Movie Studios Seek to Freeze Dotcom’s Assets

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You know the movie studios are doing their best to bankrupt you when they try to put a freeze on your already frozen assets.

Last month, the major Hollywood studios demanded millions from Megupload and its former employees in a brand new lawsuit. With the prospect that Kim Dotcom's seized assets may soon be released in both New Zealand and Hong Kong, 20th Century Fox and friends have moved to freeze his assets pending the outcome of their case.
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Glad to see this hasn't turned into a witchhunt when there were no quantifiable losses from the accusing party.
 
Superfreeze!

But seriously, there's nothing I like about Kim Dotcom, especially his last name.
 
I am convinced that this Kim Dotcom thing is very very bad for fair use.

Kim Dotcom is the definition of the fatcat commercial pirate. His profit center was copyright violation and he got filthy rich doing it.

Now, the policing efforts to circumvent regulations to burn him is bad but when he gets away with this it ill only serve to convince legislators that they need to increase law enforcement's power when it comes to copyright infringement.

See, we look at the failures here as demonstrating that the law only punished average-Joe non-criminals and is impotent against real criminals.... but we will not see a reversal... we'll see even tighter crackdowns on average-Joes in an attempt to ensnare the actual criminals :(
 
Zangmonkey said:
I am convinced that this Kim Dotcom thing is very very bad for fair use.

Kim Dotcom is the definition of the fatcat commercial pirate. His profit center was copyright violation and he got filthy rich doing it.

Now, the policing efforts to circumvent regulations to burn him is bad but when he gets away with this it ill only serve to convince legislators that they need to increase law enforcement's power when it comes to copyright infringement.

See, we look at the failures here as demonstrating that the law only punished average-Joe non-criminals and is impotent against real criminals.... but we will not see a reversal... we'll see even tighter crackdowns on average-Joes in an attempt to ensnare the actual criminals :(
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How do you feel about Youtube, since the is a bastion of CR infringement?
 
jpm100 said:
How do you feel about Youtube, since the is a bastion of CR infringement?
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The difference is Google/YouTube is actively taking infringing movies down while Kim was merely sweeping it under the rug while keeping them available for those with direct links to their data.
 
Azhar said:
The difference is Google/YouTube is actively taking infringing movies down while Kim was merely sweeping it under the rug while keeping them available for those with direct links to their data.
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Yes, but after how many years? "Pirated" content is THE thing that got where it's today. Don't fool yourself.

The guy has never set foot in the US, yet he is somehow criminal for allegedly violating some of their laws.
 
I can't stand the guy. He's a douche, plus he did get his fortunes through piracy. But, it's the treatment and the way they went after him that get me. It'll set a precedence that will really screw anyone accused of copyright infringement. SWAT teams show up because your 14 year old son downloaded Family Guy. You end up in prison with all your assets sold. Yes, it's not right to download Family Guy, but the punishment (destroying their life, basically) is WAY too much.

I wish I could get the SWAT team to go collect a debt for me. Sadly, I'm not a MPAA Godfather.
 
Ur_Mom said:
SWAT teams show up because your 14 year old son downloaded Family Guy. You end up in prison with all your assets sold. Yes, it's not right to download Family Guy, but the punishment (destroying their life, basically) is WAY too much.
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Are you just using that as an example, or did this really happen to him?
 
dgz said:
Yes, but after how many years? "Pirated" content is THE thing that got where it's today. Don't fool yourself.

The guy has never set foot in the US, yet he is somehow criminal for allegedly violating some of their laws.
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I wouldn't say YouTube broke laws to get to where they are today. Laws regarding copying contents was much more lax at the time. Consider Microsoft's inclusion of CD ripping functions in Windows Media Player. Also consider the wide range of DVD recorders for televisions back then too. YouTube founders were visionary enough to take advantage of the growth of broadband and the nonexistent copyright laws and sold to Google right when MPAA and RIAA pounded Napster into the ground and started fixing their sights on everything else, like YouTube, torrents, college students, iTunes and decryption software.

As for never setting foot on the ground, he did business in the US, whether it's online or not - using US domains, using American made IP (software and movies). If he didn't want to obey American laws, he should not have allowed his site to be accessible in the United States. As with any business, you obey local laws.
 
teh_chem said:
Are you just using that as an example, or did this really happen to him?
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Only a hypothetical example. Just similar to what they do when they go after people that download movies and songs. Pay up, or we sue you into oblivion....
 
With the war on drugs winding down, we're going to have to find an alternate source of people to keep our prisons full. File sharers seem like the most likely candidate.
 
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