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New Zealand Wants New Spying Powers To Legalize Illegal Spying On Kim Dotcom And Others

from the i'm-sure-that-will-go-over-well dept

Mon, May 6th 2013 11:04am — Mike Masnick

You may recall that in the course of the case against Kim Dotcom in New Zealand, it was revealed that the New Zealand intelligence service, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), illegally wiretapped and spied on Kim Dotcom. The GCSB's mandate is that it can only spy on foreign communications, but used its powers illegally domestically. While NZ prime minister John Key apologized for the episode, it has raised lots of questions about his role in the whole matter -- and when he knew the law was being broken. Other info has come out as well, including attempts to cover up the illegal surveillance, and the fact that the GCSB illegally spied on nearly 100 people. Dotcom is now suing the government over this whole mess.

Given all that, you might think that PM Key would be focused on putting in place safeguards to stop the system from being so abused in the future. Not so. Instead, as reader aster points out, Key is now trying to change the law to make it easier to spy on citizens and others in the country. In other words, he's seeking to legalize domestic spying for the intelligence agency. The new proposal would allow for domestic spying on citizens and residents if approved by PM Key. As if he didn't already appear untrustworthy in the matter, he's now suggesting that because it has to go through him, it'll somehow avoid abuses? Opposition politicians are pointing out how laughable it is that Key is now asking people to trust him personally that such spying powers won't be abused.

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Filed Under: gcsb, john key, kim dotcom, new zealand, privacy, spying, surveillance

23 Comments

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Ninja (profile), 6 May 2013 @ 10:23am

If he has free pass to spy on whoever then if the agency carries on exactly as they are doing now, WITH his approval, then the law won't be abused indeed. It is being abused right now.

I'd love to see Anonymous (and I mean anyone) gather intel on this moron and release it publicly on the net to see if he likes being spied. I'd bet most of the morons that want more surveillance and espionage powers would freak out and cry "PRIVACY!" if such thing happened to them.
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out_of_the_blue, 6 May 2013 @ 11:14am

Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
Just take a look through this from Greenwald about domestic spying in the US is rampant:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/04/telephone-calls-recorded-fbi-boston

And YET AGAIN defending a site that ONLY GRIFTED off the value that others produced. And a millionaire from infringement. -- Mike's view of an "economy" is pirating, not producing.

Tag line time! I have 'em on tap (key tap that is) cause Mike repeats the same assertions over and over.

Where Mike's "new business model" (file hosts like Megaupload) is to grift on income streams that should go to content creators -- and then call the creators greedy!
07:12:56[i-145-2]
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2013 @ 11:18am

Re:
I would rather see a "Mark Klein" of Australia that publicly exposes exactly what is going on. Hopefully, AU is more concerned with justice and following the laws then the US administration. In the very least, it seems to me that the judicial branch is at least willing to do it's job over there.
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S. T. Stone, 6 May 2013 @ 11:23am

Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
I don�t see Mike defending Megaupload or Kim Dotcom in any way other than maybe to say Dotcom has an entitlement to the same protections and rights afforded to any other resident of New Zealand under that country�s laws.

New Zealand broke the law when it attempted to arrest and prosecure Kim Dotcom at the behest of the major media companies. Now the NZ government wants to change the law to make what it did legal so it doesn�t run into any problems with arresting and prosecuting Dotcom on future orders from the US media companies and their government lapdogs.
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Rikuo (profile), 6 May 2013 @ 11:24am

Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
"Mike has narrower focus than a gnat." says the guy who repeats his falsehoods no matter how many time's he's corrected, with hard evidence.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 6 May 2013 @ 11:33am

Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
How is he defending Megaupload?

He is defending the right of the accused to the same due process afforded to anyone else accused of a crime.

There is a difference.

Are you a crack baby?
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2013 @ 11:36am

Re: Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
I normally don't like ad hominem attacks, but for some reason that last line of your post caught me unawares and tickled my funnybone. Kudos to you good sir.
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Ninja (profile), 6 May 2013 @ 11:38am

Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
Oh hello mr gnat.

Also, please spend another few hours pointing up where he explicitly defended MU because so far what he is saying it's right is due process and sovereignty. Actually, spend a few years before coming back.

Tag line time! I have 'em on tap (key tap that is) cause Mike repeats the same assertions over and over.

It's called projection in psychiatric jargon.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2013 @ 11:41am

Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
Hmmm. Did you know that I would not have heard about this article if Mike didn't mentioned it. Meaning that they would have lost traffic if Mike didn't mention this article. That would lead to lost profits on advertisement. I like TechDirt because it is one of the few sites that link back to everything.

Also to counter your point on piracy. MU hosting a site people can use wasn't illegal. Yes it contained illegal content but many people used it for legal purposes. If you could provide a method that would track down only the illegal files and protect a users privacy while being completely legal and not require 100s of hours to run. Then I would agree about keeping pirated materials off a server. Untill then, I think privacy is more important and people need to use the DMCA process to remove pirated content.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2013 @ 11:45am

anyone like to hazard a guess as to who has put this suggestion to him? he has made nothing other than a monumental fuck up and this isn't helping at all. the USA are involved in this just as they were in the Dotcom raid. no one seems to have learned any lessons. now add in that the DoJ want to be able to change the law NOW but be able to use it as if it were enabled THEN. also, any USA citizen or company that is wanted to answer charges against it from another country, what do you think is gonna happen? i bet the USA will say 'aint gonna happen!' gonna be a two tier thing. you do what we say, but dont do what we say as well!
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Zakida Paul (profile), 6 May 2013 @ 11:57am

Re: Re: Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
That's the best way to do it, sneak it in at the end ;-)
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2013 @ 12:06pm

Politician: People are mad that we violated the law to spy on our own citizens? Well we can just change the law to make it legal to spy on our own citizens, then no one will care when we spy on our citizens because it's not illegal anymore!
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jupiterkansas (profile), 6 May 2013 @ 1:00pm

Re:
It worked in the U.S.
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out_of_the_blue, 6 May 2013 @ 1:08pm

If they spy on me playing with my Alabama Man action figure there is going to be heck to pay. HECK TO PAY I TELL YA!
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Divide by Zero (profile), 6 May 2013 @ 1:20pm

I really wish to hell that this country would get over it's current authoritarian ways (which we never used to have, btw), and do something about this bunch of corrupt incompetents. Enough of the bending over for the US, and enough of accepting stuff just because a bunch of people who lack the skills and/or aptitude to do anything else tell us so!

I am actually amazed at how pervasive the moral arrested development is around the world.
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The Real Michael, 6 May 2013 @ 2:51pm

Re:
If government spies on you, that's perfectly legal.

If you spy on the government, that's a breach of national security.
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Beech, 6 May 2013 @ 3:15pm

Re: Re:
Wrong, in the US they never announced it. Just slid in a couple of new definitions to a couple of words here and there in a couple of unrelated bills...then shut the hell up about it. At least, AT LEAST, New Zealand is giving the people a heads up on their loss of privacy.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2013 @ 3:17pm

Re:
to Ninja

no one fights harder or more dirty to keep their rights than those who wants those same rights removed from everyone else!!
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Beech, 6 May 2013 @ 3:17pm

Don't you guys get it!? If New Zealand doesn't spy on it's citizens the TERRORISTS MAY WIN!!!!! Terrorists hate New Zealand because of all its....uh...whatever it is they have's. Freedom? Kiwis? LotR looking places? Whatever it is, there needs to be a wiretap on every computer to make sure the children stay safe from terrorist pedophiles.
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Beech, 6 May 2013 @ 3:20pm

Re: Defending Megaupload, Mike has narrower focus than a gnat.
OotB's most common tactic. When he can't find anything to directly criticize, just yell at mike for not writing the article about something else. "Hey! You aren't allowed to be against New Zealand spying because the US does the same thing if not worse! You should have written ANOTHER article about the US spying on it's citizens instead so I could have bitched about how many articles you write about that!"
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Fentex, 6 May 2013 @ 3:49pm

It's all party and parcel of the continous pressure by the privileged to gain increasing control and authority over others.

Our police lost a big case because it hung on evidence illegally gathered. This governments response was to legalise the crime.

As with the GCSB's illegal spying no one is held to account, no one is punished. Breach the rights of any number of people and be one of the privileged - no consequences. But if a private, poor and unprivileged person does any such thing...

The law they're writing is appalling. It boils down to essentially creating a domestic spy agency with no effective limitations authorised to spy on anyone anywhere pretty much anyhow. It specifically says warrants don't have to be targetted, they can be applied to a class of people and reasons for spying can be economic.

So it's clearly intended to be used to spy on everyone in organisations protesting trade agreements, like the TPPP.

Worlds least corrupt country, one of the freest economies with among the greatest social liberties and suddenly we need our own Stasi?

I despise, and always have despised, our government because this authoritarian filth has always been their dream and now we have a Prime Minister who made a fortune trading in the U.S we have someone who thinks we should just be like there because it worked so well for him and fuck the rest of us.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 6:27am

Re:
Alabama Man action figure? Is that where you get your information from, Blue? That explains everything.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:41am

Re:
Terrorists hate Hobbits.
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