Techdirt Podcast Episode 87: An Interview With Kim Dotcom's Lawyer

from the from-the-front-lines dept

Tue, Aug 23rd 2016 1:00pm — Leigh Beadon

Ira Rothken is a lawyer on the front lines of many major legal battles relating to copyright and piracy, including defending Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and, most recently, taking up the defense of Kickass Torrents operator Artem Vaulin. This week, Ira joins us on the podcast to discuss the ins and outs of these and other cases where the entertainment industry has come down hard on consumers and innovators.

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Filed Under: artem vaulin, copyright, ira rothken, kickass torrents, kim dotcom, megaupload, podcast

12 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 23 Aug 2016 @ 7:14pm

"
So MU's lawyers offered a deal with regarding the servers to keep them maintained, used only for evidentiary purposes and under forensic-level access(or whatever the term was), and the DOJ flipped out and insisted that the servers couldn't be maintained because someone would use them for more infringements, somehow, asserting that their cherry-picked evidence was enough.

No really, tell me again how the DOJ is so very interested in a fair trial rather than just setting a precedent and killing the company.
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- Michael, 24 Aug 2016 @ 5:33am
  
  Re: "
  Tell them the servers are full of child porn and the FBI will put them back on the internet and improve their performance.
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  - That One Guy (profile), 24 Aug 2016 @ 12:21pm
    
    Re: Re: "
    That's the FBI, in this case the DOJ actually argued against the servers being maintained in part because they claimed(almost certainly accurately) that there was illegal material on them.
    
    Just let that sink in for a moment. The DOJ asserts that the servers contain illegal material, evidence of one or more crimes, and they would prefer that said evidence be destroyed rather than preserved.
    
    Highlights rather nicely their priorities in this case, and how absurd their arguments can get, no?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2016 @ 7:35pm

One of the top ten episodes of the podcast imho
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 24 Aug 2016 @ 12:11am
  
  Re:
  One of the top ten episodes of the podcast imho
  
  Thanks! Please share it with others. Would love to get more people to hear it.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2016 @ 7:42pm

This is much better journalism than the MSM has ever given us.
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Isaac, 24 Aug 2016 @ 12:09am

Not bad
One of the best interviews i have heard in a while, I like that guy
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2016 @ 8:58am

BTW, it would be nice if there is a way I can speed up the podcast. Youtube has a feature that you can speed up videos that I find really useful (though it needs tweaking).

I used to hate watching Youtube videos because it's much too slow to watch an entire video just to get a little bit of information. It's much easier and faster to just read something. But with the Youtube speed up feature now I find myself able to quickly watch and listen to the videos and slow down the parts that I really want to pay attention to back to normal speeds while speeding up the parts that are either redundant or don't take as much time to understand (or just filler parts). It makes youtube watching a whole lot better.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2016 @ 8:59am
  
  Re:
  (btw, you want to increase the speed without altering the pitch, I think Youtube kinda does that though I think Vlan also has that feature and it does a better job. Still, I don't want to hassle loading Vlan just to watch a Youtube video).
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- CrushU (profile), 24 Aug 2016 @ 10:12am
  
  Re:
  Eh... I use a podcast app, AntennaPod, and it has the option to increase playback speed. It does mildly alter the pitch, but not by much.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 26 Aug 2016 @ 8:31am
  
  Re:
  BTW, it would be nice if there is a way I can speed up the podcast. Youtube has a feature that you can speed up videos that I find really useful (though it needs tweaking).
  
  Almost every modern podcast app has that ability. I use PocketCasts and you can speed the podcast up to 3x (even more than YouTube!). I find it works pretty well.
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Hugo Connery (profile), 24 May 2017 @ 4:48am

The Lawrence Lessig / Aaron Schwartz issue
A wonderful podcast that highlights the *fundamental* problem with US elections and your congress: get money out of politics. (nb: this is a global problem).

The DOJ is using underhanded, inconsistent, and legally absent arguments to coerce the extradition and seize the assets of a foreign national. i.e YOUR justice department is doing crazy work for the content (copyright) industries.

Meh.
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