Kind of puts into perspective why they would coordinate such a massive raid on Megaupload. The target may not have even been the data - merely seizing the data puts anybody who has accessed the megaupload website as an easy target.

You crossed the tinfoil line. Copyright infringement was sufficient motivation for the actions taken. The megaupload raid was not okay, but I am pretty sure Hollywood was behind it, not the NSA.

Just a few years ago this very article would cross the tinfoil line. Plus, don't be naive to think that the government wouldn't use an accusation of committing a crime to cover what they really want to do.

For instance, need data from a server's hard drive? Accuse someone you know who has data on that server, not necessarily the data you want, to have an excuse to seize said hard drive and analyze it. Nope, turns out the accusation was incorrect, here's the hard drive back. Ah, is getting other data not covered by the warrant illegal? It just might be, but you can't complain if you don't know they did it and you probably don't have standing to sue over it to find out. Plus with authorities able to get double-secret warrants based on triple-super-secret laws issued by not-so-secret courts with "you can't even admit you were here" secret proceedings, how would anyone know in the first place?

Remember, government agents have the authority to lie to you in an effort to complete their goals.

Not that I'm saying the NSA was behind MegaUpload or anything, just saying it's feasible.

You've got a lot of nerve impugning tinfoil these days.

Well, there are reasons to put on our tinfoil hats now... heck, last I heard, MIT students had managed to inject memories into mice.

The headline for that article was astoundingly misleading. They created a fear response in the mice to a place that the mice had never been.

Hollywood by itself had absolutely no chance of reaching across to new zealand and persuading the NZ police to break NZ laws to arrest him.

Just to be clear, Kim Dotcom was a NZ resident, and had broken no NZ laws.

At this point it would be a bold man who made the claim that the NSA had nothing to do with investigating a foreign person and/or their company, tracking that company's international internet usage, monitoring their involvement in possible illegal activities and providing that information to US authorities who could use it to reach out across the world and attempt to have that person extradited to the US.

In fact, I cannot understand for a second why you are trying to make that claim?

@netrus - I am not even sure where the tinfoil line is anymore.

At this point, the line itself is even made of tinfoil.

Having a 3 1/2" floppy sent to someone outside of the country 15 years ago will probably count as well.