While I agree that there won't be 1000s of people prosecuted, you might not be aware of how strong the extradition agreements between the USA and most of Europe

While I agree that there won't be 1000s of people prosecuted, you might not be aware of how strong the extradition agreements between the USA and most of Europe are. If the hackers are in Europe and are caught, they'll end up in the US justice system, for example see Gary McKinnon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_McKinnon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_McKinnon