Summary: The state-sanctioned forces are being (mis)used to crack down on those who are challenging the real criminals, even when it comes to copyright

ON NUMEROUS occasions before we covered the war on digital sharing, which has basically justified surveillance, back doors, classification of particular software as "illegal" and certain digital data as "theft" or whatever. What we have here is a war waged by corporations and governments (those in power) on the increasingly connected and digitalised population. It's neo-feudalism, or put more simply: digital oppression.

One story that we covered before was the violent raid on Kim Dotcom's house. As expected, and as we saw in Britain just now (regarding David Miranda), those in power give a stamp of approval to violent/fearsome overreach (zealous actions) that misuse the label "terrorism" to basically harass, imprison, strip, rob, discredit and terrify or not terrorise law-abiding citizens whom those in power don't like. In New Zealand, the disgraceful raids have just been given a blessing by a state-controlled court [1] and the host sued [2] as if merely hosting a sharing site (which was not even found guilty of anything) makes one a criminal. Another new report from New Zealand [3] shows that the US lobby (copyright monopoly/cartel) is currently making appalling new moves in Australia, threatening to make copyright infringement (meaning downloading, e.g. to cache, a copyrighted image in the browser) the equivalent of some kind of crime like substance abuse. This is beyond disgusting, it's corruption. The system is corrupt and it's clear who it is serving. The oligarchs, people who manage from their Manhattan apartments a conglomerate like CBS (a US-based propaganda channel/network), pretend that there is some issue like "struggling" networks [5] at stake even when the numbers contradict these claims and then, arguing that they fight for survival, they are fighting against free speech, dissemination of information, and free culture. It's class war. It's a war against people.

If there was justice there would be raids. Those Manhattan apartments would be raided and those behind the copyright cartel would be put in prison for many years for colluding, conspiring, and abusing state powers. No government (with army and police) should exist for the purpose of delivering corporate welfare and corporal punishment against innocent citizens. ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Kim Dotcom Raid Warrants Legal, Court of Appeal Rules

   The New Zealand Court of Appeal has this morning ruled that the search warrants used by police during the raid on Kim Dotcom's mansion contained errors, but were valid.





2. LeaseWeb Sued For Hosting Megaupload and Other “Pirate” Websites

   
   
   Megaupload's former hosting provider LeaseWeb has been sued for copyright infringement at a federal court in California. A complaint filed by adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 accuses the hosting provider of servicing several "pirate" websites. The publisher also holds LeaseWeb liable for the infringements of Megaupload, demanding up to $188 million in damages.





3. Pat Pilcher: Aussies to get three strikes law and Internet blockade?

   The Aussies are looking at an Internet blockade and setting up a 3 strikes law as the Abbott Government seeks to crack down on piracy.
   
   The move was signalled by Aussie Attorney-General George Brandis, who said he would make ISPs block access to piracy related websites and set up a 3 strikes law.





4. CBS Admits Aereo Supreme Court Win Wouldn't Hurt CBS, Might Make Things Better For Everybody

   Last year CBS joined a number of broadcasters in whining incessantly about how if Aereo was allowed to continue living, the "struggling" networks would be forced to pull their content from over the air broadcasts and move to cable. It's part of a long, long history of broadcasters pretending that if things don't go just they way they want them to, they'll surely go out of business. The threat to pull broadcasts was aimed at scaring Congress into passing protectionist legislation, and as we noted at the time it's something CBS should just shut up and do -- given the public could probably come up for better uses for their spectrum.