Mana News editor Joe Trinder

Kim Dotcom, the larger than life character and  multi-millionaire philanthropist, is under the threat of deportation to a country he has never been to –  the United States.

The establishment have vilified Kim Dotcom, when in reality he isn’t the monster they portray. When  his house was raided by  78 armed police officers with enough firepower to fight a war,  the New Zealand public were sympathetic. The majority of the criticism aimed at Kim Dotcom is unwarranted and is really a smear campaign designed by the Prime minister’s office.

The mainstream media focuses on  Kim Dotcom’s criminal record, but  the truth is these crimes are victimless. Kim proved his talent through his “crimes” to the German government and they awarded him a one million euro loan to establish a business.  Kim’s “crimes” involve hacking into the NASA mainframe to look for evidence of extra-terrestrial alien beings. He was convicted of 11 counts of computer fraud as a teenager over twenty years ago.

If we analyse the current charges laid by the FBI they are exaggerated allegations of  online piracy, including racketeering, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, and conspiring to commit money laundering. Kim’s Megaupload  is a cloud based file sharing company, which did not offer its customers copyright files. Some customers uploaded those files against Megaupload policy. Megaupload also offered studios the take down notices to remove any copyright files.

To explain how cloud sharing works, imagine a hundred million files in a cloud and each file makes up a particle of that cloud. To find a  contaminated particle or a copyright file and take down the file is a needle in a haystack operation. Therefore Megaupload put the onus on the Studios to conduct their own investigation, as it had no obligation to do another company’s work. In terms of cloud storage this is entirely legal and the FBI charges lack substance.

When Internet Mana toured the electorate of Te Tai Tokerau, Kim visited many Marae and appreciated New Zealand culture. On the night of the elections Kim was graceful in defeat and apologised to the Maori people.

The allegation that Kim, in creating the Internet Party, was after retribution or Utu against the National Party is unfair.  Kim is under threat of  deportation to the United States, to be locked up in a state penitentiary and eventually lose his family. What man in his position wouldn’t do everything in his capacity to fight the system?

The deliberate smear campaign at the direction of the Prime Minister’s office is obvious, using pawns like Tova O”Brien and Brook Sabin to drive a wedge between the public and Kim. Nasty attack bloggers like Jason Ede and Cameron Slater are protected from the shame they deserve.  The smear campaign,  focusing on Kim’s criminal records and  dredging up disgruntled employees,  over-exposed Dotcom to the New Zealand public so they eventually got sick and tired of hearing about him.

This strategy was executed to perfection, and the leadership of Internet Mana had no way of anticipating this outcome.

Mana stands in solidarity with Kim Dotcom. The attacks on him are motivated by the Hollywood corporations who want to protect their profits, and John Key has willingly done their bidding. If the charges against him succeed, then anyone who tries to spread information that the establishment don’t want made public, by file-sharing or other means, is under threat.