[jnardiello]

Kim Dotcom is an evil genius and a remarkable marketing guy. During his whole career no doubts he made a fortune out of other people work BUT, still, he can't be considered responsible for it because - in fact - he had MILLIONS of users who actually used the pirated content megaupload made available (and i dare anyone here to throw the first stone if they never used megaupload). So, while i'm not yet sure i like the guy, i still consider the megaupload affair a huge mistake.

What is astonishing anyway is what he made out of the whole situation. No doubt most of the people out there would have been simply destroyed by events. Not only he wasn't, but he managed to launch two different businesses that still surely has a lot to show in the future.

Regarding this specific music project, i can only say that i agree with him. Paying for the music you like IS the new model , so far he looks like one of the few who understood it (together with Spotify, which is in fact doing the same).

PS: I really like the album he made available for free.

[zwdr]

Kimble is a fraud and an asshole. The only things he's good at are marketing and scamming. Just take a look at his history- insider trading, selling userdata from a BBS he ran to a lawyer, scamming the german telcos... the list is quite long.

He's a good marketer, but one of the worst people I've read about. There's a file of his quotes (from the CCC mailing list) circulating, if you know german you should try reading that. Really gives some insight into him. For example how that l33t hacker cred he has is all for show– I wouldn't buy anything about free speech from him either. He's only interested in money. I remember one quote from one of his teachers about how Kimble was the most antisocial kid he ever teached LOL.

TLDR: You really shouldnt like the guy, read a bit about him and you'll figure out why.

EDIT: Here's the quote file: http://babsi.de/KIMBLE.txt

[joelrunyon]

> The only things he's good at are marketing and scamming.

He's also apparently quite good at Call of Duty[1].

[1] http://www.kitguru.net/software/gaming/jon-martindale/kim-do...

[yapcguy]

> ... a fraud and an asshole. The only things he's good at are marketing and scamming

Are you talking about AirBnb and their Craigslist scamming?

> He's only interested in money.

Meanwhile venture backed start-ups are doing God's work, right?!

[nForce]

How has AirBnb have any relation to Kim Dotcom.

How does another company in tech spamming, have anything to do with whether it's morally right or wrong with another company using such tactics?

Two wrong don't make a right..

[zwdr]

>Are you talking about AirBnb and their Craigslist scamming?

What? I don't even know if Kimble and AirBnB are connected...

>Meanwhile venture backed start-ups are doing God's work, right?!

If you do a Ctrl+F "venture" I'm sure you wont find any occurences in my post.

[curiousphil]

I believe he's comparing the less than above board things dotcom has done to the sidestepping of the law that AirBNB actively endorses. Basically saying that HN is all about companies like AirBNB because they hatched here while they aren't that much better when it comes to working within the law and playing by the rules. I could be mistaken though, correct me if I'm wrong yapcguy. Not saying I fully agree just trying to make sense of his post for you!

[yapcguy]

You are 100% correct.

I should have used the /sarcasm tag so zwdr didn't take me so literally.

[jagermo]

i always recommend the dossier at attriton.org: http://attrition.org/errata/charlatan/kimble/

[kintamanimatt]

> "Merry X-mas & a hacky new year by KIMBLE"

> 19 - 21 December 1996

He's horrible!

In all seriousness, I've had a quick read through (with the finest of Google's translations) and I'm not sure what you're drawing exception to. There's stuff that just sounds like satire and other BS, but I can't figure out why you wrote what you wrote.

[zwdr]

:S

EDIT: For a bit of background: He and the CCC were never really friendly with each other. He tried to fit in the german hacker culture, but everyone knew he was a fraud.

For example, he tried to recruit young people on the mailing list into shady jobs with promises of easy money (that he didn't have back then). There are a few other stunts, but generally he behaved like a 14 year old asshole with a big ego and too much time on his hand. Didn't help that he tried to bullshit everyone about how much money he made (DATAPROTECT LOL).

Maybe that didn't get through the translation.

[yapcguy]

> He tried to fit in the german hacker culture, but everyone knew he was a fraud.

Meanwhile readers of "HackerNews" and all the self-proclaimed "Hackers" at YC start-ups and all the trendy new "Growth Hackers" of course have much more in common with the CCC and hacker culture...

> he tried to recruit young people on the mailing list into shady jobs with promises of easy money

Like every entrepreneur at venture backed start-ups, right?!

[zwdr]

>Meanwhile readers of "HackerNews" and all the self-proclaimed "Hackers" at YC start-ups and all the trendy new "Growth Hackers" of course have much more in common with the CCC and hacker culture...

Please do a Ctrl+f again, I'm sure you wont find anything about HN or Start-Ups in my post.

>Like every entrepreneur at venture backed start-ups, right?!

Dunno, guess some startups are shady, guess some don't. Can we please talk about Kimble now? You're derailing the topic here.

[ramblerman]

Not really, he's trying to show that in the context of HN and startups kimble was doing what a lot of people do here, just using a different medium

[rfnslyr]

Yeah, and this is why I'm still trading the precious hours of my life for a few dollars to write code nobody is ever going to use, look at, or benefit from, while he is bathing in money.

The scummy shit he did is negligible.

[zwdr]

I think the fact that he's good at marketing doesn't change the fact that he did a lot of morally questionable things.

And I don't think they're negligible– at least not from an ethical point of view.

[ah-]

He's also hilarious, just watch "Kimble goes Monaco" on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ZBZV8hFb4 (German, but with english subtitles I think).

[prawn]

"He's a good marketer, but one of the worst people I've read about."

Go and read about Albert Fish. Might moderate your claims about this guy a bit...

[goggles99]

>Kimble is a fraud and an asshole.

Sort of like Sean parker, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, ETC...

All criminals. Do you consider them all in the same contempt?

[smoyer]

I never used megaupload ... but casting the first stone is always dangerous.