Open letter to Kim Dotcom

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Kia ora Kim,

I last wrote you an open letter in 2015 at the start of the legal proceedings to have you extradited to the U.S.

In the four years since not a lot has changed so bits of this letter may seem repetitive, but they are as true now as then and deserve repeating.

Firstly, all the best with the hearing. I hope the decision goes your way.

This case has not so much to do with New Zealand in one sense. In reality you are facing the wealth, power and wrath of corporate America who argue they have lost unearned income through filesharing services you helped provide for internet users.

But instead of taking a civil claim against you, Hollywood’s corporate moguls want to make an example of you. They want you in jail forever as the modern-day equivalent of the body left hanging on the scaffold for the vultures or the severed head on a pike… Don’t mess with us is the grim warning they want to send across the world.

If the Supreme Court upholds New Zealand’s sovereign authority over our law and legal processes they will decide to tell corporate America they are barking up the wrong tree and should pursue their claims in civil proceedings.

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The political environment in which your case is heard is more critical than what the law says. A case of alleged copyright infringement has no basis for extradition hence the desperate claims of “conspiracy” and “racketeering”. If our courts have honesty, courage and backbone they will toss this out as a corporate-inspired abuse of legal process.

The outcome will depend more on the courage of the judges than the application of the law.

The most embarrassing aspect of all this is how the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) and police fell over themselves to help out corporate America with their keystone-cops raid on your home.

As things stand you are the highest profile victim of illegal GCSB surveillance. That’s an issue which will be addressed only when New Zealand withdraws from the five eyes network and develops an independent foreign policy. It won’t happen tomorrow but it will happen.

I said in my last letter that your millions and uber-capitalist lifestyle are a turnoff to me but during the 2014 election campaign I was impressed with what I took as your genuine commitment to the progressive policies of Internet MANA.

I also said I strongly disagreed with your analysis of the election outcome. It was not your so-called “poisonous politics” which defeated Internet MANA or lost Hone Harawira his seat as MANA MP. In fact the strategy MANA adopted in our decision to go into a strategic alliance with the Internet Party was a successful strategy. Hone gained more votes in the 2014 election than he gained in the previous 2011 election and Internet MANA gained significantly more party votes than MANA received by itself in 2011.

(Hone’s vote in Te Tai Tokerau increased from 8,121 in 2011 to 8,969 in 2014 while the MANA vote in the Maori electorates increased from 25,889 to 29,207. The Internet MANA party vote increased by roughly 50% from the MANA 2011 party vote – up from 24,168 to 34,094)

What lost Hone his seat was the political establishment of right-wing Labour MPs, the National Party Prime Minister John Key, the Maori Party and Winston Peters all urging their supporters to back Labour MP Kelvin Davis. For most of the Labour Party leadership at the time their highest priority was to drive MANA out of parliament. Had Labour been able to get close to government it would have needed the extra seats Internet MANA could have brought to a Labour-Green-Internet MANA government. However Kelvin Davis preferred to be a backbench MP in a losing party than be part of a winning team to change the government.

Your case has already been of importance to this country in helping reveal the extent of lying and illegal mass surveillance of New Zealanders conducted by the GCSB.

This week it will be important for another reason. It will be a litmus test for just how independent our courts are.

Should you lose and the decision be transferred to Andrew Little then don’t hold your breath. There will be enormous pressure from New Zealand First, right wing Labour MPs and the U.S. for you to be extradited.

Back in the 1980s a Labour government caved in quickly to trade pressure from France and released two of the French bombers who sank the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour causing the death of photographer Fernando Pereira.

Nothing I’ve seen gives me any cause to think this current government wouldn’t cave in to pressure just as quickly.

If you pass through Christchurch sometime drop by for a date scone and a cup of tea. It would be nice to see you.

Kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui.

27 COMMENTS

  1. I would like to add my support for a positive outcome for Kim in this action.
    I disagree that the case is not much to do withNew Zealand. It defines whether we have an independent judicial system or are simply a branch of America’s.
    Also I think there is an important distinction with the Rainbow Warrior case in that the bombers were acting on orders of France itself so France was the Culprit rather than the agents and the labour government had that acknowledgement so it was right to deal with their government rather than the employees. Kim on the other hand has no state directing his actions.
    D J S

  2. Spot on analysis John. If our courts do not stand up for what is right and caves to The American Empires demands then we do not have the protection of the law!

  3. Absolutely wonderful John.

    ——————————-

    … ” The political environment in which your case is heard is more critical than what the law says. A case of alleged copyright infringement has no basis for extradition hence the desperate claims of “conspiracy” and “racketeering”. If our courts have honesty, courage and backbone they will toss this out as a corporate-inspired abuse of legal process.

    The outcome will depend more on the courage of the judges than the application of the law.

    The most embarrassing aspect of all this is how the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) and police fell over themselves to help out corporate America with their keystone-cops raid on your home.

    As things stand you are the highest profile victim of illegal GCSB surveillance ”…

    ——————————-

    Keep your filthy hands off Kim Dot Com.

    You ILLEGALLY arrested him , denied him basic human rights in contacting a lawyer, you impounded his wealth to prevent him defending himself , you changed our laws to cower to a foreign powers military and industrial and trading might, you used the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry’s ratification of the TTPA before Congress to get laws passed before Congress to entrap and ensnare a New Zealander.

    You political filth.

    It has not gone unnoticed what you did.

    You cowering , weak political NZ filth.

    You disgusting filth.

    Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight (Official Music Video) – YouTube
    YouTube‎ · ‎Phil Collins

  4. Absolutely wonderful John.

    ——————————-

    … ” The political environment in which your case is heard is more critical than what the law says. A case of alleged copyright infringement has no basis for extradition hence the desperate claims of “conspiracy” and “racketeering”. If our courts have honesty, courage and backbone they will toss this out as a corporate-inspired abuse of legal process.

    The outcome will depend more on the courage of the judges than the application of the law.

    The most embarrassing aspect of all this is how the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) and police fell over themselves to help out corporate America with their keystone-cops raid on your home.

    As things stand you are the highest profile victim of illegal GCSB surveillance ”…

    ——————————-

    Keep your filthy hands off Kim Dot Com.

    You ILLEGALLY arrested him , denied him basic human rights in contacting a lawyer, you impounded his wealth to prevent him defending himself , you changed our laws to cower to a foreign powers military and industrial and trading might, you used the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry’s ratification of the TTPA before Congress to get laws passed before Congress to entrap and ensnare a New Zealander.

    You political filth.

    It has not gone unnoticed what you did.

    You cowering , weak political NZ filth.

    You disgusting filth.

    Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight – YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN3x-kAbgFU

  5. +1000 John Minto especially

    “A case of alleged copyright infringement has no basis for extradition hence the desperate claims of “conspiracy” and “racketeering”. If our courts have honesty, courage and backbone they will toss this out as a corporate-inspired abuse of legal process.

    The outcome will depend more on the courage of the judges than the application of the law.”

    and

    ” I hope the decision goes your way.”

  6. +100…Great Post !… Dotcom must stay in New Zealand…and be protected as a New Zealander

  7. Thanks John, well said.
    I agree heartily.
    Such a dark ugly time in our politics.
    I see Minister Lees-Galloway has undone some of the evil anti worker legislation that emerged from those times.
    Legislation that had Sir Peter and Dame Fran abetted into reality.

  8. Big Corp America and it’s puppets are engaged in mass breaches of privacy on a daily basis, in effect they are breaching the copyright of us as internet users and they feel they have the right to do so on a massive-scale. Our files are open slather for sharing yet how come when the mouse is in the other hand it’s extraditable, criminal, worthy of human rights abuses and the worst thing of all, worthy of dragging the so-called sovereign and independent status of NZ in to a network of ‘comply-or else’!
    I must concede to also not being a big fan of the big man due to his personal grandoise but this is not about the big man it’s about the small men, women and children of NZ who must Orwellianly comply with self-appointed masters or suffer the hell-like fury from a corporation scorned.

  9. Well put John.

    NZ political history would likely have been different indeed if ALL the Parliamentary Parties actually, had not united against Internet Mana. Labour was particularly reprehensible putting resources into Te Tai Tokerau that some of their other electorate candidates never got a sniff of.

    Well at least then illegal Govt. domestic snooping was exposed and Mr Key had to apologise to Kim. “Why are you turning red Prime Minister?”–Kim to Key–priceless. But all history now. NZers missed a chance with Internet Mana which had innovative member driven policy formation.

    Andrew Little seems in thrall to the yanks at the moment so there should be no quarter expected there. The NZ Judicial system seems to have had “orders from above” going on some of the decisions made in the Dotcom case/s.

  10. We could really do with Mana back in again. I didnt realise that Hone had inrcreased his vote so significantly. Pretty sickening how wiling Labour is to step to the rightwhen a real left party comes along. Their pretence to care is also shown in their unwillingness to do deals with the Greens. They like the status quo and are supportive of slippage to the right

    • Labour want to be in power no matter what they will screw any one on the sidelines if that is what it takes it does not matter what or who they are.

      They are gutless really, they have not gone right back on the film industry’s legislation around workers just tinkered.

      This is typical of them on so many things they complained about whilst in opposition.

      They don’t really have a fixed position on many things, so they wax wain according to the polls. They occupy the centre and the centre right at times. They haven’t been left for years.

  11. “What lost Hone his seat was the political establishment of right-wing Labour MPs, the National Party Prime Minister John Key, the Maori Party and Winston Peters all urging their supporters to back Labour MP Kelvin Davis”

    Democracy in action?

    Yeah, nah

    A shameful day in our history

  12. Yes I would like Kim Dot Com to stay in NewZealand and be protected as a New Zealander.
    I think that you have summed up the situation well John and I particularly agree with your assessment that this is all about the Power and wrath of corporate America. I strongly disagree with them using our country to
    pursue their nasty goals.

  13. “…the political establishment of right-wing Labour MPs, the National Party Prime Minister John Key, the Maori Party and Winston Peters all urging their supporters to back Labour MP Kelvin Davis. For most of the Labour Party leadership at the time their highest priority was to drive MANA out of parliament.”

    That ain’t poisonous politics?

  14. Let’s keep him, makes no sense to extradite a potential tax revenue goldmine.

    One of Us, One of Us !! .. there will be protests if he’s to be extradited. Saying that, he needs to start speaking nicely about his fellow Kiwis and paying his contractors in TIMELY fashion.

  15. The U$A is in its death throws. Their overall debt levels to the rest of the world is mind boggling for it’s sheer size and scope. Their ‘society’ is as substantial as a film set. Looks great, but there’s nothing much behind it if you dare to look. We all know that plays are acted out by players. We know those are flimsy sets and those actors are, in fact acting. And yet? We cry and laugh and become enraged!
    I’d see it as a great pity that the U$A died a lonely and unlovely death having become a global pariah.
    But don’t you think it’s nice to have Her there? A great force for quasi-good? Would we rather have Russia? Or China? Or North Korea? The U$A is everything that we want to be. In there, in that immense country we can hear every language spoken by every culture and religion on Earth and more or less tolerated? There are definitely exceptions… But those exceptions are not disappeared along with their many generations like North Korea. ( Ok. Yes they are a bit. But just a bit. )
    Why is that?
    To answer my own lonely question; I think it’s because humanity is drawn to the mystic structure of the U$A. Of it’s real and imagined ‘freedoms’. To be what ever our hearts desire is, is what draws us to it.
    And we all know what happens then? When something great achieves its Zenith? Every pendulum must stop dead… before it swings back the other way. Everything. Great or small can only expect deterioration then death after the fire and the fury.
    I think Kim ‘Dotcon’ is the worm in the woodwork. He’s the first maggot hatched on the cadaver. Something has to be the first in that inevitable process which brings down great things.

  16. KDC is dodgy as hell and I despise the idea of foreign millionaires trying to influence NZ elections, especially to give themselves some kind of legal advantage.

    That said, he has been treated appallingly by NZ police and greedy US corporations. Extradition after all the legal hell he’s been through would be unjust and a clear sign that NZ is a faithful lapdog of the plundering US establishment

  17. Weird how other file sharing companies that make profits off other people’s files don’t get charged with ‘racketeering’… in fact seem to be the cream of US society… like Google via You Tube!

    Also the Hollywood set seem to have some interesting ways to avoid paying taxes around the world…

    Media and entertainment giant Walt Disney (DIS) didn’t need to wish upon a star to reduce its tax burden, thanks to an aggressive yet legal tax-avoidance strategy based in the landlocked European country of Luxembourg
    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/06/13/open-letter-to-kim-dotcom-2/

    Twenty Century Fox

    “In fact, News Corp. operates a total of 136 subsidiaries in nations identified as international tax havens by the Government Accountability Office — jurisdictions where wealthy Americans and corporations can stash money to avoid paying U.S. taxes. One of those subsidiaries, Twentieth Century Fox Films, S.A., is located in Panama.”

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rupert-murdoch-corporate-tax-panama-trade-deal_n_1018600

    Warner Bros. Faces Tax Fraud Investigation for ‘Sully’ Airplane Costs (EXCLUSIVE)

    https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/warner-bros-faces-tax-fraud-131542374.html

  18. I think KDC is a NZer so he should be awarded national sovereign protection. Also, if he is a NZer he wasn’t a foreign millionaire meddling in N Z politics… If the worst happens to KDC and he is extradited to the US woe betide us all, as that would mean, yes, effectively the US rules us all.

  19. Important blog John. Dot Com made jonkey look a fool, outwitted him often. No wonder the rightists are out to get him, too clever for them and respected by a lot of us lefties. Good luck to D C, any chance of getting John Minto on your side in court?

  20. Great article. Agree with the vast majority of it including someone finally calling Labour a party of the right which I also believe they are.

    This is an issue of our personal rights as a sovereign nation of people. Something that in mu opinion has been brought into question with the CP-TPP being given the stamp of approval.

    I can but hope true justice and not politics prevail in the case of Kim.

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