"But if you exclude truth and justice from the court room, what's the point of having a court in the first place?"
Sorry, you are confused.
It's not a justice system. It never was a justice system.
It's a LEGAL system. Justice only peripherally enters the frame. This is pretty much the first thing taught in Introductory Law 101
WRT the "slanderous" statements - as far as I can tell those would be the previous judgements quoted on those sites and as such they're legally protected reports of events in a courtroom (You are immune from defamation proceedings for anything uttered in court or in parliament/congress - yes, really)
"I'm sure the Nazis considered themselves the 'Good Guys'."
The Nazis had belt buckles inscribed with the words "God is with us"
Hitler believed he was on a christian Mission from God - he even wrote it in the last page of Mein Kampf
The Lord's Army is running round beheading people and kidnapping schoolgirls for forced marriages.
The KKK believe that they're followers of "God"
I'm sure you won't mind if I take issue with anyone who believes they can justify or excuse discriminatory or violent action on the basis of doing "god's work", no matter which "god" that may be.
"oddly enough, the ONLY union NOT to be (generally) excoriated"
There are plenty of others. They tend to be called "Associations" though - and they're also allowed to be self-policing when their members get up to illegal stuff.
All he (or his union) had to do is keep fighting it every step of the way.
The point being that each go-around adds a couple of months - and this has nothing to do with legal systems as it didn't go through the courts.
By the way, the fact that he's been allowed to resign instead of being fired means that he doesn't have an official blot on his copybook which in turn means that he's likely to be able to walk into a LEO job next week. This happens regularly as there is no register of corrupt officials anywhere in the world. (The cop fired in Ferguson is already working in another police department, The county clerk fired for refusing to sign off on marriage certificates for gay couples is now working in the same position one county over. Cops allowed to resign in England for abuse of power simply sign up for another police department elsewhere in the country and carry on.)
One of the _untapped_ powers of the Internet is that such people can now be tracked by the general public and their new employers called out on it. Of course this will never happen as anyone operating such a tracking site will be harrassed to death.
Given the gloating, it would be karma for the department to now try to recover the monies paid out.
More to the point, this shows the power of police unions is on par with other corrupt entities such as teamsters and as such needs investigating.
(Most unions are "good" and don't try to pull this stuff. The bad ones like this give power to those who wish to eliminate unions altogether)
Covering for bad cops makes the cops involved bad cops too. It's clear that investigations of the entire setup are needed. Bad cops are why people don't trust police. Where else can you avoid criminal prosecution _and_ get a paid holiday _and_ get a pension to boot? not even the mafia offer that.
"In 1986 TVNZ took all music shows off the air following a dispute with record companies, who were demanding payment for video clips that were becoming increasingly expensive to produce. TVNZ refused to pay to screen them on the grounds that this was ‘a form of sales promotion’. The dispute was resolved by the end of the year and the shows returned to air. "
That "dispute was resolved" is putting it nicely.
The record companies _begged_ TVNZ to air music videos again as sales had fallen substantially (lack of exposure, plus the record-buying public put the blame for not seeing music videos firmly on the shoulders of the music industry.)
Several weeks before the end of the dispute, TVNZ was paid full commercial advertising rates to air Michael Jackson's "Thriller" during an ad break in the 6pm news. It was subsequently aired several more times as a paid advert.
That's not just a surrender, it's a full scale crying of "Uncle!"
It's virtually impossible to have someone declared vexatious on a couple of cases, although individual cases can be declared vexatious - which normally results in the other party getting a judgement for all costs and ancilliaries.
Once someone's declared as a vexatious litigant they have to apply for and get court clearance for anything which might possibly be remotely construed as a legal threat and such orders usually bind for 20 years.
I've only ever seen one person declared vexatious and it effectively barred him from saying anything without court clearance. He was in court a few months later on contempt charges and the judge's ruled pretty much disembowelled him (it's amazing what a pissed off judge can order, even against a lawyer, if sufficiently irritated)
By doing what they have done, the New Zealand govt has elevated a fairly noxious individual to somewhat of a folk hero.
More worryingly, the fact they've demonstrated they're perfectly willing to throw away the rulebook to go after someone like Dotcom means they're equally as willing to throw away the rulebook if they decide they don't like YOU.
"They're essentially arguing that it's perfectly fine for a judge to issue a warrant without the legally required details, and that just does not strike me as a good thing."
New Zealand policy when they prosecute anyone is to seize all their assets and finances, then force them to use public defenders (with limited hours available)
The police were rubbing their hands with glee on this, as they thought they'd be pocketing the proceeds from seizures with Dotcom unable to mount an effective defence.
There have been a large number of cases of miscarrriages of justice that finally ended up out of New Zealand at the UK Privy Council where convictions were overturned and _extremely_ harshly worded comments about the behaviour of both the NZ courts and Police entered into the record.
As a direct result of these Privy Council judgements, in the 1990s the New Zealand government stripped the ability to appeal to the Privy Council and insituted a new "highest court in the land" composed of the very same judiciary whose impartiality had been fiercely criticised in Privy Council decisions.
It's worth noting that New Zealand has been singled out as the country in the world whose economy has been most crippled by growing inequality across the board - inequality which has become increasingly rampant since the late 1990s.
"So they admit that the warrant was vague, and easily open to interpretation, but ruled it legal anyway. The police in that country have got to love them."
The problem is that NZ is a small country with everyone in power in everyone else's back pocket and a fairly pliable population who still believe that there is no way corruption could be hiding in backrooms and high offices. (That may have been true once, but it hasn't been since the 1950s at least)
New Zealand media is complicit in this and anyone who threatens to rock the boat is usually quickly gagged by threats of civil defamation lawsuits from those who stand to be exposed (New Zealand has no "public interest" or "absolute truth" defences)
"I wonder how the UK citizens like the idea of FACT running around playing copyright cops with taxpayer dollars for private companies."
My employer has recently made the decision to stop paying for FACT membership because they just keep jacking up the fees year upon year.
The first thing FACT did was threaten raids and imply legal action if they didn't get a "closure meeting" - when we told them that all such meetings would be attended by lawyers and subject to audio/visual recordings which would be published on our websites they went very quiet.
They've had to settle a number of cases for high value amounts, but these tend to be out of court and subject to NDA (which is odd, given they would fall under FOIA rules)
What she is, is one of the few judges in the country who are more than willing to make sure that the law applies equally in her courtroom.
Unlike the overly credulous judge who issued the original search warrants(*) based on allegations without adequate evidence. Does anyone else find it interesting that judge's name is not in the public arena?
(*) Warrants which were over-broad, and yet the police and FBI went so far beyond them that even the NZ judiciary blinked.
On the post: Malibu Media Seeks Order Forbidding Defendants From Discussing 'Copyleft' Blog Content
Re: Re: "Unringing the bell..."
Sorry, you are confused.
It's not a justice system. It never was a justice system.
It's a LEGAL system. Justice only peripherally enters the frame. This is pretty much the first thing taught in Introductory Law 101
WRT the "slanderous" statements - as far as I can tell those would be the previous judgements quoted on those sites and as such they're legally protected reports of events in a courtroom (You are immune from defamation proceedings for anything uttered in court or in parliament/congress - yes, really)
On the post: NYPD Sergeants Assoc. Using Flickr To Publicly Humiliate Homeless To Play Politics With Mayor De Blasio
Re:
The Nazis had belt buckles inscribed with the words "God is with us"
Hitler believed he was on a christian Mission from God - he even wrote it in the last page of Mein Kampf
The Lord's Army is running round beheading people and kidnapping schoolgirls for forced marriages.
The KKK believe that they're followers of "God"
I'm sure you won't mind if I take issue with anyone who believes they can justify or excuse discriminatory or violent action on the basis of doing "god's work", no matter which "god" that may be.
On the post: NYPD Sergeants Assoc. Using Flickr To Publicly Humiliate Homeless To Play Politics With Mayor De Blasio
Re: Re:
There are plenty of others. They tend to be called "Associations" though - and they're also allowed to be self-policing when their members get up to illegal stuff.
One rule for the rich, etc.
On the post: NYPD Officials Apparently Deleting Incriminating Communications Related To Alleged Illegal Summons Quotas
Re: Re: Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
It's much harder to delete those without getting federal interest in what's going on.
On the post: NYPD Officials Apparently Deleting Incriminating Communications Related To Alleged Illegal Summons Quotas
Re: Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
That's all you need to know to realise the way the USA really works.
On the post: Suspended Cop Sends Email To Department Thanking Them For The Paid Time Off
3 years is easy to achieve
The point being that each go-around adds a couple of months - and this has nothing to do with legal systems as it didn't go through the courts.
By the way, the fact that he's been allowed to resign instead of being fired means that he doesn't have an official blot on his copybook which in turn means that he's likely to be able to walk into a LEO job next week. This happens regularly as there is no register of corrupt officials anywhere in the world. (The cop fired in Ferguson is already working in another police department, The county clerk fired for refusing to sign off on marriage certificates for gay couples is now working in the same position one county over. Cops allowed to resign in England for abuse of power simply sign up for another police department elsewhere in the country and carry on.)
One of the _untapped_ powers of the Internet is that such people can now be tracked by the general public and their new employers called out on it. Of course this will never happen as anyone operating such a tracking site will be harrassed to death.
On the post: Suspended Cop Sends Email To Department Thanking Them For The Paid Time Off
Re: I can't see how this is Markham's fault
More to the point, this shows the power of police unions is on par with other corrupt entities such as teamsters and as such needs investigating.
(Most unions are "good" and don't try to pull this stuff. The bad ones like this give power to those who wish to eliminate unions altogether)
Covering for bad cops makes the cops involved bad cops too. It's clear that investigations of the entire setup are needed. Bad cops are why people don't trust police. Where else can you avoid criminal prosecution _and_ get a paid holiday _and_ get a pension to boot? not even the mafia offer that.
On the post: Warner Music Complains That Rock Band And Guitar Hero Need To Pay More For Music
Re: Reminds me of..
"In 1986 TVNZ took all music shows off the air following a dispute with record companies, who were demanding payment for video clips that were becoming increasingly expensive to produce. TVNZ refused to pay to screen them on the grounds that this was ‘a form of sales promotion’. The dispute was resolved by the end of the year and the shows returned to air. "
That "dispute was resolved" is putting it nicely.
The record companies _begged_ TVNZ to air music videos again as sales had fallen substantially (lack of exposure, plus the record-buying public put the blame for not seeing music videos firmly on the shoulders of the music industry.)
Several weeks before the end of the dispute, TVNZ was paid full commercial advertising rates to air Michael Jackson's "Thriller" during an ad break in the 6pm news. It was subsequently aired several more times as a paid advert.
That's not just a surrender, it's a full scale crying of "Uncle!"
It's worth also noting that the seed of the idea for MTV came from New Zealand - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_with_Pictures
On the post: Hilariously Stupid Defamation Suit Against A Blogging Lawyer Tossed By New York Judge
Re: Quick question
It's virtually impossible to have someone declared vexatious on a couple of cases, although individual cases can be declared vexatious - which normally results in the other party getting a judgement for all costs and ancilliaries.
Once someone's declared as a vexatious litigant they have to apply for and get court clearance for anything which might possibly be remotely construed as a legal threat and such orders usually bind for 20 years.
I've only ever seen one person declared vexatious and it effectively barred him from saying anything without court clearance. He was in court a few months later on contempt charges and the judge's ruled pretty much disembowelled him (it's amazing what a pissed off judge can order, even against a lawyer, if sufficiently irritated)
On the post: Unsealed Motions Shows How Team Prenda Sought To Hide Money
Re: Re: Re:
The judge in tax-evasion cases is an ex-tax inspector, not a lawyer and they take a very dim view of lawyer posturing in tax courts.
On the post: Getty Threatens The Wrong IP Law Firm In Its Copyright Trolling Efforts
Re: Getty's library is chock-a-block with copy fraud already
Or is it only criminal copyright fraud when the *AAs say it is?
On the post: International Men Of Mystery: How Discredited German 'Anti-Piracy' Company May Secretly Be Behind Malibu Media's Copyright Trollery
Bogus registered address
http://cloudbuy.com/office-locations.html
To the best of my knowledge, this is not legal under UK company law (nor is using a Mailboxes, etc or similar dropbox).
It would be worthwhile getting some input from the UK's registrar of companies on the matter.
On the post: New Zealand Supreme Court Says Raid On Dotcom's Home Legal Enough To Get A Pass
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
A URL for this would be illuminating.
On the post: New Zealand Supreme Court Says Raid On Dotcom's Home Legal Enough To Get A Pass
Re: Re:
By doing what they have done, the New Zealand govt has elevated a fairly noxious individual to somewhat of a folk hero.
More worryingly, the fact they've demonstrated they're perfectly willing to throw away the rulebook to go after someone like Dotcom means they're equally as willing to throw away the rulebook if they decide they don't like YOU.
On the post: New Zealand Supreme Court Says Raid On Dotcom's Home Legal Enough To Get A Pass
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
New Zealand policy when they prosecute anyone is to seize all their assets and finances, then force them to use public defenders (with limited hours available)
The police were rubbing their hands with glee on this, as they thought they'd be pocketing the proceeds from seizures with Dotcom unable to mount an effective defence.
There have been a large number of cases of miscarrriages of justice that finally ended up out of New Zealand at the UK Privy Council where convictions were overturned and _extremely_ harshly worded comments about the behaviour of both the NZ courts and Police entered into the record.
As a direct result of these Privy Council judgements, in the 1990s the New Zealand government stripped the ability to appeal to the Privy Council and insituted a new "highest court in the land" composed of the very same judiciary whose impartiality had been fiercely criticised in Privy Council decisions.
It's worth noting that New Zealand has been singled out as the country in the world whose economy has been most crippled by growing inequality across the board - inequality which has become increasingly rampant since the late 1990s.
On the post: New Zealand Supreme Court Says Raid On Dotcom's Home Legal Enough To Get A Pass
Re: 'Law', what's that?
They do.
Check out http://laudafinem.com/
The problem is that NZ is a small country with everyone in power in everyone else's back pocket and a fairly pliable population who still believe that there is no way corruption could be hiding in backrooms and high offices. (That may have been true once, but it hasn't been since the 1950s at least)
New Zealand media is complicit in this and anyone who threatens to rock the boat is usually quickly gagged by threats of civil defamation lawsuits from those who stand to be exposed (New Zealand has no "public interest" or "absolute truth" defences)
On the post: City Of London Police Drove 200 Miles To Arrest And Jail 'Industrial' Level Pirate... Only To Have Case Fall Apart And All Charges Dropped
Re:
My employer has recently made the decision to stop paying for FACT membership because they just keep jacking up the fees year upon year.
The first thing FACT did was threaten raids and imply legal action if they didn't get a "closure meeting" - when we told them that all such meetings would be attended by lawyers and subject to audio/visual recordings which would be published on our websites they went very quiet.
On the post: City Of London Police Drove 200 Miles To Arrest And Jail 'Industrial' Level Pirate... Only To Have Case Fall Apart And All Charges Dropped
Re:
They've had to settle a number of cases for high value amounts, but these tend to be out of court and subject to NDA (which is odd, given they would fall under FOIA rules)
On the post: FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him
Activist Judge
What she is, is one of the few judges in the country who are more than willing to make sure that the law applies equally in her courtroom.
Unlike the overly credulous judge who issued the original search warrants(*) based on allegations without adequate evidence. Does anyone else find it interesting that judge's name is not in the public arena?
(*) Warrants which were over-broad, and yet the police and FBI went so far beyond them that even the NZ judiciary blinked.
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