Megaupload boss wins right to sue New Zealand

from AP-Perspective.blogspot.com: Kim Dotcom wins right to sue New Zealand's spy agency for unlawful spying.

Kim Dotcom, internet tycoon and Megaupload founder, has won the right to sue New Zealand's foreign intelligence agency for unlawful spying by a US led probe on online piracy which led to his arrest earlier this year.

Helen Winkelmann, High Court chief judge, on Thursday ordered New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to disclose all details of any information-sharing arrangements it had with foreign agencies, including the US authorities.

"I have no doubt that the most convenient and expeditious way of enabling the court to determine all matters in dispute is to join the GCSB in the proceedings," she stated in a written judgement.

Dotcom, who changed his name from Kim Schultz, is fighting a US attempt to extradite him from New Zealand in what has been described as the world's largest copyright case.

His US-based lawyer, Ira Rothken hailed the court decision as a major victory.

Armed police raided Dotcom's mansion in January at the behest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,leading to a court ruling that the search warrants used were illegal, opening the way for him to seek damages from New Zealand Authorities.

Dotcom was released on bail and New Zealand's Prime Minister, John Key issued an apology after it was revealed in September that the GCSB had spied on Dotcom before police raided his Auckland mansion.

Dotcom is a German national with residency in New Zealand, making it illegal for the GCSB to spy on him.


William Akel, one of Dotcom's lawyers, said that the court decision was expected. "We can now determine the extent of GCSB's involvement, and we'll be able to claim for damages," he told Reuters.

US authorities allege Megaupload and its file-sharing sites netted more that $175 million and cost copyright owners more than $500 million by offering pirated content.

Dotcom maintains that Megaupload, one of the world's most popular websites before it was shut down in January, simply provided online storage services, and should not be held responsible for stored content.

Dotcom and three other defendants face an extradition hearing in March.

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New Zealand Judge Rules Kim DotCom Warrants Invalid

from news.cnet.com: High Court judge finds search warrants were too general and rules the data in cloned drives should not have been released to the FBI.

The U.S. piracy case against MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom appears to have run aground, with a New Zealand court ruling that the search warrants issued in January were invalid.

New Zealand High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann ruled Thursday that the warrants did not adequately describe the offenses alleged, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald. "Indeed they fell well short of that," she said. "They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid."

She also ruled that it was unlawful for the data confiscated in the raid to have been sent offshore, saying "the release of the cloned hard drives to the FBI for shipping to the United States was contrary to the 16 February direction" [given by the court] "that the items seized were to remain in the custody and control of the Commissioner of Police."

MegaUpload is a cloud-storage locker that DotCom claims was completely legitimate and protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. U.S. officials, who are trying to extradite Dotcom and six associates to face piracy and wire fraud charges, say he encouraged users to store pirated videos, music, software, and other media and then share them with others. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

New Zealand Sex Offenders To Be Tracked By Satellite

from stuff.co.nz: Tracking high-risk sex offenders in "real time" using satellite technology will give "peace of mind" to the public, Corrections minister Anne Tolley says.

The 24-hour Global Positioning System (GPS) will be rolled out from August - in time to keep tabs on serial sex offender Stewart Murray Wilson, known as the Beast of Blenheim.

Real time monitoring, using ankle bracelets, will track the movements of offenders in the community, Tolley said.

Corrections staff would be alerted and could intervene if offenders strayed into "exclusion zones" such as parks, schools and other specific locations or if they break curfew.

From August 11 child sex offenders, currently on extended supervision orders or on parole with special conditions, would be tracked. This would rise to 90 by the end of the year and 200 by 2013.

Tolley said the tracking would cost $750,000 in the first year. A contract for the technology and monitoring would go out to tender next year.

"We need to stay one step ahead of these people and this proactive approach with more advanced technology allows us to reduce the risks to the public," she said.

"Existing electronic monitoring only works while an offender is in a set location, such as at home. GPS will now allow us to keep track of high-risk offenders at all times and intervene if they are in, or close to, exclusion zones."

The Government won't need to introduce new laws - existing legislation allows Corrections to use GPS to monitor an offender's whereabouts if the Parole Board, or sentencing judge, imposes a special condition on their extended supervision order, parole conditions, home detention or community detention sentence.

Wilson will be released in September, after 17 years behind bars. The Parole Board fears he will reoffend almost immediately. The Probation Service has applied to the High Court for an extended supervision order.

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new zealand's cyber spies win new powers
from stuff.co.nz: New cyber-monitoring measures have been quietly introduced giving police and Security Intelligence Service officers the power to monitor all aspects of someone's online life. The measures are the largest expansion of police and SIS surveillance capabilities for decades, and mean that all mobile calls and texts, email, internet surfing and online shopping, chatting and social networking can be monitored anywhere in New Zealand. In preparation, technicians have been installing specialist spying devices and software inside all telephone exchanges, internet companies and even fibre-optic data networks between cities and towns, providing police and spy agencies with the capability to monitor almost all communications. Police and SIS must still obtain an interception warrant naming a person or place they want to monitor but, compared to the phone taps of the past, a single warrant now covers phone, email and all internet activity. It can even monitor a person's location by detecting their mobile phone; all of this occurring almost instantaneously.

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