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This is very strange. The search warrants
were illegal but the cops still get to keep any evidence they found from
their
illegal searches. But because the warrants were
illegal they have to give back
everything that they deem
not relevant to the case and they have to give
Dotcom
copies of the relevant evidence.
We seem to have fallen into
bizarro world.
The ridiculously insufficient remedy here for
illegal search and
seizure should be standard operating
procedure for legal searches. How
can someone
defend themselves if they are not privy to the evidence
that is
going to be used against them? Why should the
cops be allowed to hold onto
items seized that are
not relevant to the case? In a case where the
search
warrants are, God forbid, legal then even a totally
innocent defendant
has no chance.
There seems to be not one shred of disincentive here for
using an illegal search warrant. If the cops don't like
someone then they are
free to trump up an illegal warrant
and deprive that person of their property
and liberty for
an extraordinarily long time and the only negative consequences
to the cops is that they have to eventual
give the innocent person some of the
stuff back but
the cops still get to keep all evidence seized in their
illegal
raid.
If this is a win for Dotcom and Megaupload then I shudder
to think
what a loss would look like. He's been deprived
of any shred of what in the US
are considered Constitutional
rights and so far *he* has been the only one who
has had
to suffer the consequences of these massively illegal
acts perpetrated
against him. The cops still get to keep
(and presumably use) any evidence they
got with their
illegal raid.
---
Our job is to remind ourselves that
there are more contexts
than the one we’re in now — the one that we think is reality.
-- Alan Kay [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Link Well, that should at least
give a boost to the office furniture industry in the Pacific North-West!
Although he is somewhat distant from M$ these days, I expect that Superbrat
will be throwing a screaming tantrum too. I havd been thinking for some months
that Linux must have become the most prolific OS, based mainly on Android
uptake, but accurate figures are hard to come by. Basically, Linus has achieved
his aim of world domination (although he was only joking when he said it), but
in a surprising way. The battle is over as far as phones are concerned, and
there are lots of very cheap Android tablets flooding that market, as well as
the high end from Motorola, Samsung etc, so that battle is heading for victory.
The server battle was won ages ago, for web servers at least, gadgets, routers,
TVs (those with an OS), NAS boxes etc have been mostly Linux for some time now,
and that just leaves the desktop. When that falls, as it will, M$ will soon
be gone, and the world will be a better place. My guess is that Android and
Chrome desktops, amongst others, will be what does it. KDE and Gnome etc are for
serious users, the majority of the population are only casual users of computers
and just want something as easy to use as possible. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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