The internet entrepreneur faces several criminal charges in the US, including copyright infringement.
It’s hard to feel any sympathy for the guy at this point, he went from odd eccentric file sharing site founder, to adware distributor, all the way to misinformation spreading conspiracy theorist.
Sure, but this isn’t about the person; it’s about legal precidence.
I don’t know anything about the guy but your comment can be a tough pill to swallow sometimes
Oh, absolutely, which is the entire point sometimes.
For example, nobody likes terrorists or pedophiles, so make laws against them, because everyone can agree with punishing them. Only problem is, our system works on precidence and doesn’t limit those laws to exclusively terrorists and pedophiles, but they instead apply to everyone. An example of a bill like this that Congress has tried to pass in the past is to ban encryption, since it helps criminals communicate with each other, but non-criminal civilians also use encryption for communication, amomgst other things.
from odd eccentric file sharing site founder
no. he basically started with credit card fraud and “sueing people who fileshare”. Together with a lawer he basically invented the practice of “see which IPs share copyrighted data, request the user data from the ISP and send out C&D extiotion letters to the ISP customers”
Could you provide more info? Yes he and every hosting provider did that because they were forced to by Hollywood. They and all other hosting providers/isps certainly don’t want to do it because it costs money to track the infringers and then they lose a customer.
He and his lawyer started doing that in the late 90s. When the labels just started knowing what the heck this newfangled internet even is.
In den späten 90er Jahren, kurz nachdem er wegen Kreditkartenmissbrauch verhaftet worden war, wurden in Hackerkreisen Stimmen laut, dass Kimble auch seine Freunde an die Softwareindustrie gegen Entgelt ausgeliefert habe. Der damalige berüchtigte Schwarzkopierer-Jäger und Anwalt Günther Freiherr von Gravenreuth hat seinen eigenen Aussagen zufolge Kimble als sogenannten Testbesteller beschäftigt.
Just one of the articles that goes into this assholes history
Translation
In the late 1990s, shortly after he was arrested for credit card fraud, there were rumors in hacker circles that Kimble had also handed over his friends to the software industry for a fee. Günther Freiherr von Gravenreuth, the notorious pirate hunter and lawyer at the time, said he employed Kimble as a so-called test orderer
They mass-collected the connection data and started mass-sueing/extorting. Nobody else did on such a large scale at the time.
Wow! I had no idea.
Wasn’t aware of his history before Megaupload really.
Wait what happened?!
spread russian propaganda afaik
Am I the only one who fails to see anything seriously wrong with what you list there? I’m purposefully ignoring “misinformation spreading conspiracy theorist”, because that’s a pretty meaningless accusation and is often added as an easy character assassination rather than something substantial, but I’d like to see you elaborate.
I mean, we’re talking jail time and extradition, and nothing you’ve mentioned is even against the law in the slightest. Yes, there was piracy on his file sharing site, but that’s true for practically any service on the internet, from Google drive to Amazon S3 and anything in-between and vaguely related.
Characters like him are targeted because they are both successful and anti establishment, the eccentricity just tops it off. But why should that result in a lack of sympathy? The world doesn’t have enough of these people who rock the boat if you ask me.
You ignored the adware distribution, if you want to see him spreading misinformation feel free to check his Twitter. It runs the gamut from antivaxxer to literal Russian propaganda.
Do you mean malware?
“His legal campaign against removal began after he was arrested in a dramatic FBI raid on his Auckland mansion in 2012.”
Wild how the FBI can go to other countries like that to raid the home of someone who pissed off Hollywood.
I know this dude is a total dickhead. Yes yes yes I know. But he made some entertaining videos back on the late 90s with those cannonball runs.
Characters like him are targeted because they are both successful and anti establishment
We can’t have that. You’re only allowed to commit crimes if you’re successful and support the establishment.
It has been over a decade since they shut down MegaUpload and raided his house in NZ.
U.S. authorities say Mr Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and music producers more than $500m in losses.
Ok, so it’s a phony case based on imaginary numbers. $500m++++! lmao.
Sharing files costs nothing for these people.
so what happens to mega? does someone else own it now?
Dotcom has not been in control of Mega for a long time now…
thanks, I didn’t know. I was never even aware that it was all connected to him until a few years ago.
Yeah. I followed his case and started using Mega the day it was released to the public… I also stopped using after Dotcom warned against the people who now run it… Apparently the guy is a Chinese criminal.
He’s looking good 😊💯!
one has to believe closing this out was part of the deal to send assange back to australia
How is Australia or Assange related to it?
If you don’t think there was some three way horse trading done to complete both of these multi year extraditions, between administrations seeking a win they could brag about, then, I don’t know what to tell you man
No no, say it.
What do you want to tell me if I don’t believe in fringe conspiracy theories?
Current NZ gov are certainly more cozy with the US. No idea how braggable it is though. He seems to have been forgotten about after the initial national embarassment the whole fiasco was at the time. Maybe these clowns want him to quietly go away . So yeh horse trading.
Huh? I’m an Aussie and the last time I checked we are a seperate country from New Zealand and OUR government basically saw to it that OUR citizen was returned home and unlike this bloke, Assange has hardly had it “easy” living in an embassy or recently jail……Dotcom has been living large in NZ in comparison……
There were no back door deals about this guy for Assange - completely different situations….🤦🏼♀️
Edit: didn’t mean to reply here.
