USG on big issues AND dance like well worked puppets at the USG’s behest to screw over citizens who have done nothing wrong at all, often sacrificing significant gains for the nation as a whole to do so, just to start with.) is attacking this guy and our government is going along with it and Every Step of the Way more and more is coming to light about how corrupt the whole thing is (NZ citizens are generally NOT AT ALL tolerant of corruption, and to most the entire lobbying process in the US rates. being on the wrong end of the release window process there’s no real sympathy for hollywood about, well, Anything, either.)
so… yeah, it’s less ‘americans love relative evil’ and more ‘kiwis love an underdog, all the better if he’s ‘one of ours” and while people were a bit dubious about that when the immigration scandal came up, at this point most are probably more willing to claim Dotcom than our current government.
it helps a lot, of course, that he’s in the right.
Re: Re: Americans love relative evil.
so… yeah, it’s less ‘americans love relative evil’ and more ‘kiwis love an underdog, all the better if he’s ‘one of ours”
I’m not sure anyone who isn’t either a Kiwi or an Aussie can understand this, though it’s one of our countries cultural idiosyncrasies that is unique and allows us to be apathetic and easygoing on one hand, but stand up to idiotic authority bullshit and not give a stuff about what the rest of the world wants (or thinks) on the other.
Amazing? Amazing??
They’ve done the same thing to bootleggers and actual pirates in past centuries.
Robin Hood might be the prototypical example. Be a rebel or an outlaw but not a bully or a liar, and go up against someone who is both a bully and a liar, and you’ll generally win in the court of public opinion. Outlaws whose only crimes are victimless ones easily become David vs. Goliath folk heroes if the government goes after them.
Just one more reason why it’s foolish to enact, and even more foolish to attempt to enforce, laws against victimless activities.
But the most foolish thing of all is to use dishonorable tactics against an opponent who, even if his moral compass isn’t aligned with yours, does evidence some kind of code of honor of their own.
Megaupload is to the MPAA what Napters was to the RIAA.
I find it incredible that after people got to the distributed system suddenly they turned around and started using a centralized option again, only to have their expectations trashed again by the same people who did it the first time around.
One can almost see what it is going to happen, people will just find other ways to do it, legislation will be proposed again but this time will be harder to get it since it is already going into crazy land.
Meanwhile Hollywood will keep fast and furious movies about thieves running from the law doing what they want and evil alien invasions as if anybody who comes from outside only wants to hurt everybody on the inside.
WTF Hollywood?
Are these people not supposed to be the smart people who can visualize and come up with all the scenarios that other people miss?
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“Meanwhile Hollywood will keep fast and furious movies about thieves running from the law doing what they want“
Sometimes I wonder if there might be some connections between the Hollywood movies glorifying crime and the privatized prison industry.
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I think the impact is worse that what most people already know. The Karate Kid remake had the Jaden Smith’s character download Beethoven music (which some modern-day orchestra must undoubtedly have the rights to) and burn it to a CD to give to a girl he likes. The sheer audacity and sales lost! Won’t somebody think of the children?
The good thing about this is if other cyber lockers are picked on. They have a precedent that the Megaupload case went very wrong. By having that precedent the US government might think twice instead of just going with what the RIAA and MPAA say.
Funny how the US govt and Hollywood can give Kim a glowing aura, while all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Carreons rep back together again…
Dotcom also serves as a canary in the coal mine.
The lengths the US Government is willing to bend and flat out distort the law to get even for their corporate sponsors is shocking.
Everyone knows congresscritters are on the take, you can not ignore how many of them join congress rich and end up leaving even richer headed to jobs that pay really well for some “consulting”.
People are starting to understand that even if Dotcom isn’t the nicest guy in the world, supporting justice being subverted to “get him what he deserves” lowers the bar for them using “justice” to get any one for any imagined crimes.
Justice shouldn’t be about being photogenic, or likeable. It is supposed to be about the facts and the law, not what you allege with no supporting facts and how you decide what the law should say rather than what it does say.
Detractors want to focus on he’s fat, he did this bad stuff that one time, so he must be guilty. They don’t feel he has been punished enough to suit them, but a court already settled these matters and the only reason to bring them up is to create the illusion that his past actions must be his actions currently.
So using this logic here is a premise.
If you ever “snuck” a cookie when mom had said no or wasn’t looking we should judge you for the rest of your life as a thief? Because that is exactly what so many people are doing to Dotcom now. So maybe its time to let go of his past and focus on what currently is happening, and get very angry at how the law is being perverted to appease the cartels.
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Lets see: using and selling stolen calling card numbers; computer fraud; insider trading and embezzlement are equivalent to sneaking a cookie behind Mom’s back?
It wasn’t a one-time thing, He has a significant portfolio of serious charges and convictions over an extended period of time. Hard to ignore the past of someone who’d probably be classified as a career criminal in a number of jurisdictions.
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Irrelevant to why he is now portrayed as a ‘folkhero’ by New Zealand and others.
probably be classified as a career criminal in a number of jurisdictions
And right there is the major difference between what the world thinks of as justice, people having ‘served there time’, restitution for past stupidity and how America treats it’s criminals which is all based on ‘plea bargaining’ bullshit, absolute punishment with no ability (or minimal) for rehabilitation into society.
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Which have already been dealt with. You don’t get to fly overseas and SWAT-team someone for crimes they’ve already committed and been dealt with for years ago.
That you’re willing to ignore this, and proper judicial procedure when it comes to dealing with Dotcom, is very telling.
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Unless you are prepared to hand over yourself, and the rest of the Zionists in Hollywood to Iranian authorities, you should probably stop with the jurisdiction FUD you’re spreading.
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I was actually going to say, “Unless you’ll hand over Chris Dodd for crimes against competition”, but hey.
Gru? aus Neuseeland!
Thanks, RIAA, DOJ, FBI, Obama, Biden and Daddy Doddy’s Little Ooops…
You just can’t buy this kind of publicity.
MEGABOX – Coming Soon To Every Computer On The Planet!
Your move, boys – heh, heh, heh …
-KD
Re: Gru? aus Neuseeland!
We are all eager anticipation.
Launch with a pool party and cupcakes?
Kim Dotcom is really just another loud mouth who loves to thumb his nose at the law and take whatever he wants. He has a fairly well documented criminal past, and is a convicted shyster.
His status as a cult hero is only because the sheeple like to be sheared – they just don’t realize they are next.
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You need to go back to troll school. The internet doesn’t use ‘sheeple’ any more.
Fair usage
Perhaps he HAS had a shady past (allegedly) but I would defend his right to due process, justice and fairness which he sure as hell has not had in this case.
Next job
Maybe Dotcom should succeed Ron Kirk as head of the USTR. I guess he’s not a Yank, though. How about head of WIPO?