Dotcom info not 'physical'
Found on Stuff.co.nz on Thursday, 07 June 2012
FBI agents who copied data from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's computers and took it overseas were not acting illegally because information isn't "physical material", the Crown says.
"If [they] went offshore without the consent of the attorney-general, it was an illegal act."Mr Akel said that there had been an agreement that none of the evidence against Dotcom, seized after his arrest, would be provided to the FBI without prior agreement.
However, Crown lawyer John Pike, for the attorney-general, said the material stored on the hard drives could be shipped overseas for the FBI to examine because it did not constitute "physical" material.
Creating copies of evidence without consent in a criminal investigation is legal when the FBI does it for the RIAA/MPAA, but downloading the copy of a song is illegal when a user does it for himself? This case is getting more and more ridiculous every day.