Google
 

Aardvark Daily

The world's longest-running online daily news and commentary publication, now in its 30th year. The opinion pieces presented here are not purported to be fact but reasonable effort is made to ensure accuracy.

Content copyright © 1995 - 2025 to Bruce Simpson (aka Aardvark), the logo was kindly created for Aardvark Daily by the folks at aardvark.co.uk



Please visit the sponsor!
Please visit the sponsor!

Did Dotcom choose the wrong country?

29 January 2013

It's pretty easy to understand why Kim Dotcom chose NZ as his new home.

We have a relatively benign climate, no poisonous reptiles (politicians excepted), a slightly democratic political system, tolerable levels of graft/corruption and a country of stunning natural beauty.

Of course, as Kim has discovered, there are downsides though.

We have a government that, if you press your ear to the walls of the PM's office, can be heard to ask "how high?" and "I'm touching my toes, what now?" -- a situation that resulted in the dawn raid on his Coatesville mansion and the unlawful seizure of his assets little over a year ago.

So might there have been a better country for KD to base himself in?

Well, if this report is to be believed, it would seem that the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda might have been a far better alternative.

It seems that this country is preparing to thumb its nose at the USA and its MAFIAA in a way that wimpy NZ would never even remotely consider.

What's more, they're doing it with the effective endorsement of the WTO.

What a wonderfully bizarre situation this is.

To think that an entire nation has been granted the right (by the WTO) to effectively ignore the copyright laws that have been KD's downfall in the past.

I'm pretty sure that Kim would find himself greeted with open arms and warm hugs if he decided to base himself in Antigua. What's more (at least by the laws of that land), he could re-open MegaUpload without the need to use encryption and other indemnifying strategies.

In fact, if I were KD, I'd seriously be considering relocating myself to the sunny shores of this Caribbean nation as soon as I was legally allowed -- or he could do a Julian Assange and secretly slip himself and his family off to Antigua while nobody's looking.

Of course there may be downsides to living in such a place...

I hear that the politicians are potentially corrupt and the police sometimes operate without authority -- oh, hang on, for Dotcom it'll be just like New Zealand!

Based on the comments on that story running on the Stuff website, it seems that there are already resounding cheers for the 70,000 people of Antigua and Barbuda.

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall of the MAFIAA's board rooms right now :-)

Please visit the sponsor!
Please visit the sponsor!

Have your say on this...

PERMALINK to this column

Oh, and don't forget today's sci/tech news headlines


Rank This Aardvark Page

 

Change Font

Sci-Tech headlines

 


Features:

The EZ Battery Reconditioning scam

Beware The Alternative Energy Scammers

The Great "Run Your Car On Water" Scam

 

Recent Columns

What is happening to Bitcoin?
Something interesting is happening to the crypto-currency Bitcoin...

Smoke, mirrors and a leather jacket
Earlier this week I reported on NVIDIA's big announcement at Computex...

I have my own AI LLM now
There was a story on the newswires earlier this week which claimed that a US company had ended up with a half-billion dollar bill as the result of "enthusiastic" IA usage...

AI, the new attack vector
We are all told that AI is going to change the world and I don't doubt that for one minute...

Has NVIDIA just killed AMD and Intel?
Computex is underway in Taipei and although the rise of AI has meant that there have been very few "exciting" announcements...

The age of big iron
Modern computers are small, fast, cost-effective and energy efficient...

Space and bureaucrats
First-up today, another potential risk for SpaceX's Starlink service -- the only profitable part of the SpaceX empire right now...

The end of drones and desktop computing
What is going on in the world today? ...

After the boom
There are growing signs that the AI bubble is near to bursting...

SpaceX IPO, what could possibly go wrong?
SpaceX is getting ready to go public with an earth-shattering IPO...