Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
I don't understand why people treat Kim Dotcom like some sort of hero or freedom fighter.

He isn't.

If you admire him because he's fearless, fine.

If you admire him because he is super rich and lives large, fine.

If you admire him because you loved downloading free movies, music, and software, and megaupload facilitated that for you, fine.

But this guy definitely is guilty of what the US claims -- profiting big time from online piracy.

He can't claim that megaupload was just a file sharing service. It started out that way, but it became mostly about piracy, and they intentionally turned a blind eye to it, and in fact encouraged it.

There is also a ridiculous school of thought that online piracy shouldn't be illegal.

Of course it should. It's stealing content from those that created and distribute it.

I do believe that the punishment should fit the crime in piracy cases. The $250,000 lawsuits that are occasionally slapped against casual downloaders are disgusting and shouldn't be allowed. However, guys like Kim Dotcom made huge fortunes through online piracy, so they can't cry foul when they get in trouble for it.
All sounds well and good until you talk about the scale of how China does it and they go after the soft target (pun semi intended) in NZ. It's just pathetic. Send SWAT teams into Beijing and get back to me with the guy in NZ after.