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MEGAUPLOAD FOUNDER KIM Dotcom suffered a major setback in his epic legal battle against online piracy charges today when New Zealand’s Court of Appeal ruled he was eligible for extradition to the United States.
The German national, who is accused of netting millions from his file sharing Megaupload empire, faces charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering in the US, carrying jail terms of up to 20 years.
Dotcom had asked the court to overturn two previous rulings that the internet mogul and his three co-accused be sent to America to face charges.
Instead, a panel of three judges backed the FBI-led case, which began with a raid on Dotcom’s Auckland mansion in January 2012 and has dragged on for more than six years.
The court said US authorities had “a clear prima facie case to support the allegations that the appellants conspired to, and did, breach copyright wilfully and on a massive scale for commercial gain”.
Dotcom is accused of industrial-scale online piracy via Megaupload, which US authorities shut down when the raid took place.
They allege Megaupload netted more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners $500 million-plus by offering pirated content including films and music.
“We are disappointed with today’s judgment by the NZ Court of Appeal in the Kim Dotcom case,” his lawyer Ira Rothken tweeted, indicating there would be an appeal to the Supreme Court.
“We have now been to three courts each with a different legal analysis — one of which thought that there was no copyright infringement at all.”
Dotcom and his co-accused — Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk — have denied any wrongdoing and say Megaupload was simply a case of established interests being threatened by online innovation.
The website was an early example of cloud computing, allowing users to upload large files onto a server so others could easily download them without clogging up their email systems.
At its height in 2011, Megaupload claimed to have 50 million daily users and account for 4% of the world’s internet traffic.
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Well done to asti they stood up to this evil government
Let’s hope they continue to do so.
Asking the membership to vote on the SAME issue for a third time in quick succession would be a disgrace & if it happens, many members will stop paying their union subs.
Listen to your membership, not this toxic government with their acts of coercion they call “agreements”
They should be ashamed of them selves lazy sods
To whom are you referring?
Never met a non lazy union member
Fire them 10 at a time until they mend their ways and egos
Probably just a bowel movement.
A1
ASTI realises it is out on a limb,looking at Quinner with the saw.
Hardly. Quinn wouldn’t know how to use a saw. A sledgehammer is more his style
These teaches sicken me and any other hard working person in ireland. They don’t even know how easy they have it.
Wbat plandt are you on?? imagine dealing with likes of you tines 30!
Why do I think this is the union leadership (clueless of the realities of teaching) are selling us down the river !!
Can’t see how they can change the croke park/ haddington road deal sufficiently to make me want to vote for it ! The ability to carte blanche changes to my contract on the future without negotiation is enough of a reason to say no – no private sector worker would accept it so why should I !!
If they try to re-ballot us yet again then that will signal the end of the Asti as a union because they will not have any members left
Kenneth’s obviously just a troll; don’t feed him!
A slave more like
Perfectly happy with the status quo. No to Haddington Road. No to pointless Croke Park hours. No to unpaid S and S. No to any further erosion of our terms of employment.
No escalation in industrial action by the ASTI members, yet Min Quinn has not introduced legislation to block supervision & substitution payments that TUI members no longer receive.
The “open-day season” has come and gone and complaints by irate parents seem to have died down.
All quiet on the Western Front?
If ASTI unwilling to perform their jobs to the required standard, they should all be replaced. Plenty if NQTs who can’t get a sniff of a job. I’m sure they would be willing to perform the tasks required of them. ASTI are out of touch with reality. Hiding behind this “out of concern for the children” rubbish. They are only concerned with feathering their own nests. Given that they have 4.5 months holiday, their pay per hour actually worked is one of the highest in the state, yet still they think they are entitled to be shielded from the recession. Why?……..because they have an Arts degree?
The ASTI members would have been better off renouncing the supervision-and-substitution payments and refusing to the Croke Park/Haddington Road hours.
Possibly, but then schools would have closed, something most teachers don’t want to see happen, I know I don’t.
They’ve imposed draconian measures on us, grand, now feck off and let us teach, unless they want meaningful conversation on JC reform & “extra hours”
@Liam H
“but then schools would have closed”
Not necessarily. What I meant is that they could do S&S without payment. S&S are hardly stressful tasks. Schools have a duty of care towards pupils.
Your being led into a dead end
By noise makers and lads that dont
Seem to grasp the reality of the situation.
If only the.private sector enjoyed the same protection. . But hey. .divide and conquer
If only the public sector could get the same wage increases as the private sector received!!
Here here Des !!!!!
Ill put it another way to these
Lads..enough faffing around
All out strike or take your bite
Of the huge shit sandwich
Like everybody else
have your say