also note that this is taking place in New Zealand.
among other things, the emergency number is 111 (though 911 may also work due to issues with tourists, can't remember)
I'm not sure if a telephone ban is actually allowed, not being a lawyer and all, but it should be noted that with the way NZ is set up, telecommunications wise, while he might be banned from using a cell phone or the Internet, a landline telephone would probably not be forbidden. it would, however, most likely be monitored.
i say this mostly because, here abouts, the landline telephone and it's importance is Well understood. (there are laws and regulations that say that residential calls within a certain zone (defined based on some level of exchange) must not be charged for, and i'm pretty sure there's a maximum on the per year fee they can charge you for having a landline. (they are allowed to charge a fair bit extra if they have to lay more cable than just from the road to your house for you, but even then they can't charge you the full cost of it.)
this might have something to do with the phone system starting off as a government service as part of the postoffice though. all these regulations were the price extracted for privatization of the phone network monopoly, which finally been broken up. (and even before then the regulations were keeping it in check. the Lack of regulation on mobile phone networks has lead to some outrageous pricing for some things though.)
should be noted that Useage of those landlines, at least until recently, was high enough that when they did some major upgrades a couple of decades back, they had some foreign engineers over to help out... apparently NZ's normal useage was putting a load on the exchanges not seen in Japan except when they were doing Actual Load Testing.
so, yeah, the phonelines go Everywhere and the telephone itself is a long understood technology, even by the government. far more likely to be tapped than banned (after all, if you pay attention, it's to their advantage to catch him breaking bail, rather than have him not do it, so long as they don't loose him.)
Re: Re: Re: Re: "Prosecutor Anne Toohey said that Internet access would increase the risk of a Megaupload resurrection in a jurisdiction where US authorities can’t touch it."
the NZ justice system is Usually somewhat better about this than the US justice system. (most common complaint is that serious offenses are not punished harshly enough, though there's a whole lot of back and forth on that and related issues.)
still not perfect though, and the shift from the privy council to a NZ based court does reduce the potential for successful appeal if it is screwed up. (that was a change made by parliament as soon as they could after they got taken to court, had it appealed all the way to the privy council, then Lost, having won at every level before that. the main advantage of the privy council was that our government had No Control Over It. it looked at the law at the time the incident took place, the evidence presented by the parties, and Absolutely Nothing Else. ... parliament tried to claim this was a bad thing. so now we have a court that parliament can control, though not directly, instead.) this would not be such a huge problem were it not for the party currently in power having no discernible policy other than 'line our own pockets, damage the economy in the name of saving money, and be as much like the USA as possible' :S
always nice to see any part of our system do what is RIGHT in the face of US interests attempting to demand otherwise.
of course, the part of our justice system that has been suspect has always been the honesty of the prosecutors (the police have a long history of being very good about their investigations in the first place, but there's a fair bit of evidence that they're quite willing to attempt to rig a trial to make sure it agrees with their conclusions after that. not often and not always successfully, but it has happened.)
and it would be even Better if our executive would actually do so (... of course, that would require the head of the executive to actually do their damn job, heaven forbid...) likewise the legislature (as if they're functionally different things...)
but still. while the Internet ban might be a bit ridiculous, it's a nice step up from the 'ship him to the states and be done with it' many were advocating.
fun part: a real tank (possibly sans machine guns) would be entirely legal.
driving it on the road requires special modifications to make it road worthy, a special license, and you get charged based on your usage of the road (mass, distance traveled, stuff like that) like a truck, rather than your fuel purchases like a car,
he'd still be limited to going 80km though. add to that the fact that tanks are, generally speaking, slower than cars, and that's perhaps not a major issue :P
(the Illegal part would be if he'd bought Ammo to go with it. actually, i think the MGs would require a special gun license, the ammo for them (and anything smaller) certainly requires a gun license, and the ammo for the tanks main gun is, like as not, outright illegal for civilians to own under any situation.)
i assume it's related to those 'mistruths' we heard mention of a while back.
still don't know what the hell those are, btw. closest i can come to for a meaning that Actually Makes Sense is to screw up and tell the truth when you meant to lie, but that wasn't what happened. (unless i'm misremembering.)
i'd call a half-truth a kind of lie in the same way as a lie of omission is a lie. (in fact, they may overlap)... at least if the term is used sensibly.
should also be noted that a petard is a (early, highly temperamental) explosive used for sapping (that is, bringing down siege works.)
to be 'hoist by your own petard' comes from the fact that it wasn't as uncommon as one might like for the guy responsible for emplacing them to be caught in the resulting explosion (and 'hoist', that is, launched into the air).
i explain this because i know a lot of people upon hearing the expression, especially the common erroneous form, have mental images of cranes and such rather than explosives.
i always figure no corporation should be granted liscence (charter? whatever the word is) to exist without a greater reason than that, and if they fail it they should pay out and cease to exist.
sadly, i don't get to make the decisions on these things.
... i figure the USA would have an easier time not failing at non-corupt government if it weren't larger than pretty much every empire Ever, with the exception of the British and Russian empires (Russia always had problems, and Britain cheated by running most of it's colonies as semi-independant entities Anyway.)
... the claims of racism were misaimed too. the biggest thing for this particular issue is, actually, 'culturalism'... or whatever the proper term is for that.
the sterotypical bad american tourist is always going on about how everything back home is better (even when that is measurably untrue).
most streotypes have their Origins in the real world... the source of this one is probably a contributing factor.
also, a problematic mix of the US public and government seem to confuse 'patriotism' with 'blind fanaticism'. that doesn't help anything.
personally, i put it down, along with several other problems, to the fact that the USA is stupidly huge.
it's bigger than Europe.
that much land area under one government is Always going to end up having issues just due to the practical issues of running it.
'cept maybe russia and china, in most parts of the USA you've got to go further just to GET to the border than you do anywhere else to hop several countries.
(if this is less coherant than it could be... well.. it's after 7am and i've not yet slept.)
actually, his real problem is that he hid in NZ while we had a government who's only intelligible position is 'we want to be able to collect bribes legitimately like the US politicians do'. well, that and 'hey, guys, let's see how badly we can wreck the economy while still turning a personal profit'.
it gets less wonderful if you have the capacity to vote 'above the line' and compulsory voting though. it's sufficiantly complex that far too many people, when given no choice but to vote, just go with, rather than voting for their party because 'that's my party, damn it!' they ... vote for the people their party wants... to the exact same effect.
so, yeah, probably works better if you get rid of at least one of 'compulsory' and 'above the line' voting.
or at least, that's the impression i got when reading up about it prior to the last referendum on our election system here in NZ :)
you mean between direct democracy and representative democracy.
republic contrasts with monarchy.
a democratic republic could be direct or representative (or, in fact, oligarchical, but the oligarchs vote on stuff, though that would be stretching the term somewhat)
a constitutional monarchy is usually run largely on a mix of representative democracy and bureaucracy, these days.
On the post: Megaupload Boss Kim Dotcom Granted Bail After US Fails To Prove He's Got Cash Stashed Away To Make An Escape
Re: Re: Re: Re:
among other things, the emergency number is 111 (though 911 may also work due to issues with tourists, can't remember)
I'm not sure if a telephone ban is actually allowed, not being a lawyer and all, but it should be noted that with the way NZ is set up, telecommunications wise, while he might be banned from using a cell phone or the Internet, a landline telephone would probably not be forbidden. it would, however, most likely be monitored.
i say this mostly because, here abouts, the landline telephone and it's importance is Well understood. (there are laws and regulations that say that residential calls within a certain zone (defined based on some level of exchange) must not be charged for, and i'm pretty sure there's a maximum on the per year fee they can charge you for having a landline. (they are allowed to charge a fair bit extra if they have to lay more cable than just from the road to your house for you, but even then they can't charge you the full cost of it.)
this might have something to do with the phone system starting off as a government service as part of the postoffice though. all these regulations were the price extracted for privatization of the phone network monopoly, which finally been broken up. (and even before then the regulations were keeping it in check. the Lack of regulation on mobile phone networks has lead to some outrageous pricing for some things though.)
should be noted that Useage of those landlines, at least until recently, was high enough that when they did some major upgrades a couple of decades back, they had some foreign engineers over to help out... apparently NZ's normal useage was putting a load on the exchanges not seen in Japan except when they were doing Actual Load Testing.
so, yeah, the phonelines go Everywhere and the telephone itself is a long understood technology, even by the government. far more likely to be tapped than banned (after all, if you pay attention, it's to their advantage to catch him breaking bail, rather than have him not do it, so long as they don't loose him.)
On the post: Megaupload Boss Kim Dotcom Granted Bail After US Fails To Prove He's Got Cash Stashed Away To Make An Escape
Re: Re: Re: Re: "Prosecutor Anne Toohey said that Internet access would increase the risk of a Megaupload resurrection in a jurisdiction where US authorities can’t touch it."
still not perfect though, and the shift from the privy council to a NZ based court does reduce the potential for successful appeal if it is screwed up. (that was a change made by parliament as soon as they could after they got taken to court, had it appealed all the way to the privy council, then Lost, having won at every level before that. the main advantage of the privy council was that our government had No Control Over It. it looked at the law at the time the incident took place, the evidence presented by the parties, and Absolutely Nothing Else. ... parliament tried to claim this was a bad thing. so now we have a court that parliament can control, though not directly, instead.) this would not be such a huge problem were it not for the party currently in power having no discernible policy other than 'line our own pockets, damage the economy in the name of saving money, and be as much like the USA as possible' :S
On the post: Megaupload Boss Kim Dotcom Granted Bail After US Fails To Prove He's Got Cash Stashed Away To Make An Escape
YAY!
of course, the part of our justice system that has been suspect has always been the honesty of the prosecutors (the police have a long history of being very good about their investigations in the first place, but there's a fair bit of evidence that they're quite willing to attempt to rig a trial to make sure it agrees with their conclusions after that. not often and not always successfully, but it has happened.)
and it would be even Better if our executive would actually do so (... of course, that would require the head of the executive to actually do their damn job, heaven forbid...) likewise the legislature (as if they're functionally different things...)
but still. while the Internet ban might be a bit ridiculous, it's a nice step up from the 'ship him to the states and be done with it' many were advocating.
On the post: Megaupload Boss Kim Dotcom Granted Bail After US Fails To Prove He's Got Cash Stashed Away To Make An Escape
Re:
driving it on the road requires special modifications to make it road worthy, a special license, and you get charged based on your usage of the road (mass, distance traveled, stuff like that) like a truck, rather than your fuel purchases like a car,
he'd still be limited to going 80km though. add to that the fact that tanks are, generally speaking, slower than cars, and that's perhaps not a major issue :P
(the Illegal part would be if he'd bought Ammo to go with it. actually, i think the MGs would require a special gun license, the ammo for them (and anything smaller) certainly requires a gun license, and the ammo for the tanks main gun is, like as not, outright illegal for civilians to own under any situation.)
On the post: DOJ 'Streisands' Its Own Prosecutor By Requesting His Name Be Removed From An Unflattering Court Opinion
Re:
still don't know what the hell those are, btw. closest i can come to for a meaning that Actually Makes Sense is to screw up and tell the truth when you meant to lie, but that wasn't what happened. (unless i'm misremembering.)
i'd call a half-truth a kind of lie in the same way as a lie of omission is a lie. (in fact, they may overlap)... at least if the term is used sensibly.
more likely it's pure euphemism.
On the post: DOJ 'Streisands' Its Own Prosecutor By Requesting His Name Be Removed From An Unflattering Court Opinion
Re:
to be 'hoist by your own petard' comes from the fact that it wasn't as uncommon as one might like for the guy responsible for emplacing them to be caught in the resulting explosion (and 'hoist', that is, launched into the air).
i explain this because i know a lot of people upon hearing the expression, especially the common erroneous form, have mental images of cranes and such rather than explosives.
On the post: Kenny Rogers' Lawsuit Shows The Many Ways That A Major Label Screws Artists (Even The Big Ones)
Re:
sadly, i don't get to make the decisions on these things.
On the post: Killer Cool's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Guy Fawks' Day
explosions for all!
On the post: Shining Light On ACTA's Lack Of Transparency
Re: Failing of our democracy
On the post: Shining Light On ACTA's Lack Of Transparency
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re: Migrate yourself to a non-US controlled country.
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re: Re: Re:
and the people responsible for it being that way want to force the same model on the rest of us.
worrisome, no?
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re: Re:
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: because your racist
the sterotypical bad american tourist is always going on about how everything back home is better (even when that is measurably untrue).
most streotypes have their Origins in the real world... the source of this one is probably a contributing factor.
also, a problematic mix of the US public and government seem to confuse 'patriotism' with 'blind fanaticism'. that doesn't help anything.
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re:
it's bigger than Europe.
that much land area under one government is Always going to end up having issues just due to the practical issues of running it.
'cept maybe russia and china, in most parts of the USA you've got to go further just to GET to the border than you do anywhere else to hop several countries.
(if this is less coherant than it could be... well.. it's after 7am and i've not yet slept.)
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re: Re: Re: Re:
unfortunately.
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re: Re: Re: Live Well Online
On the post: Congrats, US Government: You're Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US
Re: Re: Re: They don't see it
and such like.
On the post: Australian Government Holds Secret Anti-Piracy Meetings; The Public Is Not Invited
Re: As Another Aussie
so, yeah, probably works better if you get rid of at least one of 'compulsory' and 'above the line' voting.
or at least, that's the impression i got when reading up about it prior to the last referendum on our election system here in NZ :)
On the post: IFPI & Other Lobbyists Tell Parliament That ACTA Protests Silence The Democratic Process
Re: Re: Suspect
republic contrasts with monarchy.
a democratic republic could be direct or representative (or, in fact, oligarchical, but the oligarchs vote on stuff, though that would be stretching the term somewhat)
a constitutional monarchy is usually run largely on a mix of representative democracy and bureaucracy, these days.
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