Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Steve Wozniak shares his thoughts on the MegaUpload case


download, steve wozniak, piracy, megaupload, filesharing, copyright infringment, kim dotc
Steve Wozniak visited New Zealand last month, stopping by MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom’s Auckland-area estate during the trip. When Dotcom was allowed back online last week, he tweeted a photoof the two during the visit and publically thanked him for his support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation but now is it Wozniak that is speaking out in favor of Dotcom.

In an email interview with CNET, Wozniak defends Dotcom, proclaiming that the charges levied against him are evidence of how poorly thought out the attempt to extradite him is. He feels that prosecutors are attempting to take advantage of loopholes in the system, further noting that it’s too bad for the US government that Dotcom lives in New Zealand “which is better on human rights.”

As part of the process, the New Zealand government in cooperation with the US government has seized Dotcom’s assets, preventing him from accessing funds to pay for legal services.

"How unfair that the United States will allow him living expenses out of his frozen assets but not give him any legal fees,” Wozniak said. “The side with access to the funds spends millions on lawyers hoping the other side goes bankrupt and gives in. Shame on the system that permits this one-sided advantage. Kim is well enough liked and respected that his legal team is working without up-front payment."

Furthermore, the Apple co-founder chimes in about the alleged pirated content being hosted on MegaUpload.

"I scratch my head wondering why the studios went after the guy doing more than can be imagined to remove the links the studios wanted removed," Wozniak noted in his email. "Heck, I use my iDisk (MobileMe) and dropbox to share files by sending links to friends. They might even be copyrighted materials. I might even send a song in an e-mail to my son, although if I think he'll keep it I will use the 'Buy gift' feature in iTunes. But there are so many legitimate uses to peer-to-peer file sharing and cloud storage."

CNET notes that Woz offered one final bit of advice to the entertainment industry. "When you can't stop something like a steamroller, get out of the way."
Source : techspot.com

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