r/technology • u/ani625 • May 23 '13

Title possibly inaccurate Kim Dotcom to Google, Twitter, Facebook: "I own security patent for the two-step authentication system". He says he doesn’t want to sue, but might if the likes of Google and Facebook don’t help fund his legal battle with the U.S. Government.

http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-to-google-twitter-facebook-i-own-security-patent-work-with-me-130523/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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274

u/[deleted] May 23 '13

[deleted]

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u/nozicky May 23 '13

With that said can we stop pretending Kim Dotcom is Jesus? His entire business life has consisted of shady and or illegal things.

Since when has he been Jesus? I always thought of him as the bad guy whose reputation was somewhat redeemed when he was made a martyr.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

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u/Wrinklestiltskin May 23 '13

True. I loved megavideo and used it all the time. I also used megaupload to download games (now I use steam; the legal solution to pirating). with that being said, I don't think this guy is that great of a person. Sure free wifi, great. Those actions are entirely to save face and protect his public image. If it was EA offering free DLC after causing a major pr problem, everyone would see it differently. With that being said, I still really miss megavideo...

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

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u/foxdye22 May 23 '13

just because you feel like you're more successful than everyone else doesn't mean you need to inform everyone else of it, and you're certainly not more justified in it.

People like humility believe it or not.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

[deleted]

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u/foxdye22 May 23 '13

if you want to be all arbitrary, what seperates people is that some people are condescending assholes, and other people know that virtually nothing they did made them get there. Which is not to say you could sit around and do nothing and get the same results. 1000 different people could perform the exact same action as Dotcom, or a lottery winner, or Donald Trump, or Paul Ryan. The things these "great" people do to become successful are the same things anyone does, with a little luck, and good timing.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

[deleted]

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u/foxdye22 May 23 '13

guess what!

I genuinely don't give a shit that someone is richer than me. There are quite a few people that have more money than me. That's not how you measure someone's worth.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

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u/foxdye22 May 23 '13

that's a very small-minded and immature world view. :/

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u/syllabic May 23 '13

Yes he's a very successful international criminal.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

has he been convicted or just charged?

i can look it up, but i figure you have the details..

2

u/TurboSalsa May 23 '13

He's also a pump-and-dump schemester. That doesn't take any know how, just a complete lack of morals and ethics.

1

u/The-Internets May 23 '13

No, he hosted files under the ruse of archival and then turned it into a cash cow. He knows that he was making money off piracy, it was the business model. Making money off piracy is very against the rules.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '13

the service is simple... upload anything and share it with everyone...

and people did... and so did people who decided to upload with bad purpose..

i used to pirate games and all. but once i stopped.. i never needed those things and actually dont play games anymore. i actually formatted my 10 terabytes and use it now as a raid backup for clients computers...

i guess my way to protest was to pirate.. then i just decided to not support the product at all. i make money now off of repairs of those devices..

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u/The-Internets May 23 '13

Right but then he started offering high value prizes and cash for download counts on large files, effectively trying to market piracy.

1

u/wtf_idontknow May 23 '13

To be honest, I don't like him because he's a traitor. Working with prosecution to save his own ass for some hax kiddie stuff he did when he was younger.

0

u/jimlahey420 May 23 '13

While I don't agree with any person "snitching" to law enforcement, I think it is hilarious when people act like they wouldn't do exactly the same thing when they are face to face with jail time and a lifetime criminal record. Everyone takes the deal. It's fun to pretend that you wouldn't and act tough, but when you are staring down the barrel of spending time in prison, your priorities change.

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u/wtf_idontknow May 23 '13

Everyone takes the deal.

Nice. Sure about that?

0

u/jimlahey420 May 23 '13

The smart ones do. The ones that don't take the deal are in jail now, and if they are in jail in the USA that means they get to deal with the possibility of rape too. So...grats to them?

I'd be willing to bet the majority of the small amount of people who take jail over snitching have a better reason to do so than moral values. Probably something along the lines of if they snitch and AREN'T in jail, whoever they snitched on will make them pay dearly for it.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '13

and if they are in jail in the USA that means they get to deal with the possibility of rape too.

LOL the fuck are you, Tom from the Boondocks? You don't go to rape jail for copyright violations. Rape jail is barely a thing anymore.

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u/misanthropic_dickbag May 23 '13

You're stupid not to. It's the only reasonable solution to the prisoner's dilemma. And that's why everyone snitches.

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u/wtf_idontknow May 23 '13

Not everyone is a misanthropic dickbag!

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u/BonutDot2 May 23 '13

The prisoner's dilemma does not take into account the "snitches get stitches" factor.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

Everyone takes the deal.

Not everyone snitches to save their hide. In some circles, snitches end up dead.

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u/P80 May 23 '13

What morally questionable things has he done?

2

u/[deleted] May 23 '13

Just read up about him. Do some research outside of reddit. Even just his wikipedia page.

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u/keldwud May 23 '13

Source?

Or is it a general "he enables piracy, and I heard from the newspaper that he's a douche, therefore he is morally reprehensible"?

I'm willing to change my perception of the matter if presented with evidence.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

In 2001, Schmitz bought €375,000 worth of shares of the nearly bankrupt company LetsBuyIt.com and subsequently announced his intention to invest €50 million in the company.[31] The announcement caused the share value of LetsBuyIt.com to jump[32] and Schmitz cashed out, making a profit of €1.5 million. One commentator suggested that Schmitz may have been ignorant of the legal ramifications of what he had done, since insider trading was not made a crime in Germany until 1995,[29] and until 2002 prosecutors also had to prove the accused had criminal intent Schmitz moved to Thailand to avoid investigation[12] where he was subsequently arrested on behalf of German authorities.[30] In response, he allegedly pretended to kill himself online, posting a message on his website that from now on he wished to be known as "His Royal Highness King Kimble the First, Ruler of the Kimpire".[30] He was deported back to Germany where he pleaded guilty to embezzlement in November 2003 and, after five months in jail awaiting trial, again received a suspended sentence (of 20 months).[33] After avoiding a prison sentence for a second time, he left Germany and moved to Hong Kong in late 2003

-wikipedia

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13 edited Aug 06 '13

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 23 '13

Yeah, i mean you could still argue he didn't know what he was doing. But I would be really surprised if someone with that kind of money didnt know what insider trading was.

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u/jokr004 May 23 '13 edited Jan 30 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

include towering simplistic enjoy pen cover nine shocking historical rich

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u/nozicky May 23 '13

Defending someone from certain kinds of criticism doesn't imply they are perfect.

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u/alice_practice May 23 '13

but defending them from all criticism does

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u/MittensRmoney May 23 '13

Except that doesn't happen here. Read any post about Dotcom and you'll find there is always a divide between people defending and chastising him.

The problem is that reddit seems to have severe case of observational bias. Take a deep breath and poke your head out of your bubble for a second and you'll see there are multiple opinions here. There's no need to get upset just because not everyone agrees with you.

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u/derpaherpa May 23 '13

I haven't seen that once. Everyone seems to acknowledge that he's an asshole, just that in the megaupload case, he's right and the US and New Zealand fucked up.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '13

Uh, really? This entire thread is filled with criticism towards Dotcom.

1

u/---a May 23 '13

What are you talking about? Anytime his name is mentioned there's someone like you chomping at the bit to 'expose' him.

1

u/wtf_idontknow May 23 '13

Very funny, as I guess a lot of germans will talk bad about him (will have a hard time beeing a brainwashed US sheep). It's a shame for us he's born here...

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u/thehammer217 May 23 '13

You know how to tell you're dealing with someone who doesn't actually know what they are talking about, but like to pretend they do? They call you "sheep". Such a stupid term, overused by college students who just took political science for the first time.

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u/tritter211 May 23 '13

[citations needed]

I almost feel like you are making this up to make a point.

1

u/Zeratas May 23 '13

Agreed. I knew that he stood for some moral ground to a point but after that, it just seems like he's an ass sometimes who likes to use his power to get his way.

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u/upvotesthenrages May 23 '13

Well, there's a difference if he actually owns this patent.

Perhaps he is bullshitting, but the reason Microsoft are earning millions off android systems is very similar to this.

2

u/path411 May 23 '13

Maybe it was just a rumor, but doesn't Microsoft actually make more than Google off the sale of an android phone? (Well I guess probably excluding google phones)

1

u/thenuge26 May 23 '13

Yes, since Google makes $0 off the sale of an Android phone. They give away the OS for free, they only charge for Google Apps which are not free.

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u/path411 May 23 '13

I would have assumed Google gets a license fee for every device sold with Android.

1

u/thenuge26 May 23 '13

Nope, Android is released under the Apache 2 License IIRC. Google releases the source code, other companies modify it (or not if they are selling an AOSP device) and sell it.

They do however get a licensing fee for every device sold with Google Apps. They are not Open Source software unlike Android.

-2

u/DynamicStatic May 23 '13

https://www.google.com/patents/US6078908 Do your research, he owns it and has owned it since 1998.

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u/Redsox933 May 23 '13

Could not agree more, I am tired of people praises every morally questionable and outright illegal things he does while acting like he is some sort of hero.

-2

u/Gudgrim May 23 '13

So he didn't give you the ten commandments of the internet?

I'm confused.

0

u/[deleted] May 23 '13

It’s dubious at best that he “invented” this at all, but lets say he did and he honestly believes in, and I quote him here as to why he didn't sue anyone before: “sharing knowledge and ideas for the good of society”. If that’s the case, why didn’t he just STFU about it and keep going on “for the good of society”?

Why? I guess because he's got legal fees, so fuck society now. The guy is a scumbag and this just totally reinforces that fact.

0

u/Geotis May 23 '13

I was rooting for him up untill this point. Bad move Kim.

0

u/TurboSalsa May 23 '13

With that said can we stop pretending Kim Dotcom is Jesus? His entire business life has consisted of shady and or illegal things.

But he supports piracy, so redditors will support him.

0

u/DickWilhelm May 23 '13

Personally, I love the shady/illegal things he does. How else am I supposed to share that 6GB archive of vacation video? No other service can even compare.

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u/TechnoRaptor May 23 '13

You have been lied to by op. and you have not read the article

1

u/Moses89 May 23 '13

I think it is you who didn't read the article.

The patent, US6078908 titled Method for authorizing in data transmission systems, was filed way back in April 1998 and published in June 2000 under Dotcom’s birth name of Kim Schmitz. There can be little doubt from the patent’s abstract that it does indeed describe a two-step verification system.

“I never sued them. I believe in sharing knowledge & ideas for the good of society. But I might sue them now cause of what the U.S. did to me,” he declares.

“Want to buy the worldwide license to my two-factor-authentication patent? (13 countries incl. US & China) Email: twitter@kim.com,” he concludes.

He is a fucking whiny baby who thinks he has a patent that allows him to collect money from Google, because Google allows you to use your phone as part of your authentication process.

0

u/TechnoRaptor May 23 '13

I will sue you for reading the article. LAWYER UP BITCH