As we have already covered the tactics employed by the US we are not going to go into too much detail, but we will say that their whole case seems to be rather baseless considering that, even with an illegal raid, they have not come forward with any real proof of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. This fact has force the US copyright guys to go to drastic measures to ensure that their message is sent.
In the meantime Dotcom has tried a series of maneuvers to get out from under the threat of extradition and the lawsuit as a whole. He has produced many theories, some of which seem to have merit even if there is only circumstantial evidence to back them up. This circumstantial evidence is actually more than the US has been able to bring to bear in this case if you look at the facts. Sadly, these bids to get things turned around have hit some major roadblocks.
Dotcom was ordered to hand over the details of his money to the courts, but has asked that the movie studios not be allowed to see it. This request has been denied and in short order Hollywood will have all of the details of this finances. As we have seen in the past they will lose no time in claiming it is theirs and having it seized. They have made it clear they want to hold onto Dotcom’s money for as long as they can even if they do not have a case to bring to court.
One of Dotcom’s other claims is that the New Zealand Government colluded with the US to get him in a position for extradition. He asked for the courts to demand discovery on different parts of the government to find out the truth. This one is was an interesting tactic and, as theories go, has some compelling evidence. It has already been admitted that unlawful surveillance was conducted on Dotcom despite protections against the New Zealand government spying in its citizens. The raid on the mansion was also in question for the manner in which it was carried out and the warrants that were borderline illegal in their scope. Next up was the unprecedented level of cooperation that was given to the FBI including allowing them to remove evidence before judicial review (the FBI still has not returned the data or devices that the courts demanded).
All of these items would seem to point to the US government working in close cooperation with their counterparts in New Zealand. The raid honestly looked like they were going after a drug lord or terrorist and not someone that was guilty of copyright infringement. Once again the court disagreed with this claim and are not going to allow the motion to go through. Judge France stated “Nothing suggests involvement of the United States of America, and nothing suggests the New Zealand Government had turned its mind to extradition issues. These are the key matters and there is no support for either contention.”
This claim is a little odd considering the facts at hand, however his ruling was about the claim that New Zealand invited Dotcom there in order to have him extradited which makes it easier to denounce rather than trying to prove collusion in the fabrication of the original case.
These setbacks will hurt Dotcom’s defense case, but are not going to bring it all crashing down. The US has still not been able to provide any real evidence of the charges against Dotcom as of yet and without that all they can do is continue to stall and keep the money and assets frozen in an attempt to hurt Dotcom.
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