amusingly, the Prime Minister was, at some point, trying to abdicate responsibility for that and say that our government had no need to investigate what the HELL happened there because it was the US's problem.
that's right, somehow the US government is supposed to investigate how and why NZ officials (apparantly :P) broke NZ law in the pursuit of the interests of the US government (well, it's puppet-masters at least)
needless to say, that didn't really fly with the general public. (well, lots of people figure the USG should be the one's PAYING for it, but that's a different story.)
our first public introduction to the guy was actually the scandal surrounding the fact that the current government basically let him buy his way past the immigration process. and even then no one had a problem with HIM over it, but with the government system that allowed it. (unpopular government, remember).
this came up because the government was flipflopping and being useless about letting him buy the (big and expensive) house he was renting, or some such. which lead to the media immediately talking to his neighbours to try to figure out why and getting Glowing responses about him.
THEN the whole Megaupload thing hit. and there was an attempt to spin him as this criminal whatever...
except, you know, we already knew about him with a contrary take on 'who this guy is'. we already didn't like the current government. then the US government, which, you know, most sane Kiwis are wary of, at best (we've watched our governments both successfully stand up to the USG on big issues AND dance like well worked puppets at the USG's behest to screw over citizens who have done nothing wrong at all, often sacrificing significant gains for the nation as a whole to do so, just to start with.) is attacking this guy and our government is going along with it and Every Step of the Way more and more is coming to light about how corrupt the whole thing is (NZ citizens are generally NOT AT ALL tolerant of corruption, and to most the entire lobbying process in the US rates. being on the wrong end of the release window process there's no real sympathy for hollywood about, well, Anything, either.)
so... yeah, it's less 'americans love relative evil' and more 'kiwis love an underdog, all the better if he's 'one of ours'' and while people were a bit dubious about that when the immigration scandal came up, at this point most are probably more willing to claim Dotcom than our current government.
it helps a lot, of course, that he's in the right.
... consider what it looks like to an NZ citizen then.
Dotcom's doing everything right, basically, but when an unpopular government makes a big public deal about using excessive force at the behest of an ALSO unpopular Foreign government, people taking the victim's side is pretty much a gimme. when they do so with NO CASE and then BREAK THE LAW in the process, well...
let's just say his PR skills are just taking a free cake and icing complicated artwork upon it in unbelievable detail.
you mean aside from the fact that almost every single digital good you buy tells you in the fine print that you are not, in fact, buying it, but are buying a license to use it? (well, software, anyway.)
user manuals for many products also only contain information that anyone with any business anywhere NEAR the item already knows... and NOTHING that would actually be useful should a problem arise.
(every single PS2 game sold here, from memory, wasted the first three or four pages of it's manual on an explanation of the European content rating system and instruction as to How to Set Up a PS2. (which had it's own manual, with better instructions on just that) also: how to insert the disk. the manuals were 30 pages long, tops, usually closer to 20, and often repeated THAT part in German and one or two other european languages as well. it wasn't unusual for the bit that was Actually About the Game to only be in english though. (then again, the games themselves were less and less likely to have other language options as time went by))
well, there are exceptions, but if the system is working properly and not massively corrupt, yeup.
(seriously though, in most representative democracies if it's a good idea you're going to have to use tricks to get it passed because a LOT of stupid, greedy people will try to derail it otherwise due to it not serving their own self interested agenda.)
ehhh... there's that pesky 'physical location' aspect that means you'd always be under someone else as Well, and they'd use a lack of citizen ship to make that all sorts of suck, a lot of the time.
but then, this is what the idea of dual citizenship is for.
three's fine if you don't give them any particular protections and bring the hammer down on them if they start with the collusion and price fixing and such.
provided that's three Small entities and you're talking per town/city, not per state/country. (and even then, i'd expect each and every one of those three to operate in other towns as well as that one, and have a Different set of competitors in those towns.)
our taxes are apparently surprisingly low, all things considered.
(which didn't stop our current moronic government lowering income taxes on the top bracket (more the '10%' than the '1%', but still) and raising the Consumer tax (which is a Regressive tax: the less you have the more of it that tax eats, unlike the Income tax, where the more you have the more of it the tax eats, but the tax rate goes up slower than your income does and has a maximum, unlike your income. this was supposedly going to leave the 'average New Zealander' better off... nevermind that their 'average' assumes an income higher than 2/3rds or so of the population actually has. and of the people who Were it was mostly by less than ten dollars a year or something equally pathetic. on the upside, they apparently DID cut down on the number of loopholes available for dodging taxes.)
the results are variable depending on the nature of the government in question.
the US's setup is a 'worst of both worlds' mess, i believe.
NZ's system is brilliant for emergency stuff, and Generally works for everything else... but has serious resource issues (mostly due to every second government or so having some brilliant idea about how they can save money by spending hundreds of thousands or more to re-arange everything and put a few dozen people or so out of work...)
though lately ACC (basically a compulsory accident/injury insurance plan) has been getting raked over the coals... but that's over the sort of stupid thing corporations pull off all the time too. fudging the numbers to make themselves look good, deliberately mis-classifying stuff (plausibly, so you couldn't prove it beyond reasonable doubt or anything, but it's wrong enough consistently enough that it's quite clear that it's happening. attributing new injuries to ongoing conditions the person in question doesn't have, for example, or claiming something is a part of aging when the person in question isn't old enough for that to be really valid and we Know it was a result of injury) so they don't have to pay out, that sort of stuff.
actually, the biggest problem is keeping trained staff in country. we apparently have a fairly high turnover. though i can't remember if that's due to low pay or the same problem the school system has.
(crazy long rant about school system which added at least half as much again to the length of this post redacted for the reader's sanity.)
On the post: FBI Continues To Insist There's No Reason For Kim Dotcom To Be Able To See The Evidence Against Him
Re: Re:
that's right, somehow the US government is supposed to investigate how and why NZ officials (apparantly :P) broke NZ law in the pursuit of the interests of the US government (well, it's puppet-masters at least)
needless to say, that didn't really fly with the general public. (well, lots of people figure the USG should be the one's PAYING for it, but that's a different story.)
On the post: US Gov't And Hollywood Have Turned Kim Dotcom Into A Beloved Cult Hero
Re: Americans love relative evil.
our first public introduction to the guy was actually the scandal surrounding the fact that the current government basically let him buy his way past the immigration process. and even then no one had a problem with HIM over it, but with the government system that allowed it. (unpopular government, remember).
this came up because the government was flipflopping and being useless about letting him buy the (big and expensive) house he was renting, or some such. which lead to the media immediately talking to his neighbours to try to figure out why and getting Glowing responses about him.
THEN the whole Megaupload thing hit. and there was an attempt to spin him as this criminal whatever...
except, you know, we already knew about him with a contrary take on 'who this guy is'. we already didn't like the current government. then the US government, which, you know, most sane Kiwis are wary of, at best (we've watched our governments both successfully stand up to the USG on big issues AND dance like well worked puppets at the USG's behest to screw over citizens who have done nothing wrong at all, often sacrificing significant gains for the nation as a whole to do so, just to start with.) is attacking this guy and our government is going along with it and Every Step of the Way more and more is coming to light about how corrupt the whole thing is (NZ citizens are generally NOT AT ALL tolerant of corruption, and to most the entire lobbying process in the US rates. being on the wrong end of the release window process there's no real sympathy for hollywood about, well, Anything, either.)
so... yeah, it's less 'americans love relative evil' and more 'kiwis love an underdog, all the better if he's 'one of ours'' and while people were a bit dubious about that when the immigration scandal came up, at this point most are probably more willing to claim Dotcom than our current government.
it helps a lot, of course, that he's in the right.
On the post: US Gov't And Hollywood Have Turned Kim Dotcom Into A Beloved Cult Hero
Re:
Dotcom's doing everything right, basically, but when an unpopular government makes a big public deal about using excessive force at the behest of an ALSO unpopular Foreign government, people taking the victim's side is pretty much a gimme. when they do so with NO CASE and then BREAK THE LAW in the process, well...
let's just say his PR skills are just taking a free cake and icing complicated artwork upon it in unbelievable detail.
On the post: US Gov't And Hollywood Have Turned Kim Dotcom Into A Beloved Cult Hero
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: EU Court Says, Yes, You Can Resell Your Software, Even If The Software Company Says You Can't
Re: Digital First Sale Doctrine
On the post: USTR's Surprise Turnaround: Now Advocating Limitations & Exceptions To Copyright
Re: Re: Re: Exceptions and limitations
On the post: Canada And Mexico Not Allowed To Observe TPP Negotations, Even Though They're Joining Them
Re:
given the US's past history, it's really only a question of whether it's their pocket book or life expectancy that's benefiting.
(i also find it odd that i talk about a 'pocket book'... what IS that? did we ever even have those here in NZ?)
On the post: James Watson, Co-Discoverer Of DNA's Structure, Says 'Patenting Human Genes Was Lunacy'
Re:
(every single PS2 game sold here, from memory, wasted the first three or four pages of it's manual on an explanation of the European content rating system and instruction as to How to Set Up a PS2. (which had it's own manual, with better instructions on just that) also: how to insert the disk. the manuals were 30 pages long, tops, usually closer to 20, and often repeated THAT part in German and one or two other european languages as well. it wasn't unusual for the bit that was Actually About the Game to only be in english though. (then again, the games themselves were less and less likely to have other language options as time went by))
On the post: ACTA Supporters In Europe Fighting To The Bitter End
Re:
'the love of money is the root of all evil' and such.
On the post: ACTA Supporters In Europe Fighting To The Bitter End
Re:
(seriously though, in most representative democracies if it's a good idea you're going to have to use tricks to get it passed because a LOT of stupid, greedy people will try to derail it otherwise due to it not serving their own self interested agenda.)
On the post: ACTA Supporters In Europe Fighting To The Bitter End
Re:
On the post: ACTA Supporters In Europe Fighting To The Bitter End
Re: A final battle to a neverending war...
it'll mostly be the loud voices at the top who run things/pay for things to be run, but it'll still be a minority.
On the post: ACTA Supporters In Europe Fighting To The Bitter End
Re:
On the post: Websites Deemed 'Place Of Public Accommodation' Under The ADA; Expects Lots Of Sites To Get Sued
Re:
(odds of me having got the meme wrong? high.)
On the post: Announcing The Declaration Of Internet Freedom
Re: Re:
but then, this is what the idea of dual citizenship is for.
On the post: Announcing The Declaration Of Internet Freedom
Re: Re: Re:
provided that's three Small entities and you're talking per town/city, not per state/country. (and even then, i'd expect each and every one of those three to operate in other towns as well as that one, and have a Different set of competitors in those towns.)
it's a matter of scale too, ya know?
On the post: Announcing The Declaration Of Internet Freedom
Re: Re: Re: Tacking sites on TechDirt
facebook with a space? fac ebook? what?
so those are ... reasonably reasonable.
the rest? who knows...
On the post: Protected To Death: How Medical Privacy Laws Helped Kill 25,000 People
Re: Re: Re:
our taxes are apparently surprisingly low, all things considered.
(which didn't stop our current moronic government lowering income taxes on the top bracket (more the '10%' than the '1%', but still) and raising the Consumer tax (which is a Regressive tax: the less you have the more of it that tax eats, unlike the Income tax, where the more you have the more of it the tax eats, but the tax rate goes up slower than your income does and has a maximum, unlike your income. this was supposedly going to leave the 'average New Zealander' better off... nevermind that their 'average' assumes an income higher than 2/3rds or so of the population actually has. and of the people who Were it was mostly by less than ten dollars a year or something equally pathetic. on the upside, they apparently DID cut down on the number of loopholes available for dodging taxes.)
On the post: Protected To Death: How Medical Privacy Laws Helped Kill 25,000 People
Re:
On the post: Protected To Death: How Medical Privacy Laws Helped Kill 25,000 People
Re: Re:
the results are variable depending on the nature of the government in question.
the US's setup is a 'worst of both worlds' mess, i believe.
NZ's system is brilliant for emergency stuff, and Generally works for everything else... but has serious resource issues (mostly due to every second government or so having some brilliant idea about how they can save money by spending hundreds of thousands or more to re-arange everything and put a few dozen people or so out of work...)
though lately ACC (basically a compulsory accident/injury insurance plan) has been getting raked over the coals... but that's over the sort of stupid thing corporations pull off all the time too. fudging the numbers to make themselves look good, deliberately mis-classifying stuff (plausibly, so you couldn't prove it beyond reasonable doubt or anything, but it's wrong enough consistently enough that it's quite clear that it's happening. attributing new injuries to ongoing conditions the person in question doesn't have, for example, or claiming something is a part of aging when the person in question isn't old enough for that to be really valid and we Know it was a result of injury) so they don't have to pay out, that sort of stuff.
actually, the biggest problem is keeping trained staff in country. we apparently have a fairly high turnover. though i can't remember if that's due to low pay or the same problem the school system has.
(crazy long rant about school system which added at least half as much again to the length of this post redacted for the reader's sanity.)
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