Posts by nzlemming
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Also, I was told on Saturday by Someone Who Knows About Such Things(tm) that, although the USG seized the domain name, the IP address was still active and the servers were still online at that time. I can neither confirm nor dent ;-)
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Hard News: The Mega Conspiracy, in reply to Sacha,
Seizure of assets and shutting down of business operations, though? Shouldn’t that require more proof than “Hollywood said so”?
The case has been before a grand jury in the US and satisfied the conditions that must be met. Read the indictment – it’s quite interesting.
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Hard News: The Mega Conspiracy, in reply to Juha Saarinen,
When the warning is that firearms are involved, the AOS will usually be present. My understanding was that a number of properties had been raided, not just the mansion. That would justify a large deployment of officers across the city.
Just about everyone ever arrested has been on unproven allegations - the proof or otherwise happens in court, which can only come after the arrest.
I'm getting tired of people (many of whom should know better) leaping on this as though the police have over-reacted just because those people feel copyright law is broken and therefore any action taken in its name must be wrong. If you've read the indictment, the primary charges are racketeering and money laundering of proceeds of criminal copyright activity. Those charges fall within our extradition treaty as potentially justifying extradition, but it will be up to the court today to determine whether they meet the grounds for approval.
As Graeme notes, extradition arrests happen all the time around the world and sometimes at our request (notably the 'accidental millionaire' but also Nai Yin Xue who was arrested in the US under an NZ warrant.
PS Russell - I believe the FBI has laid claim to all the assets, as they are part of the 'proceeds of criminal activity' claim, so NZ won't get any of it.
EDIT: Snap Graeme and Matthew
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to Joe Wylie,
nice visual, Joe.
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On a slight (!) tangent, I drove up to Feilding today and the square was full of vintage cars with Great Gig in the Sky blasting out of the hospitality tent. Just a little surreal.
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OnPoint: Association of Community…, in reply to mccx,
What's stunning about that is that they feel they have to ask.
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On a more serious note, I have 5 sisters and a brother and the age range spans 20 years with me in the middle. We all talk to each other (and sometimes listen), care for each other, argue with each other and basically love each other. As a band, we're a formidable bunch - parents were both teachers and they brought us up to think. It can be difficult for the in-laws to deal with around the table with each of us involved in 2 or more conversations, simultaneously.
When I was growing up, I thought all families were like ours but experience showed otherwise. I could not imagine not speaking to my brother for 40 years, but an in-law has done exactly that and will go to her grave without changing. There are no feuds in our whanau. We're not saints, mind - things can get testy, especially in the kitchen at Xmas, depending on whose house we're all at. But it's over by the end of the day, or even the meal.
We're also quite different from any of our batches of cousins - there's some long term issues (to the point of psychosis) in some of those families. I'm currently helping my mother organise our family history (back to 1755 so far), so I'm hoping to meet some new relatives which may help determine what is weird and what is normal in family dynamics.
On the other hand, I have only a few friends I would go to the wall for, and I actually think of them as my extended whanau.
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Up Front: The Aunties, in reply to Emma Hart,
What I think about my own children is that perhaps I should take them aside and caution them that their mother wasn't quite as big a slapper as her friends' Edited Highlights Reel sometimes makes it sound.
You're not supposed to lie to kids - they'll get a complex or something...
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OnPoint: Association of Community…, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
I do not hold myself to be beyond criticism, but I do take the approach that I am holier than Carrick Graham. Is that wrong?
Don't take it personally, but small fungal growths on old cheese are holier than Carrick Graham, IMHO, so that's a pretty low bar.
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to Lilith __,
So we should be demanding accountability from Council as well as from Maryatt. Who set his salary, and who approved the raise?
You're right, that's the far more pertinent point. Maryatt may well be a pig with his nose in the public trough, but the people filling that trough are the ones responsible for how fat the pig gets.