Kim DotCom accuses Vice President Joe Biden of masterminding the government's indictment of MegaUpload. Maybe, maybe not. But there is an intriguing question of political timing here.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
(Credit: Screen shot by Greg Sandoval/CNET)MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom, a man indicted by the U.S. government for criminal copyright violations, conspiracy, money laundering and wire fraud, alleges that Vice President Joe Biden ordered a U.S. Attorney to pursue its aggressive case against him and his company.
If true, that shouldn't come as a big surprise to even the most casual follower of the antipiracy debate. (Though DotCom cited no evidence for his claim, telling TorrentFreak only that a "credible source" informed him Biden ordered the crackdown.)
The Joker (the late actor Heath Ledger) threatens a party goer (Sen. Patrick Leahy) in the 2008 film: 'Batman: The Dark Knight.'
(Credit: Screen shot by Greg Sandoval/CNET)Both Biden and President Obama have frequently pledged a federal crackdown on piracy. They say piracy robs Americans of jobs and their intellectual property. Two years ago, Biden compared pirates to ordinary street crooks, saying, "Piracy is theft. Clean and simple. It's smash and grab. It ain't no different than smashing a window at Tiffany's and grabbing [merchandise]."
DotCom and U.S. officials are engaged in a public relations war. The government has tried to paint MegaUpload as a criminal conspiracy; now DotCom aims to paint the government as political hacks unjustly oppressing him.
The story began in January after DotCom and six other MegaUpload managers were arrested in different countries around the world, including New Zealand where DotCom resides. U.S. officials accuse DotCom of pocketing huge profits by encouraging users to upload pirated content to MegaUpload's lockers and share it with each other.
This is not a new allegation. Back in January, I wrote that the timing of DotCom's arrest smelled fishy (we'll get to that in a second). Back then, the feds said this: the federal government has every right to pursue a criminal case against someone if they believe laws have been violated. Industries in this country have the right to lobby elected officials for assistance.
Here's something else that won't surprise anyone: the film industry has friends in high places. Not just at the White House but throughout the U.S. government. The most recent example can be found in an Associated Press story from Tuesday.
Turns out, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is a big fan of Batman and will make his second cameo appearance in one of the Batman movies, starring Christian Bale and directed by Chris Nolan.
Leahy was one of the authors of the Protect IP Act (PIPA), the sister antipiracy bill to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Had either bill passed, resulting law would have sped up the process for removing accused pirate sites from the Web. Critics said the bills would have led to government abuses and censorship. Both bills were sidelined earlier this year after major Internet protests.
According to the AP story, Leahy was invited to be in the movie. In "Batman: The Dark Knight" Leahy's debut in the Batman series, he gets roughed up by the Joker, played by Heath Ledger. Was Nolan really hurting to find a middle-age white guy with glasses? Was it Leahy's acting skills that got him the role? What's more likely is that this is a perk, the kind industries offer all the time to their friends in government. I doubt it's illegal, but a lot of people sure don't like it. To many, this kind of back slapping looks too much like a payoff.
Copyright owners also have ties to Neil MacBride, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and the man who filed the MegaUpload indictment. In his previous job, MacBride was vice president of antipiracy and general counsel to the Business Software Alliance. He's also one of Biden's former aides.
So, I'm yawning about the hoopla over Biden. What I want to know is when the White House got involved.
MacBride's representatives have said the investigation into MegaUpload began two years ago. Last August, I wrote a feature about DotCom and my film industry sources said then that there was some kind of enforcement action coming against DotCom and his cloud storage service.
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That means the case wasn't built over night. But it was quite the coincidence that MegaUpload got busted immediately following the demise of SOPA and PIPA. The bills were defeated largely as a result of protests organized by the technology industry. The music and movie sectors were among the bills' biggest backers and they thought they had friends in The White House.
Yet, at a critical juncture, when the bill's opponents were beginning to seize the momentum and Congressmen who once backed the bills began dropping their support, Obama's representatives said the White House could not support some important provisions in PIPA and SOPA. That was a death knell for the legislation and it occurred on January 14.
Hollywood was furious. The backlash from studio power brokers began to heat up.
On January 19, when it was obvious that PIPA and SOPA were dead, Deadline.com, a blog that covers the film industry, reported that some important players in Hollywood were preparing to cut off financial support for the president.
The same day Deadline's story ran, New Zealand police knocked down DotCom's door -- at the request of the United States --seized his assets and tossed him in jail.
If the police raid on DotCom's home was scheduled to occur on that day long before, then no foul. But if the arrest was pushed up because the president was eager to make amends and shore up his relationship with the movie sector, then what we would have in that situation is the White House using government resources to further political gains. That is the kind of cheap politics that Americans hate.
I've got a call into the offices of Biden and MacBride. We'll update as soon as we hear back.
DotCom is scheduled to appear at an extradition hearing in New Zealand on August 6.
