Kim Dotcom Gets His Stuff Back

[Steven Bogos]

Kim Dotcom Gets His Stuff Back

A judge has ordered the New Zealand police to return all materials irrelevant to their investigation to Doctom.

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom was arrested last year in an "excessive" (to say the least) apology to Dotcom [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118975-Kim-Dotcom-Raid-Video-Goes-Public]. Dotcom vowed to fight this thing with everything he had, and it looks like he's just scored one over New Zealand's boys in blue, with a Judge ordering the police to sift through all digital material taken illegally from Dotcom and to return anything irrelevant to their investigation. At their own cost, of course.

Clones of hard drives that have already been shipped off to America must be returned if they contain personal information, and destroyed if they don't. Dotcom and his co-accused will also receive clones of any materials that the police do deem necessary to the case, which effectively means that he'll be getting all of his stuff back.

High Court justice Helen Winkelmann, who issued the judgement, said that the police's initial seizure of Dotcom's property without properly sorting it was "unlawful." She also said the police had no right to keep any material that is irrelevant to the case.

Dotcom isn't letting this bungled police raid and investigation get to him, announcing a new filehosting service in October [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120213-Kim-Dotcom-Reveals-New-Mega-Strategy], designed to be immune to both lawsuits and raids.

Source & Image: Stuff.co.nz [http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/8742230/Police-have-to-return-material-to-Dotcom]

Permalink

 

[mKeRix]

Doctom.

Typo alert!
I'm glad to see that he finally gets his stuff back though, maybe he can really fulfill the promise he made when he launched Mega: get every paying customer his data back.

 

[webkilla]

While I might not entirely agree to the ethicality of the man's business - then it is painfully clear that the police overstepped their bounds in taking all his things, especially at the behest of a foreign agency. It just says all kinds of bad things about how politics and whatnot can influence and corrupt law enforcement.

Lets hope that his next file-sharing service at least comes off as a little more legit

 

[ciasteczkowyp]

The sad part is that citizens of New Zealand will pay for police incompetence and corruption and not the police officers themselves.

 

[Strazdas]

What is this? justice on friday evening? how care you! make more stories we can rage about, like something else MS hasnt said yet

 

[wulfgar_red]

How could this happen? Justice? Somebody bring a leash and get it under control! We ($$$) can't have it running loosely.

 

[SpAc3man]

That's nice to hear. Dotcom has become a bit of a folk-hero here in New Zealand. The media have pretty much switched sides and are reporting on the illegal aspects of the initial investigation and seizure of property. KDC is also hoping to fund a second (that's right, second) fibre-optic cable to the US to improve our international bandwidth.

 

[Roander]

I'm not familiar with New Zealand law but if it was taken illegally shouldn't they have to give all of it back, regardless of relevance to their case? A judge allowing them to keep anything implies that it's legal for them to have it, which implies that it was legal for them to take it in the first place.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I like how they just skip the whole part of authorities acting illegally on demand of corporate parties from foreign countries and sending his personal data to those people, and the reprimand for this horrifying abuse of power is they are asked to stop doing it a year and a half later...

That is a well functioning law system if there ever was one.

 

[Toilet]

I'm happy for Jim Sterling's alter ego.

 

[webkilla]

That's nice to hear. Dotcom has become a bit of a folk-hero here in New Zealand. The media have pretty much switched sides and are reporting on the illegal aspects of the initial investigation and seizure of property. KDC is also hoping to fund a second (that's right, second) fibre-optic cable to the US to improve our international bandwidth.

Oh wow

Talk about giving back to the people

 

[nexus]

I like how they just skip the whole part of authorities acting illegally on demand of corporate parties from foreign countries and sending his personal data to those people, and the reprimand for this horrifying abuse of power is they are asked to stop doing it a year and a half later...

That is a well functioning law system if there ever was one.

Yea, that and the fact "Dotcom" is rich as fuck, and he had to fight this hard to accomplish so little. If it was just an average person nabbed, they'd have been in prison for that "year and a half" and still to this day. That and you wouldn't hear about it.

Rather frightening to be honest.

I see cases like this *daily*. Not of this magnitude, but just people getting literally oppressed by police overstepping their bounds, and they never get any justice. The victims just eat it and try to pick up the pieces and move on if they can.

 

[weirdee]

yeah uh

how about apologizing for the swat team

and paying for the damages

and not being able to use the evidence because it was obtained in a grossly unlawful manner

saying "we're sorry, here's some of your stuff back, but we're technically keeping the rest even though we didn't follow procedure and violated every part of your personal rights for it" is like saying that they have jurisdiction to break the law and then say they're sorry and handwave everything away for justice

they might as well have tortured him for a confession and admitted that into the courtroom

 

[nathan-dts]

How could this happen? Justice? Somebody bring a leash and get it under control! We ($$$) can't have it running loosely.

Dotcom is rich. Rich people get justice.

 

[popa_qwerty]

I'm happy for Jim Sterling's alter ego.

When I was skimming the news headlines I could have sworn that it was Jim Sterling but on the other hand I have never seen Kim Dotcom.

OT do you think that we will get our data back.

 

[wulfgar_red]

I'm happy for Jim Sterling's alter ego.

When I was skimming the news headlines I could have sworn that it was Jim Sterling but on the other hand I have never seen Kim Dotcom.

OT do you think that we will get our data back.

How could this happen? Justice? Somebody bring a leash and get it under control! We ($$$) can't have it running loosely.

Dotcom is rich. Rich people get justice.

ask Bernard Madoff what he thinks about that. if you screw rich people then you become target even if you are rich yourself

 

[mogamer]

The sad part is that citizens of New Zealand will pay for police incompetence and corruption and not the police officers themselves.

Sadly, this is how it works for government employees. Screw up? Let the taxpayers pick up the tab. And they still get to keep their jobs. Whoever ok'd and oversaw this operation should be fired and possibly prosecuted.

 

[Scribblesense]

He'll get taken down sooner or later. The guy's a scumbag and any one who supports his endeavors is a fool. Just look at his rap sheet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Early_criminal_investigations
He's committed embezzlement, fraud, insider trading, and sold illegally obtained corporate access codes to private buyers (so he's a hypocrite to boot). I have no doubt that what he was doing with Megaupload, and what he'll be doing with Mega, is illegal or at least highly unethical.

US and NZ authorities jumped the gun here, and no doubt broke international regulations, but I don't think they were in the wrong.

He's a bully that got beat by bigger bullies. That doesn't make him a hero.

 

[nathan-dts]

I'm happy for Jim Sterling's alter ego.

When I was skimming the news headlines I could have sworn that it was Jim Sterling but on the other hand I have never seen Kim Dotcom.

OT do you think that we will get our data back.

How could this happen? Justice? Somebody bring a leash and get it under control! We ($$$) can't have it running loosely.

Dotcom is rich. Rich people get justice.

ask Bernard Madoff what he thinks about that. if you screw rich people then you become target even if you are rich yourself

Bernie Madoff didn't get raided unjustly. Dotcom did. He's rich so he got to get his stuff back.
Difference between the two.