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MegaUpload Founder Denied Bail At Extradition Hearing

The founder of MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom, has been denied bail in an extradition hearing in New Zealand this morning. Dotcom, who was raided by 76 armed police in helicopters yesterday, is wanted in the United States alongside other key MegaUpload employees on racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering charges.

The drama and fallout from yesterday’s raids against the infrastructure of MegaUpload and its management team continued this morning when founder Kim Dotcom appeared in a New Zealand court.

Dotcom, a 37-year-old German citizen with joint New Zealand and Hong Kong residency, appeared alongside three other MegaUpload employees – site co-founder Mathias Ortmann, 40, chief marketing officer Finn Batato, 38, and programmer and networking expert Bram van der Kolk, 29.

The hearing in an Auckland district court heard how local police had been working with US authorities since 2011 culminating in raids yesterday on ten private and business locations. Among them was Kim’s residence, Dotcom Mansion, and what happened there resembles something from a movie.

Kimdotcom

New Zealand police sent 76 officers, some armed, to raid the property which reportedly housed 15 individuals including bodyguards, security staff, women and children.

“Police arrived in two marked police helicopters. Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves, Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic locking mechanisms,” Detective Inspector Grant Wormald told the court.

“While police neutralized these locks he then further barricaded himself into a safe room within the house which officers had to cut their way into,” Wormald added.

At the hearing, the first step to being extradited to the United States, all four defendants were denied bail and are due to reappear at another hearing next Monday. Police say there are no intentions of trying the defendants under local laws.

“This particular type of action around internet copyright infringement is a first in New Zealand in terms of an overseas person being attempted to be extradited to the United States,” said Intellectual Property Lawyer Rick Shera, as quoted by TVNZ.

Three other defendants – a German, a Slovakian and an Estonian – all remain at large.

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  • anon

    dear us govt.

    fuck you

    • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

      Money Insider says that their will be violent civil unrest this year in America, lets hope it’s sooner than rather than later.

      • Guest

        Feels good not giving money to MAFIAA when this kind of shit happens.

        BOYCOTT PRODUCTS MADE IN/FOR USA

        • Guest

          “BOYCOTT PRODUCTS MADE IN/FOR USA ”

          No.

          You got it wrong you have to hit the head which is the entertainment industry. This mean do not buy/rent music, video in any form, do not go to the movie theater, do not go to any concert. If enough of us do this long enough this will kill all these entertainment parasites.

          We need to do the same thing with the banking industry by doing banking only with non-profit organization such as credit unions.

          Unless this is done they will be a violent revolution and the corporate mercenaries will commit some atrocities just as they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will respond by hanging them all.

          The good news is that most of the US army will most likely be on the side of the people and not the corporations.

        • Anon

          The US army has no problem raping and killing unarmed civilans in Iraq and Afghanistan, what make you think they wouldn’t do it to their own civilians.

          Don’t support the army, support Anonymous.

        • jailbait

          In Dec 2010 I made a vow to never again offer my monetary support to the music, movie, or software industries. I use open source and PIRATE EVERYTHING ELSE. If there is a way to support an artist directly, I will go ahead and do so, but I do not purchase anything sold by the corporations.

          I no longer go to the movies. Paid $100 for a projector and have 20+ friends over for major movie nights twice a week.

          As MAFIAA continues to pull more bullshit like this, more people are joining me in my strike.

          All the money I’ve been saving has been going towards my AWESOMELY UNNECESSARY professional manicures.

          I am an American who says: MPAA/RIAA/BSA – You guys can suck it!

        • Al

          Boycott all the the companies that are wrecking the world. The American entertainment industry for removing our freedoms world wide. Any company you know of that has bought out and closed down local competitors (seems to happen a lot here), any company that builds things in the third world, trashes the environment and generally does bad things. There are pleanty in America. They are also elsewhere. This is not Obamas fault, he inherited a totally Fcked country where money rules and corruption has distorted the law for a long time. America is not the land of the free, and needs to be fixed ASAP as their influence is corrupting the entire world (more).

      • Guest

        Yep!

        We are going to kill all these corporate parasites.

        • Anonymous

          Leave pay troll. Your corporate masters won’t lead anyone to violence. We’re better than you.

        • Guest

          Oups! You caught me!

        • Anonymous

          I note that your last comment was posted from a different account than the first one. Trying to make it harder to track your posting history pay troll? The corporations have taught you well.

        • Xxx

          GOD knows from where these shit — SOPA …. has crop up.

          HOW comes they have got so much power??? HOLLYWOOD is for sure behind these shit.

          WE must stop our internet — only then the SERVICE providers will get a good corection ++ SOPA will die — bloody suckers

    • Anon

      The american government has gone insane with power. If anyone is looking for a way to share what the want with whoever they they should check out Tixati at http://www.tixati.com With Tixati no government assholes or anyone else can make you take down what you share.

      • Anon

        I hope they take down the Piratebay next. If they can do this to MU, nothing is impossible.

        • Oomg

          keep dreaming mister copyright lobbyist ! even if they shut it down 10 more will appear …. money and time wasted AGAIN

        • Guest

          The pirate bay can not be taken down. This is too bad because that might have give us the spark convincing the rest of people that we must get ride of the current entertainment industry.

          Short of this we will have to kill them all one by one.

      • Ender Wiggin

        lmao, big claims for someone on a .com

      • Anon

        I use Tixati as well. The decentralized sharing channels work great for sharing.

    • Fuck MU

      No fuck that fat prick Kim. He has laundered so much money that he all he does is eat and shit all day and his cronies do all the work for him.

      • Bubba

        FU SOPA sucker!!!

      • US Gov not Civil

        Lets get our ass together and take down those yank…uhm I mean government.

    • Bubba

      Listen Americans stop being stupid, internet is not your property. stop acting like a world police and dictating which site can live which die. FROM the Internetz…

      • http://profiles.google.com/artfulldragon TL Dragon

        Cut the American’s shit. Our asshole politicians have been taking it up the butt from the entertainment industry for decades and there is precisely SHIT we the people can do about it.

        Why don’t you other countries who aren’t riding the MPAA/RIAA jock start helping a people out?? Oh thats right because your asshole politicians and bent over and lubed for Hollywood too.

        One entity can fix this shit, and thats Anon. So get off of our peon American backs cuz we have about as much say and power over this crap as you guys do.

        • Anon

          If you allow your “asshole politicians” to fuck up the world, it is your fault directly; you elected them or allowed the to be elected.

          If you really cared, you would do something about it, but instead you whine about it not being your fault.

          Get off your ass and start a fucking revolution already.

    • Cpt_Kayle

      Fascism has come to Amerika!

      Citizens! Fetch your guns and contact your nearby constitutional army recruiting center!

    • Predator

      FREE HANA BESHARA!

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IZ5BM5GNLA54OADSWGSXAMA7SY Jay

      I just have one question…

      Didn’t this already happen in Australia for copyright infringement?

    • Bill

      Screw You US government! Looking for a way to share my shit I took someone else’s advice and got Tixati. Now “The Man” can’t stop me from sharing what I want.

  • Paul

    One would think he was Bin Laden. Fuck You American Government.

    • Anon

      He’s worse, he facilitates the spreading of information, and that’s bad.

      • As

        Eh, he was mostly about profit and I have little sympathy for him. However we can all agree that this legal precedent is a disaster for all file sharers. Just don’t cry for people who don’t deserve it.

        • Yes Sir

          Totally correct.

  • Anonymous

    Why not show the video?

    You can see Kim Dotcom in Court here…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZPe97vZJXM&sns=fb

    • Anonymous

      Added

  • TinFoilHatter

    America, where truth is a matter of opinion, and justice is sold to the highest bidder!

    • Isabelleb

      I guess this is how our tax money is used: destroying the right of majority in favor of a minority controlling governments and justice!!! We will see !

  • Bertram Cabot Jr

    They told me if I voted for John McCain that bad things would happen.
    They were right.

  • got teeth?

    fuck Detective Inspector Grant Wormald

  • gpuser

    “76 armed police in helicopters”

    i guess its because piracy funds terrorism right?

    • Anonymous

      Denying him bail is interesting when he has always been one to face a legal challenge in Court.

      You can see they only got four of them where the other three are missing. He also has plenty of employees still aiming to do their job.

      • Standingo

        “..when he has always been one to face a legal challenge in Court…”
        yea, that’s why Germany had to track him down in Thailand to arrest him for insider trading….because he always sticks around to fight….yea right….pipe dreams

        • Ven

          And it was his track record of running that ruined his chance for bail this time.

        • Von

          One single incident equals a track record? LOL!

      • Ven

        Employees generally want to get paid. So unless they also have their own revenue systems, they are gone.

    • PlatinumC

      Police in Helicopter, searching for …

    • http://profiles.google.com/stuart.anderson Stuart Anderson

      Law enforcement agencies are smart enough to manufacture threats to justify their own existence. The NZ police would have been gagging to get on board with this US boondoggle – and they’ll milk it for every ounce of PR they can get. After all, it’s a lot easier than actual police work.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Don-Dilly/1624894683 Don Dilly

      Putting it into context as to how disproportionate the response was, 76 cops in helicopters probably equates to New Zealands entire military helicopter airlift capacity on a given island

      • Mykstaa

        i didnt even know we had police helicopters….

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Don-Dilly/1624894683 Don Dilly

          I did a check earlier on wiki and they list the total number of helicopters for the nz armed forces.
          they had 13 UH-1′s (hewy) of those, 2 have been mothballed presumably due to cost but kept as attrition replacements. 1 of the original 13 crashed leaving 10 operational. It is highly unlikely all 10 are fully serviceable and not on active service at a given time.

          The NZ Navy has 5 helicopters for frigate use,coastal patrol and rescue and there are 3 trainer copters for training new pilots.

          There are however plenty of helicopters in NZ in private non gov hands. For example on the south island travelling through Arthurs Pass en route between Christchurch and Greymouth you will probably see more helicopters parked up outsidefarms on that road than the total owned by the NZ gov,

        • span256

          That’s funny, I see them in the sky every other day. What hick town do you come from? In relation to the story, there were two marked police helicopters used to deploy some police, the rest obviously came by other means as your not fitting 76 police in two police helicopters.

    • OMGWTFBBQ

      Well one thing is for sure. I’m starting to understand those Arabs who have had to deal with these fascists for decades now. Pretty soon we will be burning US flags all over Europe.

    • MAFIAA

      We have to stop intellectual copyright theft. If we don’t, it could lead to intellectual copyright rape and intellectual copyright murder!

    • http://www.facebook.com/uswgo Uswgo Brian Hill

      If you really want to see police officers gone wild and even U.S. soldiers burning churches and killing children and killing their own civilians in America watch the film, Wake Up or Waco!

      The use of military force, CS gasoline, and other types of genocide have been planned by corruption factions of the U.S. military as Obama needs to be the next Adolf Hitler, he will have to train the U.S. soldiers to harass and kill innocent people.

      It’s all about being a slave to the Globalist!!! It’s all about global enslavement to the members of the Bilderberg Group. The elite of the elite at the tip top of the capstone.

      Freedom and liberty won’t exist once they have their New World Order!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Paul

    America has lost it’s mind. The world needs to declare war against this rogue nation. Stop this evil nation now.

    • guest

      agree with this post what right does amercia have the right to do this.North korea have told them to go fuck them self.It,s about time these country pull way from them.The uk no better and there up there ass

      • http://twitter.com/xPreatorianx xPreatorianx

        Why the hell should the world declare war on us because of our fucking government? So you guys wanna kill innocent fucking people because of our corrupt government and big corpa? That’s so retarded it’s not even funny.

        Look, we’re all pissed off that this shit is happening, but don’t sit there and say that everyone in the country needs to be killed, etc, in a war or something because of it. TAKE YOUR FRUSTRATIONS OUT ON THE GOVT/MAFIAA – NOT THE CITIZENS!

        • americans < irony

          aaahhh, the irony in that statement.

          methinks Iraq, Afghanistan, Muslims et al.

        • Anon

          For the people, by the people, right?

          You’re the people who allow those people to fuck us all over.

          If you don’t like it, do something about it.

    • DutchGuest

      I think it’s about time Russia invades the U.S. to install a democracy.
      Because this current bunch of sock puppets really is getting old.

      • Ven

        You can’t invade the United States. It’s not possible.

        Push your politicians for sanctions instead.

  • PlatinumC

    Go german, slovak and estonian, run like the wind :).

    But damn, NZ has lost their mind’s finally as well. I guess that’s what the climate does to you down there.

    • Kiwi

      Fuck you asswipe. I am a New Zealander, the best country in the world. Don’t spout your rubbish against our country. The climate here is just fine.

      • PlatinumC

        Stop QQing, and go with the flow, it’s the internet, you know not everything you read is true ( though I got to admit my sense of humour may not be understandable to everyone) :P.

      • Anonymous

        Must be good if so many Kiwis keep swimming across the pond for visits to Australia: http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/17nz.htm

      • Anonymous

        Seriously, lighten up!

        apologies for double post TF: Disqus editing service failed on my previous post.

    • Mykstaa

      yeah cause 30 degrees celsius is freezing right? FUCK YOU.

      • PlatinumC

        Well we get 30C rarely, but on winters it gets to -30C :P, thats freezing I tell you.
        damn 4 seasons :S

    • span256

      Kim Dotcom should have known full well that New Zealand has an extradition agreement with the US. That he would choose to live here, knowing that he could at any time be extradited boggles my mind.

  • You see…

    Money laundering?!

    Couldn’t have a homicide and drugs dealing added to those ridiculous charges?

    • Anonymous

      Yes according to the DoJ a business paying its server costs is now classed as “money laundering”

    • span256

      Kim Dotcom had over 100 bank accounts. That’s just completely normal, isn’t it?

  • Yearm

    That’s quite a risk they took to only go with 76 officers!!! I would have brought a few Seal Teams myself.

  • http://twitter.com/Spartanessa Steph Hogan

    “The uploader has not made this available in your country.” Damn it, not again. What nationality do I have to change myself to to see it? I’m NZ’der, and yes, we need 76 officers to take down one guy. We’re not very good at this yet.

    In other news, this is terrifying and disgusting and I want to spit on the US Govt. and whomever lobbied enough to get the FBI to do this for them.

    • Fantastic

      Funny that around the same time that Hollywood has threatened to cut off Obama’s funds that this whole thing goes down…just saying.

      • Gulm0

        Why “just”!! Say it loud! It is a nice coincidence as they might acknowledge…

        • Fantastic

          Well need to watch what money goes flowing into Obama’s campaign after this and if he blinks on his Veto stance. I know I’m watching.

    • ctr3k

      Better link that works in NZ
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtQ-YiHSL6o

    • Anonymous

      ‘whomever lobbied enough to get the FBI to do this for them.’

      you really need to think about that? would have thought it was pretty obvious, really

      • http://twitter.com/rhfweb Richard Frost

        Not FBI. FBI only deals with internal US investigations, I’d be guessing more NSA/CIA based.

        • Ven

          FBI can jointly operate with INTERPOL and the DoHS to investigate stuff overseas. I can guarantee that the NSA and CIA don’t care one bit about this man, guilty or not.

    • http://twitter.com/rhfweb Richard Frost

      CIA/NSA

  • It’s a fit-up

    Next to be arrested, your gran for posting a video message to you with music playing in the background.

  • Paul

    Should have brought in the army, they looked like such a threat!

    • You see…

      At least U.S. Army didn’t have done a preemptive strike to clear the way to the police.
      This… could have saved lifes…

      • Anon

        They would have just used a drone to bomb the place.

        Lazy Americans get off their ass to do something? Yeah right.

  • http://truth-and-opinion.dyndns.org/ mavigozler

    That New Zealand jumps at the command of the U.S. government on matters that don’t involve public health and safety, violent crime and terrorism, but instead stands at attention on matters allegedly affecting corporate profit, should outrage us all.

    Or I guess we are on notice that the only thing that really matters at all is corporate profit.

    • http://profiles.google.com/stuart.anderson Stuart Anderson

      To be fair, the US Ambassador won’t call the NZ PM until it is US corporate interests at stake. You don’t really think they actually care about the things they tell the little people are important, do you?

    • Anon

      Money laundering is a serious crime, just as serious as any other violent crime. Just because you think otherwise, doesn’t make it so.

      • http://truth-and-opinion.dyndns.org/ mavigozler

        Let’s be clear here, nameless person: U.S. prosecutors often throw in (other) BASELESS charges in order to sweeten the extradition pot. I am surprised they didn’t throw in a charge of “first degree pissing off a federal officer.” They will have to prove (show evidence) to the satisfaction of a NZ court that those arrested did engage in money laundering.

        But I note that you did NOT indicate that “copyright infringment” was a serious crime, which is probably not a view shared by those who are controlling the activities of the U.S. prosecutors…the MPAA, the RIAA, and all the interests behind SOPA and PIPA.

        The problem here, nameless person, is that U.S. prosecutors have all their priorities fukkedup. Instead of trying to jail the multimillionaires who committed fraud in the subprime mortgage scandal that created a worldwide economic collapse, they are trying to jail a grandmother whose PC was traced to an IP where a DVD rip was downloaded.

        When I start seeing some Wall Street bankers doing hard time, then I will be okay with U.S. agents chasing down those running torrent trackers.

        Oh, and I am a NATIVE U.S. citizen.

      • NoAnon

        Anon, dear Anon, Yes, money laundering is a serious crime indeed. However there is no money laundering here. There is a baseless statement about the money laundering. US prosecutors count it like that: Ah, the money come form allegedly illegal activity! Therefore any payment is a count of money laundering! Paid for a server – that would be one case on money laundering. Paid for a dinner – that would be two…
        Prosecutor office piles scary words into their paperwork to make it look serious. That’s so common practice in US.

    • Mykstaa

      well search warrants were issued in, something like, 8 country’s? so new zealand aint the only country to “jump at the command of the us”.

      • jailbait

        Yeah, New Zealand aint the only country to jump at the command of the US…

        Quite sad if you think about it… With our inept Congress unable to make any serious decisions, a president with his thumb up his butt, and our educational and living standards dropping further every single day… It’s sad that countries have so little self-respect that they’re trying to appease a fast-diminishing nation.

        The majority of US States are currently broke, REAL violent crime is increasing, there are people who don’t have jobs, and an increasing number of families here require food stamps.

        Since the US so obviously has its priorities in order, I’m really glad to hear that other countries are smart enough to follow suit.

  • Sam

    Which country will be the first to have nuclear weapons used against it by the USA over copyright infringement?

    • TinFoilHatter

      probably the last.

  • Yogi

    America has to stop this BS and start standing up for democracy and human rights. Since when did the US government become Hollywood’s private police force???
    What about the interests of the rest of the taxpayers??? Don’t they count for anything?

    • Some Asian

      US government does serve the interest of the taxpayers or else you wouldn’t be living in a first world country with all the luxuries in the world. Come to Middle East, may be then you won’t take things for granted after you see the mind blowing levels of corruption and low standard of living.

      • DutchGuest

        I’ve been to the U.S., the Middle East, and a few Asian countries…
        The only thing setting the U.S. apart is the crime rate and the fact there is relatively little (known) child labor.
        Otherwise, it’s right on par with the less developed countries.
        People working for less than a dollar an hour, waitresses getting paid $1.75 (before taxes) and paying taxes over whatever tips they manage to get…
        It’s akin to slavery.
        If you had seen how few people can actually aford ANY luxury and how many people struggle just to have heat and hot running water…
        The ‘grandiose luxury’ of America is as big a fucking lie (for at least 80% of it’s population) as claiming there is no child labor in Asia.

  • IDIOCRACY

    I am going to make some snowdolls outside with my kids, no good stuff to download / see / listen anymore anyway and much more satisfying.

    I feel sorry for all people that have backed-up their personal stuff to mega-upload, I just use a remote on WIFI connected (hidden network with a very hard to guess SSID) network harddrive(s -> raid 1) out of reach for anyone. Also no stored SSID and PW on accessing devices (yes everytime I connect I have to put in all login data manualy).

    Advise: never use the internet to backup your stuff, you never know who does what with it, No I am not paranoid, just put up my tinfoil hat (which is actually aluminium instead of tin hehe)

    • Danny

      Hidden SSIDs are very easy to detect so no need to guess!

    • KFC

      I used to backup everything on Megaupload as well as on External HDDs. Its a dual backup strategy I have been following for ages because you never know which one goes down. Guess I will have to look elsewhere for cloud storage but nothing is really as reliable and as cheap as Megaupload. I wouldn’t trust any of the other cyberlockers with a dime as they will go down without a fight.

  • guest

    god you thnk these people where going to attack the country or something.Over board and how much this cost

    what with the guns aswell

    yep again them fucking yanks poke there nose in

  • Alberto Granpiez

    They needed fewer people to go for bin Laden

    • PlatinumC

      who was half dead anyway

      • Paul

        was already dead.

        • Asad rauf

          Idiot. Don’t fabricate shit.

        • Fuar dasa

          Yeah idiot, don’t fabricate shit. We all know he’s still alive.

        • PlatinumC

          And US was behind him from beginning anyway

  • LG

    The hacking of these law enforcement sites will only be worth if it puts them down and out of business(at least for a longer period of time) or they loose data from the servers so that they would suffer the same as Megaupload and others are about to.US is going down and still wants to rule the world.Unbelievable arrogance!!!

    Cheers Anonymous against SOPA !!!!

    • Anon

      I am sure the USA is going down. It only accounts for 30% of the World’s GDP and is #1 in the GDP table.

  • RichardMongler

    Dat Cadillac.

    • Meh

      It’s hideous.

    • Oli

      It’s a Mercedes.

  • WTF-NZ

    Wow… Kim tried to put up a fight. He knew what was coming for him.

    • Anonymous

      Such a shame he forgot the Safe Room’s escape tunnel. At least while he was locked away he could have made plans and contacted the others to warn them.

      The only good news here is that the Police have to replace what they break and several security systems and the door to the Safe Room won’t be cheap. Still it would be much cheaper than the entire operation cost.

      • Anonymous

        The police has to replace nothing. They went there to catch a criminal and they did their job. Property damage was made necessary by Kim trying to lock himself in, its not the Police’s fault that he didn’t surrender straightaway.

        • Anonymous

          I sorry to burst your bubble but the rule ‘you break it you buy it’ always applies regardless of any “immunities” granted by “law”. I would like to see the faces of the officers that executed this operation when repomen show up and forcefully reposes their personal belongings to sell for the repayment of the destruction they caused.

        • Guest

          @ second Anonymous

          Stop and think about what you just said; you’re saying that when the police arrest a criminal, they are responsible for damage caused as a DIRECT RESULT of that criminal resisting arrest. Apply this to other situations. If a drug dealer hid in his house and the police had to bust down the door, would they have to pay the dealer for his door? If someone took hostages and they had to blow down a wall to get to him, then would they have to pay the hostage-taker for his damaged wall? No, of course not.

          Simply put, he resisted arrest, so they aren’t responsible. If they had broken something while he was cooperating, then they would have been at fault. They didn’t, so they aren’t.

        • AnonyMouse

          @Guest are you sure about this I had my doors smashed through by the police when I refused to open them they ended up paying for replacements when they realized they got the wrong guy. If he is found not guilty there will be lots of bills to pay I’m guessing he wont get a jury trial as the outcome can’t be fixed and the cost to the US Closing down 4% of the internet would be immense especially with all the other damages to those of us that have had access our files denied.

        • Guest

          Generally, when someone is resisting arrest, they aren’t given anything back. There are exceptions to this; if the police could be found to have acted without necessity or cause (say, if someone didn’t immediately open the door and they busted it down), then they have to pay. In your situation, it sounds as if the police underwent what is known as a failure of diplomacy, and so had to pay because they acted without cause. Another possibility is that they didn’t have to pay, but did simply because they felt bad about bashing your door in (police have paid for damages to my neighbor in this manner, despite the fact that they were in the right). I can’t say without more information. In this situation, Kim retreated into a safe room, and stayed there for long enough that they had time to cut him out. That gives both necessity and cause. Those damages are, in the eyes of the law, his fault.

          If he is found not guilty, they’ll have a good amount of revenue losses to return to him (they might go through with that; they generally only withhold those from the poor, and this man is not poor), but damages to his security system and safe room won’t be.

          P.S. This only applies to law in the U.S.

        • jailbait

          In the US, anything even remotely “related” to a crime is forfeit to the government. I seriously doubt the government will pay for any damages despite the outcome of the criminal suit… Kim’s actions might be construed as “resisting arrest”, which is illegal, and as such Kim would never be allowed to collect on damages inflicted at this time.

        • jailbait

          @AnonyMouse: The police paid for your replacements because you were the wrong guy. If you were the right guy, then not only would they not have paid for any replacements, but they would have “seized” incidentals on site and never given them back (e.g. computers, cash, etc).

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  • As

    fuck u USA and fuck u new Zealand too , allowing US to play with u like that

    • Kiwi

      Fuck you asshole. New Zealand is the best country in the world.

    • Mykstaa

      yeah well… well… have fun waiting another 4 years cunt.

  • Altruisticfix

    Your hatred of ‘America’ is not totally fair. We are also being held prisoner to these people. The difference is, they also can keep us unemployed for our disagreement. We know our government is corrupt. 99.+% of us have nowhere near the money that our representatives and those paying for their campaigns have. What would you have us do ? Protesting gets us nowhere.

    Personally, I think it is going to be up to the techies to level the playing field.

    • Anonymous

      I also want to see the techies start releasing all the dirt on these corrupt politicians and MPAA & RIAA.
      Hack them and crack them and blow their house down

    • Anon

      If protesting ain’t working, let’s start a revolution.

      There’s no sense in waiting for a knight with geeky glasses.

      Everyone knows the US is fucked up, let’s do something about it.

  • Hmm

    armed police to raid filesharing website/cyber locker owner for fuck,s sake

  • Anonymous

    how quick would the outrageous response be from the US government if their citizens were arrested in other countries? then extradited? then denied bail? then put on trial?
    sooner or later the US has got to be forced to toe the same line as every other country, stop trying to get every other country to do what the US wants (when it is in it’s best interest, no one elses) or be ‘disconnected’ from the rest of the world. in fact, what the fuck do we need the US for anyway? they have nothing that isn’t available from other places anyway. perhaps now is the time to tell the US to live in solitary confinement! they dont own the world and most definitely should never be allowed to control the world.
    mark my words, before this sort of thing ends, there is gonna be some serious shit flung. wars have been started over lesser issues!

    • Anonymous

      I am just hoping none of these wanted people will be found in the UK. Sorry but our American requested deportation queue is currently full enough with questionable cases without more being added.

  • Anonymous

    What! no Tank?

  • anonymous

    the US government just makes things up to charge people with. guaranteed most of the charges are bogus and of course the judges will give the most harsh penalty possible. guess thats life when your government promises so many freedoms then changes their mind…how unfortunate.

    • Anonymous

      The one thing I have realised this past year is that the Department of Justice is in no way about Justice. They should just be honest and call it the Department of Punishment when it does have a nice ring to it.

  • http://twitter.com/rhfweb Richard Frost

    Who manages the worlds root DNS servers…

  • got teeth?
  • Jjj
  • http://www.facebook.com/hopeyoufsckingdie Hope You Die

    Unacceptable..

  • http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja

    The US should just stop pretending it’s not moved by money and that it’s the land of the free. Those don’t stick anymore.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Point5communications Will Buckley

    The time has come to deal with online piracy and the misperceptions surrounding it. The brazen contempt that was demonstrated by Megaupload and the support they received from A-list entertainers clearly demonstrates how bad this situation has become.

    Instead of supporting this trash, musicians, filmmakers and the artistic community needs to make a stand for their rights to be compensated fairly for their work. It is time to communicate and not totally rely on the court system to bring about change.

    • Mafiaa Racket

      You are a blatant example of a corporate shill, paid to use lies.
      This takedown was to prevent an end to Mafiaa’s racket against artists worldwide:
      Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has continued his company’s public battle against Universal Music Group, after the label removed the promotional Mega Song video from YouTube. In a long column for TorrentFreak, Dotcom claims Megaupload has big plans for music in 2012. “UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations direct to consumers and allowing artists to keep 90% of earnings,” he writes. “We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free. Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works. You can expect several Megabox announcements next year including exclusive deals with artists who are eager to depart from outdated business models.
      http://musically.com/2011/12/19/megaupload-boss-promises-new-site-for-artists-to-go-d2c/

      • Anonymous

        Some big ideas there, I hope someone else picks up where they left off.

    • Kzoughof

      What rights baby? You know that the labels milk musicians hard, right?
      Now that a service gave them a way to not get milked anymore, the labels got angry and shut it down. That’s what this is all about.
      Labels don’t give a rat’s ass about your artistic work, they just the money they can get out of it.

      Film makers? How much did Avatar make? It made bazzilions of dollars.
      What did the idiot Cameron say? “Pirates are stealing my money!”
      If a movie doesn’t make money, the reason is 1: It’s SHIT.

      See the pattern here?

    • Anonymous

      same douchebag who wrote cnn that men have stopped being men

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PXX4S66KOUIGIKTTIMV3CBGO7Y Colin

    Is this a MAFIAA plot to derail Megaupload’s case against UMG by taking their senior people out of circulation? I just can’t help feeling that UMG REALLY don’t want to have to give evidence on oath in court.
    NAh, they wouldn’t do that, would they?…

  • fuck us gov

    Fuck you america !!!!!!!!!!!! fuck fuck fuck fuck american bitch government fuck fuck fuck !!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Romantickiller

    US is no more land of freedom. i feel sorry for US people, they are living under street dogs..

  • SuperMak

    New Zealand seems like just the US bitch.

    • Mykstaa

      new zealand is the least corrupt country in the world. so id like to hear what your beloved country has been doing behind your back.

    • NZer

      I don’t think it would be a good move for a country of 4 million people and stuff all of a military to anger the world’s only superpower, just saying

      • guest

        They (US govt) still hate us (NZ) for telling them to get their damn nukes out of our habours years ago btw and their petty “we’re taking our toys and going home” actions (aka refusing to enter trade agreements with NZ) has not effected NZ badly in any notable manner and personally I’ve not met a New Zealander that cares about making nice with the US…in fact the only people/group that springs to mind that do care about it is PM John Key and the national party (a damn shame so many voted his ass back in)

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  • Guest

    Illuminati do exist.

    • Chrissy

      yeah everywhere, in the toilet, in the rice-crackers, in ….

      maybe have some surgery?

  • iAMG0D

    I wish theey would post more videos on their articles. torrentfreak tv was great.

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  • CRACKHEAD

    Kim Dotcom is a thief.

    He NEVER gave anything back to any artist, he NEVER supported them, NEVER invested in making films or music, all he did was take the money from the artists.

    He says in an email “This will hurt our business”, you see to him your all suckers too, paying him for illegal warez, that he did not pay for.

    • Gae

      Why should he give anything back to any artists? He operated a service for sending and receiving large files over the internet. It was not an entertainment or media company. There were no licensing agreements or royalty payments.

      But now apparently the ability to send and receive large files is no longer permitted because America says so, and that means a large part of the internet is broken.

      • C Reisetbauer

        bla bla bla

        don’t you laugh about your nutts? think and then write.

  • Gae

    The NZ government should be ashamed of themselves for doing the dirty work of the MAFIAA and US Govt. Clearly somebody has thrown a lot of money about in order to pull this off.

    Now I just hope MU returns just like TPB and becomes impossible to stop.

    • Hijevin

      this case as well should be fought on the basics of human rights…

      ++ MEGAUpload must TELL copyright owners to report stuff to them and they will remove it ??

      but the up loader can re upload the material it will be the job of the copyright owner to track the stuff and let MU know???

      GOD bless MEGA UPLOAD

  • Anonymous

    Money and time wasted? Why don’t we say that for the individual that wants to rape your girlfriend? Why have police then? Grow the hell up!

  • [Redacted]

    76 armed police in helicopters? Well, I guess the MPAA/RIAA get what they pay for. The money they paid did go towards funding this operation, didn’t it, and not into some politicians’ pockets?

  • Anonymous

    I hope they trace all the files as well…

  • Ghost Protocol
  • Stickeywicket10101

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — One of the nation’s most prominent defense lawyers will represent file-sharing website Megaupload on charges that the company used its popular site to orchestrate a massive piracy scheme that enabled millions of illegal downloads of movies and other content.

    Washington attorney Robert Bennett said Friday that he will represent the company, which was indicted in federal court in Alexandria Thursday on copyright infringement and other charges.

    Bennett promised a vigorous defense, but declined to comment on the case in detail.

    Bennett is best known for serving as President Bill Clinton’s attorney when he was accused of sexual harassment by Paula Jones. He has also represented Defense Secretaries Clark Clifford and Caspar Weinberger. On the corporate side, Bennett has represented Enron and others.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mwonch Michael Wonch

    This is…just wrong, and makes my nation, the USA, look eerily like a conqueror. We have failed to do so militarily, so now we do it via the law. This is the downside of Globalism, where – in reality and as always – the most powerful nations end up calling the shots. If this Global legalism is what the G8 really wants, then they really need to empower the UN/World Court to prosecute, not the USA. US laws are designed for crimes commissioned and/or committed within the borders of the USA and its territories…not the entire world.

    I can half-heartedly agree with extraditing true terrorists in such a way, but NOT commercial/common criminals. Our courts are overloaded with stupid crap anyway, so why add to it because some powerful lobby decides it should be so? This is crazy.

    Let New Zealand or Hong Kong handle this.

  • Anonymous

    And that was the end of President Obama.

    • Anonymous

      (as President.)

      • Rabbi Zionberg

        Oboomba screwed himself the moment he ignored Zionist interests. He’s done.

        • jailbait

          What I’m having trouble understanding is why the Zionist interests ignored Obummer’s very long past affiliation with Palestine. I am not Israeli or jewish, however in early 2008 I was really shocked to find that bummer had such a strong jewish support for his presidency. It was quite obvious to me who had bummer’s loyalties from the very beginning. Still trying to figure this one out…

    • http://www.facebook.com/chascoxjr Charlie Cox

      Everyone I talk to hates Obama. But I bet he wins in Nov. He is so sure of it, that is isn’t even trying!! That only means one thing and that the election is rigged!!

  • C Reisetbauer

    why do you f*kers consume this shit AT ALL ???

    for you have no ideas for own creativity.

    But: stealing music kills creativity.

    there you go, the level’s gone butts.

  • Mykstaa

    lol according to wikipedia, the new zealand police only have one helicopter…. and the army 28 helis with 8 on order… quite impressive as i wasnt expecting much… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Air_Force#Current_air_force_equipment
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Police#Transport
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Army#Major_equipment – other interesting shit

  • Fdasfasdfafds

    The Bin Laden raid only consisted of 79 people…. Kim came pretty close to rivaling that.

  • foff

    What we need to organize is a month long boycott of hollywood products. Request no one goes to a movie, no one buys and cd/dvd/blu-ray. No one buys any Mp3 music. Everyone that can cancel cable should.

    Our demands would be:

    1) Outlaw all copyright orgs make the copyright holder responsible for enforcing the copyright.

    2) Reform copyrights significantly reduce penalties for copyright infringement and significantly reduce the time a copyright is valid.

    3) Demand more consumer protection. All digital media is essential a monopoly so the price needs to be controlled. Mp3 should not exceed .10 Movies a dollar or less books about .50 Since copies in digital for cost almost nothing to reproduce and distribute the price needs to reflect this.

    I am sure there are other demands we can add but the point is if we can all join together the way we did for sopa and pipa if we do this we can show the industry who is the boss. The copyright industry is out of control they think they can use police forces around the wold to enforce what ought to be a civil issue. We must push back lets make this a reality.

    • Anonymous

      I like your thinking.

    • Anon

      Just 1 month? I’ve already decided a lifetime boycott. These people understand only the language of money. Shut them down completely, remove them from power. They are unethical greedy corporate parasites that leech not only from the people they are supposed to be doing a service for, they also leech from the artists themselves. Shut them down completely, and force new groups to form. If the new media labels that emerge know such a boycott could come again, they’ll likely be wary of doing anything like this again.

      • Anonymous

        3 years going strong with my boycott; second hand sales since resold items net MAFIAA and co. $0.00 from the sale.

    • Hijevin

      MAN this will NEVER happen COS as always the publishers will like to make COLLOSAL profit on our head.

      BETTER stop consuming thier shit… we would not die if we dont go to the cinema to watch the latest movie..

      let the movie play on TV then we watch it — +- 4 weeks after the release???

  • DeadlyOne

    Lesson #1: If you build a safe room in your house, also build in a secret escape tunnel to your secret escape submarine or rocket.

  • ohsofukd

    Typical US government shit. Let the people who beat women and children, child molesters etc off again and again, but God dammit what ever you do get those fuckin
    nasty copyright violators (pirates) and give them the maximum sentence !!

    US government says “Lets piss and shit on the US constitution, fuck our slave citizens over royally, shit on others countries sovereign rights, pick and choose which of the laws that we wrote to enforce or not enforce (kick out Italians, Germans, Canadians etc when their visa expires, but let the Mexican nationals cross whenever they like and pay for their existence here and dont even think about asking their nationality).”

    ” Lets take take taxes from citizens, borrow massive amounts from other countries, spend it (waste it) on whatever we want (raids on copyright violators in other countries, wars, expensive lies) and tell them we are doing them a favor by fucking them over this way”

    Makes us US citizens look like we are scum when most of us are good people.

    Lies, lies and more lies !! As Earl T. Pitts says “Wake up America !!”
    This is what they made guillotines and ropes for.

    The situation is so ludicrous, I feel like I am watching a movie. I will be glad when the movie ends. THE END roll the credits please

  • Masa

    In case anyone is intrested, Kim Dotcom has Finnish/German dual nationality. He has adress in Finland, renewed his Finnish passport in Hongkong, has a Finnish mother.
    Found via YLE

  • Purple

    One thing very very few people know about the federal government is how grossly corrupt the federal justice system actually is now. Many people many think it’s unfair, few know it for a fact. The feds own the judges and select the jury. You have a better chance of a light sentence if you use the federal public defender (because it’s theirs). If you use an outside attorney, the sentence will be harsher even if you plead out. If you take it to trial you will lose (the conviction rate for federal trials is something like 96%) and you will get the maximum sentence (you made them mad). The very idea that a German citizen can be arrested in New Zealand on the say-so of American authorities for amounts to a copywrite violation is absurd at best and scares the hell out of me at its worst.

    • Anonymous

      Ease your conscience with the knowledge that the whole deck of cards called fiat currency will come to an end in 2012.

  • Esaz999

    fuck you USA

    • Anonymous

      hmmm no…that’s kind of hash….I love the USA…and you can’t blame the “USA” for this…more like the govnt or fbi…but i think really only hollywood is behind this and bankrolling it…in other words…don’t hate the USA, but hate hollywood.

      • http://www.facebook.com/chascoxjr Charlie Cox

        I am an American citizen and I can’t stand what our government is doing on a lot of things. What this country was founded on, has been so diluted that it is almost nonexistent. Big business is the puppet master of our government now!

        • Anonymous

          Charlie, I agree with you…but at the same time you can’t allow people to go around and say FUCK you to us.

      • Hijevin

        you r right man HOLLYWOOD is sponsoring ll these shit…

        I dont think in the eve of ELECTION Obama will order to do this???

        FOR sure the big firms r behind this plot…

    • Hijevin

      man its not good to accuse all Americans.

      the FBI does not always consists of Americans ++ the HOOLYWOOD is the one to finance this shit to make sure they make the most profit FROM us.

      WE should not buy their movies they SHOULD suck us to buy their stuff now???

  • Anonymous

    That’s sad…since it’s all BS…SOPA/PIPA were junk + MU arrest was unfair + I don’t think swizz he has any legal connections to MU…imo it was all fabbed up to get other celebrity endorsements.

    p.s. looks like someone is pissed – FBI vs ANONYMOUS video:
    http://www.peeje.com/anonymous-hackers-we-legion-211/

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  • Trelew

    How much you want to bet that US gov’t and their corporate masters will abuse the court system with their show trial to ram SOPA and PIPA through without any changes, except to make it worse than it actually is now.

    There is a reason that the US and Big Business went after MEGA, they knew that US govt might not pass SOPA & PIPA, so they came up with this to prove that it is needed. Lies and propaganda as the corporate elite of the world take a firmer grip on how things are run.

  • Doncollins100

    I expect Anonymous are going to attack New Zealand for bending over.

  • Tony

    I live in the state of Nebraska, within the US. Lincoln…it’s a college town. People work hard, but also enjoy an ease of existence that is unusual, even in the US. We spend most of our tax dollars, 65%, on our local schools…we give another 25% to the city and state, and the final 10% to our federal government…including medicare, medicaid and social security. (Our feeble medical and pension plans) And we are fed up!

    Not because the quality of living is terrible for most people in the US and not because of jobs…these are silly depictions of what is going on…of course it isn’t bread riots…it is this: Our society is outpacing our government…the people are not happy with the slogish, imperial and violent nature of the structure of our leadership. We are organizing around common interests across Geo-political boundaries and it is having an increasing influence upon the outcome of events. THAT is what is going on in the united states. The geeks are taking over…we’re pissed, we’re smart and we’re trusted…and we’re everywhere!

  • Xenobyte

    Not much of a safe room if the police were able to gain access. So would any intruder and thus the room must be considered worthless. A true safe room should resist any attempts at entering for days while leaving open several avenues of escape through secret passages. People knew this way back in the middle ages and no castle was complete without several secret exits to be used if the fortification failed and the enemy entered the castle.

    If he was allowed bail, that would have been the last they’d see of him. He would be off to some country with no extradition treaty with the US, and from there sue the US government for violation of a dozen international treaties and for loss of business while laughing his huge ass off. Would be fun to see the government fight that.

  • Beensfire

    America invented everything, your county only known for sheep milk, or sheep steaks, or something. America on Mars, invented Internet, invented phone and cell phone, computers, everything…..

  • Beensfire

    America invented everything, your county only known for sheep milk, or sheep steaks, or something. America on Mars, invented Internet, invented phone and cell phone, computers, everything…..

  • Hijevin

    People should stop buying movies ++

    if hollywood goes bank rupt that will be great to see

    bloody suckers they r the one financing all these shit to make our belovered Server close down

    IS human rights applicable in the world we live in ????

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  • Guest

    Man this thing really hurt our site http://www.totalcg.com. Most of the videos were on MV.. No idea what to do now. That’s years of work down the drain.

  • Gummbe76

    Land of the free my ass! The 1st amendment supposedly gives us the freedom of speech, yet albums are band due to the lyrics. The 2nd amendment gives us the right to bare arms and they are slowly trying to take that from us. Now they are taking over the internet, the U.S government has it fuct up. It started by the people, for the people. What the fuck happend? They can’t stop it, HTP FUCK’EM. They can’t arrest us all

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  • Heeeehee

    I honestly don’t give a dam(n). Them millionaires can cry their hearts out while they drive around in their expensive cars. Also to everyone complaining about America being an A hole, I say F you all and until some other country calls us out on it screw you! Blame the other countries for allowing it to happen. Darwinism is a beautiful thing ain’t it. ;-)

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