Click pic for info on this most excellent computer

Oh, the irony. They are ‘stealing’ data in a case against someone accused of stealing data (movies &music).

FBI agents who copied data from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom’s computers and took it overseas were not acting illegally because information isn’t “physical material”, the Crown says. The agents were accused of underhanded behaviour by Dotcom’s lawyers in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, after revelations that the information was already in US hands.
[…]
Crown lawyer John Pike, for the attorney-general, said the material stored on the hard drives could be shipped overseas for the FBI to examine because it did not constitute “physical” material. The relevant legislation applied only to physical possessions rather than information, Mr Pike said. “[Information] may be the most valuable thing we have, but it is not scooped up by the act”.



  1. JimD, Boston, MA says:

    That’s the same argument EVERY PIRATE could make !!! Way to go FBI !!!

  2. farmits says:

    The data on the hard drive is physical magnetic data on physical medium.

    The data IS physical material transmitted in digital form.

    FBI makes up rules to suit themselves.

  3. sheila says:

    Thanks, FBI, for making it legal to do something illegal.

    Sheila
    http://survivingsurvivalism.com

  4. Skeptic says:

    If I understand this correctly, all that stuff I’ve downloaded doesn’t constitute physical material, so in fact I DIDN’T steal it? Well that’s a relief. I don’t feel guilty anymore.

    How does one get into the FBI database? I have nothing illegal planned. I just want to put nothing on a hard drive.

  5. kerpow says:

    According to the article FBI isn’t the one saying its not physical material, the Crown lawyers are. Thats not to say the FBI didn’t help them reach that conclusion but its not the way the article reads.

  6. Ekim says:

    As a New Zealander, it’s pretty offensive to have the US feel that they can just trample all over another countries laws.

    Not to mention that what they’ve been accused of is technically not a criminal offense in this country…

  7. Very cool Laoptop theere. I’ll take 5 🙂
    The Us is a Bully,
    reminds me of an episdoe of Southpark when the kids where playing and Cartmen gets shot with the fake gun and he then starts to say oh I have a sheild round me and im invisible and nothing can touch me, the others called BS.

    In this example America took the hard drives and when New Zealand called foul, America turned round and said information on hard drives isn’t physical so its legal, in other words “What the fuck you gonna do BITCH!!”

  8. Anonymous says:

    Oh, the irony. They are ‘stealing’ data in a case against someone accused of stealing data (movies &music).

    What did you expect from the very agency which inspired the comic strip “Spy vs Spy”?

    What’s sad is that this comic Spy vs Spy type thinking is probably more true that you might want to realize!

    (For anyone living under a rock or don’t know what Mad magazine is/was, here’s a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dNxK_wslqo )

  9. Sai Kai Lee says:

    So according to the FBI, a hard drive isn’t physical property? I wonder why they call it hardware then?

  10. sargasso_c says:

    A lot of very weird stuff is going on between the law enforcement arms of New Zealand’s government and the US. And if I elaborate on that there are likely to be personal consequences. I imagine there is the equivalent of the Bat Phone on a desk in Wellington, connected to a secret underground lair in Washington. But I’m just guessing. And a search light on a roof beaming the shape of a kiwi on the clouds over DC.

  11. pedodave69 says:

    Well what did you expect from FuBarIncarnate. This might suggest what kind of Bear some of them are – http://www.theindychannel.com/news/31060936/detail.html

  12. Gordy says:

    So it would not be theft if we were to take a brand new, empty hard drive from a store?


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