I get continually more confused by this issue of piracy on the old interweb, especially now that New Zealand has hit the international news.

That the media jumped on the police side after the arrest of Kim Dotcom was hardly a surprise.

Now we have Winston Peters leaping aboard the bandwagon, which should be a warning to everyone.

It reminds me of a couple of things. The first is Tiki Taane's arrest last year while performing at a Tauranga nightclub.

Many over-the-top utterances were uttered. Simon Bridges labelled the singer 'a disgrace” and was quoted as saying: 'I'd hope we never see Tiki Taane in Tauranga again.”

All charges were later dropped, though I didn't notice any follow-up about Mr Bridges issuing a formal apology.

Now Kim Dotcom and his Megaupload pals have been busted in Auckland under orders from the FBI.

The PR spin is already at full speed. Early reports hinted at the danger the suspects posed by announcing that Mr Dotcom had a gun 'close at hand”.

The fact that it was in a gun safe has been less widely mentioned.

Good old Winston has quickly attacked the immigration issue.
How could this man have come here if he had a criminal conviction?

Well the convictions were old and considered very minor by the German government (that well-known bastion of tolerance), so they were wiped under their clean-slate provision.
Immigration here knew about them, but also considered them too minor to be important.

Winston has a valiant record of protecting us against evil foreigners, so I don't expect him to shut up in a hurry.
Remember Ahmed Zaoui? Peters railed against the dangerous terrorist for years and his one man crusade was probably responsible for keeping the asylum-seeker in jail for an extra couple of years.

Then he was let out and… nothing happened. Turns out Winnie's crusade might have been a little, er, overenthusiastic.

Or, as the cynical might suggest, pure political opportunism.

It might pay to remember that as he hoes into Kim Dotcom.

It's also worth noting that not everyone the FBI accuses are guilty, especially in the vexed and confused area of internet copyright infringement.

And especially in cases where, like this one, the accusation is of providing the means for people to do illegal things as opposed to actually doing them.
Many legitimate users who had paid for the service and were storing or sharing totally legal material through Megaupload now find themselves innocent victims of the FBI action.

Surely coincidentally the raid happened just as SOPA, the draconian new proposed crackdown on internet users, was hitting some significant opposition in America.

And, before demonising the (innocent until proven guilty) suspects, I couldn't help notice that, as well as investing a massive amount of money in government bonds, Mr Dotcom gave about $500,000 to put on a fireworks display over Auckland in 2010 for New Year's Eve, donated a significant sum to the Christchurch Earthquake appeal and donated $90,000 to the Starship Foundation. If I had to pick between him and Winston…

But the internet, as well as being a danger to everyone, apparently, also allows us to get free music. That's the weird contradiction.

The Guardian newspaper's online edition (guardian.co.uk) has been streaming Leonard Cohen's new album, not due for release until 30 January.

There it is, in great quality, just waiting to be listened to. And, presumably, it could be copied by anyone with the right software.

When I was a kid we held up the microphone of a cassette deck to the radio – I assume there is now a more sophisticated method.

Is The Guardian encouraging illegal behaviour?
The whole copyright issue is vexing to say the least.
For instance, there is some obscure provision that allows for live recordings to move into the public domain after 35 years.

I'm not sure which countries this applies to but with the internet it hardly matters any more.

What it means is that some very interesting stuff is now turning up on Amazon, presumably legally or it wouldn't be there.

I've been revelling in Bruce Springsteen's legendary live 1975 show from Main Point, and there are now more live CDs being released from the same era.
It's a funny old world.