Yet Another Reminder That Democracy Is an Illusion

Recently by Simon Black: Why 308,127,404 Americans Are Going To Get Hosed

With over 150 million registered users, the file sharing site MegaUpload.com is one of the most popular on the Internet. At least, it was.

Yet another reminder that democracy is an illusion

The site has now been seized by the US government and its homepage converted to an FBI anti-piracy warning. Its founder, a high tech entrepreneur named Kim Dotcom (yes, he had it legally changed), was arrested in New Zealand after his homes were raided and assets seized.

These actions were all at the behest of the US government. And it’s just the latest example of Big Brother overextending its authority across the entire world.

Last week, we discussed the grassroots efforts to stop passage of the SOPA/PIPA legislation that would give the US government jurisdiction over the Internet. Wikipedia blacked out its English language pages to raise awareness of the issue, and people went completely nuts.

Congress subsequently withdrew the bills amid popular outcry, and the public rejoiced that their efforts successfully thwarted further encroachment on their liberty. Or so they thought.

On the exact same day that everyone was celebrating victory over SOPA/PIPA, the US government simply used another set of regulations to nab Dotcom and seize his assets. The fact that SOPA was scrapped turned out to be completely irrelevant, they just found other rules to apply (or break).

As usual, it’s probably not legal. But such technicalities don’t matter in the ‘guilty until proven innocent’ system in which we live. Executive agencies exercise extreme latitude when confiscating assets, and victims often don’t have the opportunity to address the matter in front of a judge for years, if ever.