Felony Friday: FBI Denied Access To Internet Mogul Kim Dotcom’s Encryption Keys
It’s been a little while since Kim Dotcom’s name has appeared in my news feed. The last time Mr. Dotcom’s name came up in my circles was May 2013 when he ordered his staff to remove uploads containing blueprints of the Liberator 3D printed handgun from his encrypted storage site Mega.Prior to restricting uploads of 3D firearms to his file storage site Mega, Mr. Dotcom gained internet fame by being an outspoken critic of copyright laws. He put his beliefs into practice and was the chief founder of file sharing site Megaupload. Dotcom made international headlines when his site was shut down and a dramatic FBI raid of his sprawling New Zealand estate occurred in 2012.Computer hard drives were seized from Dotcom’s Coatesville, NZ home, cloned and given to the FBI after the raid. The New Zealand Court of Appeal ruled in January that the FBI should never have acquired the copied data.This week Dotcom received more positive news in regards to his seized hard drives. Russia Today provided coverage of the latest development in the case that is sure to enrage the FBI.
Dotcom’s attorneys have long sought the return of the largely encrypted hard drives, but Torrent Freak reports that the founder of the file-sharing site Megaupload was likely to only receive as much on the condition that in exchange he hand over to local authorities the keys necessary to decrypt the contents.According to Radio New Zealand, Justice Helen Winkelmann of the nation’s high court ruled Wednesday that federal officials there are formally barred from giving the password to the FBI if it’s provided by Mr. Dotcom, because the FBI only acquired the encrypted data in the first place using flawed warrants.On Twitter, however, Dotcom suggested that authorities in the US may have already been able to crack into the illegally seized hard drives.
The FBI is fighting a losing battle by attempting to wage a global war on copyright infringement. The Internet is tantamount to the Wild West. Trying to control its growth and transmissions can result in the authorities tasked with the job looking like fools. Hopefully the United States government, after being told by a foreign court that they have overstepped their boundaries, will cease to be the copyright infringement world police.It is difficult to envision how copyright laws would be structured in a more free society. A minimum requirement would be changing copyright law so that non-consenting parties are not forced to agree to contracts via the threat of violence. Surely, private communities and city-states could create their own internal copyright laws, but intellectual property is not a natural right, and one could not justify enforcing copyright upon the whole world.Check out our past editions of Felony Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
