Hasta La Gadget!

We talked a lot about the drama centering on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. The New Zealand Prime Minister has ordered an official inquiry into claims that the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) unlawfully spied on Dotcom. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has called efforts to intercept communications sent by Dotcom illegal.

Key called the spying illegal after it emerged that the GCSB had wiretapped Dotcom’s communications without receiving necessary authority and permissions. The GSCB is New Zealand’s equivalent to the FBI. Dotcom tweeted, “I welcome the inquiry by @johnkeypm into unlawful acts by the GCSB. Please extend the inquiry to cover the entire Crown Law Mega case.”

Authorities in New Zealand have been the focus of a lot of criticism over alleged mishandling of the Dotcom arrest and trial. Dotcom claims that he was punched, kicked, kneed and otherwise mistreated during his arrest while offering no resistance to officers. The New Zealand High Court ruled in the past that search warrants used for the raid were invalid.

Dotcom has also been working on launching his Megaupload site again and claims that the work is 90% complete. Dotcom is also at work on music service called Megabox. Dotcom still faces extradition to the United States with a hearing on his extradition to take place in March of 2013. The extradition case was previously set for August of 2012, but was rescheduled after allegations that police mishandled the case.

[via TheNextWeb]

Inquiry into spying on Kim Dotcom ordered by NZ Prime Minister is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The federal government has continued its crack down on piracy, with the Department of Justice announcing that three different sites which market pirated Android apps have been shut down. The websites in question – applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com – are now all under the government’s control, and all three display the same copyright notice that has graced Megaupload for the better part of the year. The DoJ says that this is the first time any websites relating to pirated mobile apps have been shut down.

Officially, these three websites that were seized are “suspected of distributing copies of apps without permission from the software developers who would otherwise sell copies of the apps on legitimate online markets for a fee.” During its investigation, the FBI downloaded thousands of apps from these websites, which charged users for the pirated apps. When it came time to execute the search warrants, the DoJ and the FBI teamed up with Dutch and French law enforcement officials to bring the servers down, since the servers were hosted in other countries.

In a DoJ statement, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said that mobile apps have become a priority in the government’s anti-piracy efforts. “Cracking down on piracy of copyrighted works – including popular apps – is a top priority of the Criminal Division,” Breuer said, adding that the Justice Department’s Criminal Division is committed to working with law enforcement to protect those who develop apps for mobile devices. U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates expanded on that by saying the government will continue to seize websites involved with marketing pirated apps.

Interestingly, blapkmarket.com is down at the time of this writing, but it doesn’t appear to have been seized, showing a “service temporarily down” message instead of the copyright banner that currently graces the three sites mentioned above. By far the most high-profile shut down has been that of Megaupload, which was seized by the government back in January and remains down today. The owners of Megaupload are facing some hefty fines and significant jail time, so it wouldn’t surprise us if these latest seizures have other sites shutting down as a preemptive measure. Stay tuned for more information, because it sounds like the Department of Justice and the FBI are just getting warmed up.

Department of Justice, FBI seize three Android pirate sites is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Since the insane raid of his property earlier this year, Kim Dotcom has morphed into somewhat of an internet freedom fighter, garnering the support of Woz in the process. Now, he’s posted a tweet which suggests a very big Megaupload announcement is just round the corner. More »

We’ve been talking about the legal drama centering on Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom and other executives with the file sharing company for a while. The legal battle has centered on having Dotcom and other managers of the website extradited to the United States to stand trial for alleged mass copyright infringement. As the case has drawn on, courts have ruled the search warrants used in the raid on Dotcom’s home were invalid.

There have been allegations in the court case that the law enforcement officers and FBI agents who executed the raid on the Dotcom home used excessive force. A video of the raid showing footage from surveillance cameras on the property and police video recordings from helicopters has hit the Internet. The video also shows some footage of the courtroom testimony with law enforcement officers remaining anonymous.

The video shows at least two helicopters landing on the property and heavily armed police officers storming the Dotcom home with little warning. Shortly behind the officers who were deployed via helicopter came multiple police vehicles filled with yet more heavily armed police officers. Dotcom notes during court testimony on the video that he was in what is called “The Red Room” and didn’t come out to meet police officers because he feared he would be shot.

He does point out that The Red Room had a door that he could have easily locked, but he left it unlocked so police could gain entry. Interestingly, the police knew that The Red Room existed and even had plans of the home, yet it still took 13 minutes for them to find Dotcom. At least, one police officer testified that “deliberate force” was applied to Dotcom. Dotcom says he was punched in the face, thrown to the ground, kicked in the ribs, and one officer stood on his hands even know he was sitting with his hands in the air and offering no resistance.

[via TheNextWeb]

Megaupload Dotcom mansion raid video released is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The French Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that Google must censor terms such as “torrent,” “RapidShare,” and other phrases that could be related to illegal file sharing. The decision was in response to a case brought by SNEP, a French music industry group, requesting that Google be forced to censor its results and be held accountable for facilitating piracy. The court ruled that the Mountain View company couldn’t be held responsible for people’s decision to click through to sites containing illegal material. But it reversed a lower court decision, demanding that related terms be removed from its autocomplete database to making finding such content more difficult. Google was understandably disappointed by the ruling, especially since the company already actively blocks some piracy related search terms. But, that apparently wasn’t enough for the SNEP. Check out the ruling itself at the more coverage link.

Filed under: Internet

French Supreme Court orders Google to censor piracy related terms in Instant search and Autocomplete originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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