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You are here: Home / A Grift Supreme

A Grift Supreme

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After the US seized file sharing/piracy site Megaupload (which was headquartered in Hong Kong but we were still able to shut down, without SOPA), details began to emerge about its owner, Kim Schmitz, who now goes by the name Kim Dotcom. Ars Technica has an extensive profile of this guy, and it’s a trip down a rabbit hole of crazy shit. He owns an inflatable T-72 tank decoy, lives in a New Zealand house with his former Phillippine model wife, and was the world leader in the game Modern Warfare 3. If you’re interested in strange characters, his story is an interesting a lazy Sunday read.

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    MariedeGournay

    Weirdly enough, the inflatable tank I get. However, the attempts to look all ‘gangsta’ really gets up my nose.

  2. 2.

    General Stuck

    Sounds like a Gingrich supporter. Maybe he could be mayor of the moon, when Newt builds his space ark.

  3. 3.

    cmorenc

    Essentially, this Kimble guy is full of shit underneath the flash. I’ve known a dozen much smaller-time guys like him in my life, not one of which I’d trust for a second at the other end of a belay rope.

  4. 4.

    MikeJake

    He’s such an egregious dork, I can’t help but feel a bit of schadenfreude towards his predicament.

  5. 5.

    RossInDetroit

    It was a good article. I kept wondering how he got investors and financing when he was so obviously a loon and a criminal. Unless that’s normal for entrepreneurs these days.

    ETA: I actually read the Wired article that just came out.

  10. 10.

    jo6pac

    He should have spent his money on high powered lobbist with lots of excongresscritters on the payroll and this would have never happened. Let this be a leason to all you need lobbist.

  11. 11.

    RossInDetroit

    @cmorenc:

    I’ve known a dozen much smaller-time guys like him in my life

    Guys like that scare me because I have essentially no defense against malicious bullshit. I hit that bait like a hungry trout every time. There will always be trusting people to keep the amoral supplied with yachts and Rolls Royces.

  13. 13.

    RRoss

    Better the money went to this guy then the people who produced and created it, amirte piracy fans?

    FRREEEEEDDDOOOOMMMMM!!!!

  15. 15.

    Nylund

    A rich megalomaniac with questionable ethics and legal isses who loves guns and hates governments? Maybe the GOP just found their new “savior” candidate.

    Oh, right, he wasn’t born in the US, so he can’t become president…or, well, that wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker when the guys were white, like with George Romney or John McCain, or like when there was talk of changing the law to accommodate Arnold (back when they thought he might be their new Hollywood it-boy.)

  17. 17.

    DougJarvus Green-Ellis

    @Nylund:

    Maybe the GOP just found their new “savior” candidate.

    I was thinking Americans Elect. Dotcom-Hagel, anyone?

  18. 18.

    jheartney

    I’m wondering if there are characters like this behind all the big piracy/upload sites. Not as loud, perhaps, but just as shady.

    Anyway, that’s some grade-A sociopathy there. I doubt it’s ever going to be safe to let him out into a civilized population, no matter how many lulz he provides.

  25. 25.

    Judas Escargot

    This guy’s been around for awhile, and he’s been charged with somewhat more mundane crimes such as insider trading and credit card fraud in the past (google “Kimble insider trading”).

    He’s like something out of a Stephenson novel. I’m half surprised our young friend m_c isn’t here to sing his praises.

  26. 26.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    @RRoss:

    not pro-theft, or pro-piracy at all. most of the artists i actually like are the ones who are hurt the most. they don’t have corporations willing to pay them to use their music and touring to build a brand is cost prohibitive. people willing to pay for their music is the only avenue left.

    the problem is, the industry, and the people writing these laws are just using those arguments and lumping them in with aerosmith, who have been the career long beneficiary of many ways in which music gets recorded and sold.

    they can’t solve their own business problem in a way that both allows for artists to sell their work, and allows people to expose themselves to new music. going to a club and paying a modest fee to see a band you have only heard of, is a dying option. some sharing is needed for exposure, and music has always been passed amongst friends. once upon a time that is how aerosmith got so big in the first place.

    the rules they want to impose thus far have only been designed with the big players in mind.

  27. 27.

    burnspbesq

    @Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:

    so this is the poster for the next round of why we should all bite the pillow for the next round of pipa/sopa?

    Quite the opposite. We got this guy without any of the Draconian enforcement tools that would be created under SOPA/PIPA.

  28. 28.

    Brian S

    so this is the poster for the next round of why we should all bite the pillow for the next round of pipa/sopa?

    The opposite. They busted him without SOPA/PIPA. The laws we have right now are adequate.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @burnspbesq:

    Quite the opposite. We got this guy without any of the Draconian enforcement tools that would be created under SOPA/PIPA.

    Which means that they’ve got the tools needed to go after actual pirates, which means SOPA/PIPA is about, um, something else.

    Like exterminating any competition that may reduce the already obscene profits of the big boys. Classic corporatist behavior. Crush the little guy, profit.

  33. 33.

    RossInDetroit

    This infographic on Hollywood’s war on piracy came up on bOINGbOING yesterday. It’s worth looking at to see just how consistent the film industry has been over time in opposing the technologies that now make up the bulk of its income.

  34. 34.

    burnspbesq

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Which means that they’ve got the tools needed to go after actual pirates, which means SOPA/PIPA is about, um, something else.

    Nope. The existing tools are time-consuming and expensive to deploy. They want to be able to shut down allegedly offending sites without having to be able to prove anything and without waiting for the FBI to do its thing.

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @burnspbesq:

    Due process…too time consuming, too expensive. Cuts into hookers and blow for Comcast suits. Can’t have that.

    It’s about crushing all those little people out on the ‘net providing content that is not corporate approved.

  36. 36.

    Arclite

    I have no problem with arresting and charging Kim Dotcom and his cronies if they have ample evidence the guy broke the law. What I think is criminal of the government is taking the site down. This isn’t the equivalent of arresting someone and taking their gun. This is like arresting a suspect, taking their gun, and MELTING IT DOWN. Innocent or guilty the gun is destroyed forever. Just like the Megaupload site.

  37. 37.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    You know, I’ve sometimes wondered what sort of assholes buy those $10 million+ mansions in Auckland. And now we know.

  38. 38.

    burnspbesq

    @Arclite:

    What I think is criminal of the government is taking the site down.

    It would be useful if you could explain why you have a problem with this, because it sure as heck isn’t obvious.

  40. 40.

    Jason

    How is this weird? He’s a nerd. Inflatable T-72 tank decoys are the kind of thing that nerds buy when they get a lot of money.

  41. 41.

    Arclite

    @burnspbesq: It was a site I used regularly to send my friends videos that I took at picnics and other events. It was convenient: you just upload and then someone the link. No logins, registrations, etc. etc.

    Lots of other people used it for cloud storage. Others, musicians included, used it to freely share art as a way of promoting themselves and generating revenue from other sources. The DCMA has an infringing content takedown mechanism that could be used instead of destroying a whole site.

    burnspbesq, doesn’t it bother you that the US government can just summarily remove a site from world use in the blink of an eye just because it ACCUSES (far from proving) it of being a wholesale criminal exercise?

    If you’re interested here’s an article that goes into more detail on why this is far from a slam dunk case.

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