Kim Dotcom, Online Renegade, Shakes Up New Zealand Election … It was not an ordinary political rally, but it has been anything but an ordinary election. The hundreds of people who packed Auckland Town Hall on a recent evening were regaled by speeches by Glenn Greenwald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist; Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder; and Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, the last two appearing by Internet video link. At the center of the show was the event’s organizer, Kim Dotcom, an Internet entrepreneur accused of mass copyright theft whose fledgling Internet Party stands a chance at winning seats in Parliament in the national elections on Saturday. – The New York Times
Dominant Social Theme: Put this renegade on trial, not at the head of a political party.
Free-Market Analysis: Yesterday we commented on the Scottish election and how Scotland’s referendum on leaving Britain was important because of its larger implications.
In this Internet era, elite control is continually waning. While, as we’ve discussed in the past, there may be a number of global strategic considerations that elevated the Scottish referendum, in the end those who are convinced of their innate “right to rule” may have guessed wrong.
Whether Scotland goes or stays (and at deadline the vote hadn’t concluded), the issues that the referendum has raised will remain relevant and discussion about them will only grow. That wasn’t supposed to be the result, and yet it is.
This is true in New Zealand, where the US government has been attempting to extradite Mega’s Kim Dotcom on copyright racketeering charges. The idea was that his now defunct Megaupload file-sharing firm encouraged illegal downloads.
Dotcom’s expensive home in New Zealand was raided (illegally) with the help of the FBI and the US has been trying to pry him loose from New Zealand ever since.
This post was published at The Daily Bell on September 19, 2014.
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