If multiple steps involved in a legal case were ruled as illegal for various reasons, any sane person would be hard-pressed to call that a success. That is, unless that person was only concerned with the ends and not the means. Attorney General Eric Holder is apparently one of those people that aren’t too concerned, especially when it comes to the MegaUpload case. In a speech about grants being provided to fight intellectual property crime, Holder referenced MegaUpload as a shining example of what those funds could do.
Techdirt explains why MegaUpload being “indicted” means little:
Indicted, yes. But pretty much everything after the indictment has been an unmitigated disaster. There was the illegal raid on Kim Dotcom’s home, which used the wrong documentation. There was the illegal taking of evidence out of New Zealand without permission. There was the illegally obtained intelligence info on Dotcom’s location. There was the ridiculous SWAT-ification of the raid team, which New Zealand officials now admit was both overkill and a mistake. Basically, pretty much every action by the DOJ in the case has been a disaster.
With that laundry list of errors, it’s hard to say anything at all about the MegaUpload case has been a success. Regardless of your position on Kim Dotcom or piracy in general, this has not been a successful endeavor.
(The Department of Justice via Techdirt)
- MegaUpload is almost back
- Dotcom even received funds to better represent himself
- They didn’t even want Dotcom to have access to the evidence against him
