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The whole New Zealand-based spying operation against Kim Dotcom and his Megaupload co-defendants was illegal, the High Court has ruled. The revelation appears in a newly released decision, which shows the GCSB spy agency refusing to respond to questions about its activities on the basis that could jeopardize national security.
In the months that preceded the January 2012 raid on file-storage site Megaupload, authorities in New Zealand used the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spy agency to monitor Kim and Mona Dotcom, plus Megaupload co-defendant Bram van der Kolk. When this fact was revealed it developed into a crisis. The GCSB was forbidden by law from conducting surveillance on its own citizens or permanent residents in the country, which led to former Prime Minister John Key later apologizing for the error.
With Dotcom determined to uncover the truth, the entrepreneur launched legal action in pursuit of the information illegally obtained by GCSB and to obtain compensation. In July, the High Court determined that Dotcom wouldn't get access to the information but it also revealed that the scope of the spying went on much longer than previously admitted, a fact later confirmed by the police. This raised the specter that not only did the GCSB continue to spy on Dotcom after it knew it was acting illegally, but that an earlier affidavit from a GCSB staff member was suspect.
With the saga continuing to drag on, revelations published in New Zealand this morning indicate that not only was the spying on Dotcom illegal, the entire spying operation – which included his Megaupload co-defendants – was too.
Oopsie...
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/entire-kim-dotcom-spying-operation-was-illegal-high-court-rules-170825/ (archive)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:53AM (5 children)
> That of course will never happen because we're the little people, and the overlords have full reign on us nowdays.
With that attitude, they certainly will have full reign. You can't just let them walk all over you. Be a rebel. Fight back. We outnumber them.
For instance, I was up to strike 3 out of 6 on that Copyright Alert System nonsense when they ended the program. When one of those red light cameras nailed me, I used their hearing process. I expected it to be a total kangaroo court, but I took my evidence that they cheat on the light timings anyway. And it was a farce, but while a win would have been nice, the point was to cost them more that they were going to profit from me, win or lose. If everyone fought back, they'd have to change things or the red light camera scams would collapse. Then I boycotted the city, and have told merchants in that city that I won't shop in their stores until the city ends the program. I suppose I'm the only person who did that. If thousands did it, merchants would feel the loss and those red light cameras would be booted out so fast it'd rupture the space-time continuum. When the city I live in harassed me over the lawn, I gave them hell. Chewed out my representative, and the enforcement department, pointing out that the day they complained about my lawn, the grass in the median of the nearby major street was higher than mine. Voted against the incumbents in the next election, which then was only 1 month away. Haven't heard from them since. The medics don't get a pass from me either. If I don't agree with a doctor's bill, I fight. I start by going through channels, questioning every detail of the bill, and if I get somewhere then I'll take it. If they won't deal, then I pay them what Medicare says their services are worth and not a cent more, and I tell the medical debt collectors not to call me. I am not going to pay for their billing errors, period. And I don't have a lot of patience any more for going through channels, filing appeals and all that. Any credit card issuer that messes with me gets terminated. Late fee? I'll call and get it back, or I never use the card again. I have no mercy on big banks. Then there's the inertia levy, the rate hike with which service providers reward customers for being loyal. I do the energy company dance, switching electricity providers every 6 or 12 months. As for cable TV, I'm a "cord never". Yes, it's a pain. But I believe it benefits us all to fight back against the oligopolies. I consider it a civic duty.
On another matter, one of the "experts" that the MAFIAA used to bolster their court cases was a professor at a university. I happened to be passing through, and stopped in long enough to complain about his conduct to that professor's department head, the dean, and the provost. I made an impression on the provost, who clearly did not like that the professor was using the schools' name to bolster his credentials, representing himself in court as "Dr. Soandso of Big State U." The school had no idea their prize professor that they'd recently featured on the cover of their alumni mag was doing those things, and the situation wanted only information put in the correct hands to get it stopped. Interestingly, the lawyers on the other side seemed not to have thought of doing what I did.
When stuff happens, when some faceless company tries to pull something, complain to appropriate government agencies They need reports and complaints to act upon.
Of course, can't fight everything, have to choose your battles. But if you do nothing at all, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for you. I can't fight them all by myself. Help us all by helping yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @06:37AM
We need more people like you
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @08:30AM (2 children)
If only there was organizations that worked on behalf of the little people. Some kind of collective group, by the people and for the people, maybe, or a union of similar trades. They could set up rules, we could give them a special name - laws or regulations maybe. It's just a hare-brained idea that my father, no it my grandfather, no I think one of my forefathers, told me about.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @05:16PM (1 child)
The little people couldn't care less about the British levying a few luxury imports. And the only people who thought taxation equals representation were people who actually had enough money to buy off a representative. 99% of the American colonists were drugged kicking and screaming into fighting the British. And when the war was won, the 1% fortified their political power right into the structure of government. Which is why, to this day, you can't get anything done in the US without a very rich person from a very powerful family agreeing with you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:22AM
And our banks are subservient to The City (in London), effectively making the USA's finances a slave to UK / global banking elite.
The USA doesn't exist anymore. The civil war did not end slavery. After the Act of 1871 everyone became indentured servants to repay the war debt. Lincoln had nothing left as collateral in repayment of past debts spanning back to the American Revolution. The land was already promised, the only thing left as collateral was people. Every time you get a child a birth certificate you are promising a new soul to the debt collectors. [Would you like to know more?] [youtube.com] (Not that the "science loving" simpletons here will take the time to educate themselves.)
Because The Union could not be dissolved legally the seats of America's congress were abandoned, left vacant. THE UNITED STATES (all caps name) became a federal municipal corporation (which also owns D.C., which is why it's not a part of any state). The idiots railing on about holding the government to their constitutions have no fucking idea what they're talking about. THE UNITED STATES corp set up its bylaws to mirror the constitution with some changes - AND with the ability to ignore or uphold those rules or change them at whim. Specifically they have given the right to govern by a secret set of rules which the public is not privy to. We don't have a President of the USA, we have an office of the president which is filled -- Trump is a CEO of the US corporation. We don't have a Congress, we have Congressional Offices that are filled just as one has Officers of a Corporation.
The way to put a stop to this is to simply become a republic again, not an incorporated democracy. Those seats of power were abandoned, not dissolved. The Old Republic is being rebuilt as we speak. [republicoftheunitedstates.org]
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Sunday August 27 2017, @08:41PM
Hear, hear!
Do carry on.