The problem the US and Hollywood face is they have to come up with something to support their claims now. To accomplish this they seized all of Megaupload’s servers, any and all computers in his home and offices and pretty much anything they could get their hands on. Sure quite a bit of the evidence was obtained illegally and then removed from the country without review, but when you are the MPAA you do not concern yourself with technicalities.  Unfortunately some of the antics of the FBI, the US DoJ and the MPAA have annoyed the judiciary in New Zealand. It seems they do not like being used in this manner and are doing their best to insure that the court proceedings are done according to law.

This is how the warrants used for the full tactical raid on the Dotcom mansion were ruled illegal. The High Court has also asked the police to account for their actions in executing those warrants and in allowing the US to take the evidence without review. That answer will be an interesting one as we cannot think of anything other than admitting they did what the FBI and the DoJ told them to. Sadly for the police this is not a valid argument.

Getting back to the issue at hand, we have said repeatedly that the US has no real case. It is pretty much a given that if they had hard or real evidence against Megaupload they would already be spreading it through the media by now. It would hold up what their claims and show that Dotcom is the criminal they are trying to claim he is.  Instead they have remained silent about any and all evidence they have (which is probably none at all). They have chosen to employ the tactic of bankrupting Megaupload, Dortcom, and also Carpathia Hosting. The intent is to send a message not to mess with the MPAA, theya re showing that they have powerful friends to help them uphold their outdated and anti-consumer business model.

We will see if the US complies to the requirement to hand over the evidence it has against Dotcom so that he can properly defend himself against the extradition request from the US. Judge Winkelmann has it 100% right when he said: “Without access to materials relevant to the extradition hearing phase, the person sought will be significantly constrained in his or her ability to participate in the hearing”. Now we would never claim to be an expert at international law, but we are pretty sure we read something about discovery and the defendant having access to all evidence against them to mount a proper defense.  Well we said it a while ago, the MPAA has gotten the US in a mess and there is simply no way to get out of it now without looking like a bunch of fools.

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