Human Rights Lawyer Explains Why He's Working For Kim Dotcom: Exposing American Corruption

from the corruption-laundering dept

We recently wrote about how Kim Dotcom has retained famed human rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam to explore whether or not there's a human rights angle to his case, specifically alleging "contract prosecution" by the entertainment industry. I'm still somewhat skeptical that such an argument could go anywhere, but Amsterdam himself has put up a rather detailed blog post, explaining why he's taking the case, which may seem quite different than his usual fare: taking on corruption and human rights violations in far flung parts of the world, including Africa and Latin America. After highlighting the many problems with the case (and the continued failures in court to date), as well as the close ties prosecutor Neil MacBride has with big copyright holders, he points out that he sees some serious similarities to what's happening here with the kind of corruption he's witnessed in third world nations.

This case highlights not only the issue of “state capture” by the Hollywood lobby, but at the same time should lead to a thoughtful discussion on how we define corruption. No one would venture to allege that there is any form of cash payment taking place when official bodies appear to act at the behest of special interests motives. Because that’s not how these groups work.

It is a demonstration of the growing ambiguity of the lines between regulators and the regulated, and the proper role of intellectual property in the digital age. As we’ve seen in the sad and tragic case of Aaron Swartz, for whom Prosecutor Carmen Ortiz was seeking 13 criminal charges and more than 50 years in jail, the American justice system is increasingly flawed by this prosecutorial exuberance aimed at future political reward.

It is one thing when the victims of these abuses are American citizens, who live at the whim of an unaccountable prosecutorial machine driven by personal political ambitions and an appetite for headlines. It is something else entirely when these prosecutors visit their ambitions upon foreign citizens, charging them with heinous crimes with no basis under law, even if that person has never once set foot inside the United States (like Kim Dotcom).

That is, he appears to be aware of the nature of corruption laundering that's going on -- using the close connection between big businesses and governments to create laws where people can make the case that cracking down on some behavior is necessary to stop crime, but where the details show it's really about cracking down on competition and innovation.

And, he notes, this sort of activity is a huge stain on the US and the federal government:

With this attempt to “colonize” the global internet under U.S. laws, Washington is quickly making a bad name for itself, and putting its considerable influence on the wrong side of digital rights, free markets, and competitive innovation. They do this in the name of protecting a broken business model, subsidizing monopolies, and seeking to destroy crucial online functions instead of adapting to the incredible opportunity afforded to them through mass connectivity. We deserve better, we can do better, and everyone can benefit from a more reasonable approach focused on the best interests of the public, not the best interests of lobbyists and the politicians in their pockets.

We see this as a grand ideological debate with far-reaching implications, and sadly, my lengthy experience in countries where special interests control the levers of power may have some utility here.

Even if there isn't a legal human rights angle, it should be interesting to see what Amsterdam turns up. This growing recognition of how laws are created to benefit legacy players, and then used against innovators, is a real problem. Shining more light on that would be tremendously helpful in actually promoting important innovations.

Filed Under: corruption, human rights, kim dotcom, robert amsterdam
Companies: megaupload

Kim Dotcom Hires Human Rights Lawyer To Claim MPAA's Chris Dodd Targeted Him In 'Contract Prosecution'

from the seems-like-a-longshot dept

Lost in all of the hype about the launch of Kim Dotcom's new Mega service was the fact that he's hired a new high profile lawyer, with a different focus. Some of the details were buried in Ars Technica's coverage of the Mega launch party, in which they mention the adding of Robert Amsterdam to the legal team:

Also circling is the latest addition to Dotcom’s ever-expanding legal team: Robert Amsterdam of Washington, DC and London-based Amsterdam & Partners. The human rights lawyer says his key work has been in Venezuela, Russia, and Nigeria. Now he's contracted by Kim Dotcom to investigate a possible human rights angle on the Megaupload case—in particular whether one human, former Senator and current MPAA head Christopher Dodd, breached Dotcom’s rights by going out of his way to engineer what Amsterdam said could be seen as a “contract prosecution.”

Amsterdam agrees his work could help Dotcom seek redress from the US government down the track. But his immediate aim is to publicize Dodd’s role. “This prosecution should not be afforded the presumption of regularity," he says. "The way this was done—the helicopters; the rappelling down the buildings [of Dotcom mansion]; the over-reaction—all of these are signs of a classic political prosecution.”

Amsterdam will spend the next two days interviewing the Megaupload team as part of his preparations for a “white paper” he will publish in around two months’ time.

This strikes me as a huge longshot for a variety of reasons, but it certainly makes for an interesting storyline to follow. If such an investigation actually does get somewhere, there could actually be blowback for those who led the charge against Dotcom. As it stood, it seemed unlikely that, even if the case fell apart, there would be any ramifications for those who championed the cause in the first place. Again, I find it highly unlikely that this exploration will lead anywhere, but Dotcom's legal team has done amazingly well on a variety of fronts to date, so perhaps they know more than has been made public already about all of this.

Filed Under: chris dodd, contract prosecution, human rights, kim dotcom, robert amsterdam
Companies: megaupload, mpaa