[governance] Kim Dotcom: New Zealand to investigate unlawful spying

[mmarius at ict-pulse.com]

This inquiry is not surprising, all things considered.

Looking back on the arrest of Kim Dotcom - and not taking anything away
from the myrid of allegations against him and Megaupload - the arrest and
efforts to extradite him appeared a bit over-zealous, especially on the
part of the NZ police...

Having said this, many countries can be intimidated when the US comes
a-knocking, but it incumbent for those countries to do their own due
diligence to ensure that due process according to their legal system are
followed...


Regards,

Michele Marius


Blog: http://www.ict-pulse.com
Twitter: @ictpulse
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICTPulse
LinkedIn: http://jm.linkedin.com/in/mariusms
===============
>
>   Kim Dotcom: New Zealand to investigate unlawful spying
>
> PM orders inquiry into actions of government agents in lead-up to arrest
> of Megaupload founder, who is fighting US extradition
>
>
>   *
>     Reuters in Wellington
>   * guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Monday 24 September
>     2012 09.57 BST
>
> Megaupload founder Dotcom at court in Wellington
> Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom outside the New Zealand court of appeals
> in Wellington. Photograph: Mark Coote/Reuters
>
> New Zealand <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/newzealand>'s prime
> minister, John Key, has launched a inquiry into "unlawful" spying by
> government agents leading to the arrest of Megaupload
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/megaupload> founder Kim Dotcom
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/kim-dotcom>, who is fighting
> extradition to the US where he faces charges of internet
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet> piracy and breaking
> copyright laws.
>
> The investigation may deal another blow to the US case after a New
> Zealand court ruled in June that search warrants used in the raid on
> Dotcom's home earlier this year, requested by the FBI, were illegal.
>
> Key has asked the government's intelligence and security division to
> investigate "circumstances of unlawful interception of communications of
> certain individuals by the government communications security bureau",
> his office said in a statement on Monday.
>
> Key's spokesman would not comment on whether the "certain individuals"
> referred to Dotcom, his three colleagues also arrested and facing US
> charges, or all of them.
>
> "The bureau had acquired communications in some instances without
> statutory authority," Key's statement said.
>
> New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom and his colleagues at his rented
> country estate near Auckland in January, confiscating computers and hard
> drives, works of art, and cars.
>
> The FBI accuses the flamboyant Dotcom, a 38-year-old German national
> also known as Kim Schmitz, of leading a group that netted $175m (£100m)
> since 2005 by copying and distributing music, films and other
> copyrighted content without authorisation.
>
> "I welcome the inquiry by [Key] into unlawful acts by the GCSB," Dotcom
> said on his Twitter account.
>
> Dotcom maintains that the Megaupload site was no more than an online
> storage facility, and has accused Hollywood of lobbying the US
> government to vilify him.
>
> The raid and evidence seizure has already been ruled illegal and a court
> has ruled that Dotcom should be allowed to see the evidence on which the
> extradition hearing will be based.
>
> US authorities have appealed against that ruling, and a decision is
> pending.
>
>





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