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It's not the US law that is at fault here, but the extradition treaties. It should be the same as being tried in a Pakistani court for being an atheist while yo

It's not the US law that is at fault here, but the extradition treaties. It should be the same as being tried in a Pakistani court for being an atheist while you're born and lived your whole life in Holland: you shouldn't care. But because US is a de facto empire...

tptacek 15y ago
That's not how extradition works. It depends on the treaty, but most of them stipulate that extraditable crimes must be recognized by both jurisdictions. You obviously can't be extradited to Pakistan for being an atheist. Because we hear so often about legal proceedings against piracy in the US, I think we have a cognitive bias that suggests piracy is more criminal here than in Europe. That's mostly not the case. For instance: the UK's criminal copyright infringement laws, which date back to the late '80s, are just as stringent as ours.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  So then why was the UK guy extradited if what he did wasn't even illegal in UK?
  - tptacek 15y ago
    What he did was illegal in the UK, and has been since 1988.
    - philjohn 15y ago
      Then they should be forced to pursue a private prosecution in the UK, where the crimes were committed instead of relying on a technicality that allows them to wrest "jurisdiction".
      - tptacek 15y ago
        Why? He has better due process protections in the US than he does in the UK. I think you just don't like the idea of people being prosecuted for crimes that involve file sharing.
        radu_floricica 15y ago
        Taking him in another country by force for what is essentially a civil matter is not ok. The process can take a long while, and all this time I assume he will be in custody - which most likely would not happen if he were to stand trial in his own country. Plus yeah, we really don't like that he's being prosecuted for that. In all the talk about whether it's illegal or not it's too seldom that it's said "the law is just wrong". It protects too much the copyright holders, and the evidence that this is actually for the common good is getting sketchier and sketchier.

tptacek 15y ago

That's not how extradition works. It depends on the treaty, but most of them stipulate that extraditable crimes must be recognized by both jurisdictions. You obviously can't be extradited to Pakistan for being an atheist. Because we hear so often about legal proceedings against piracy in the US, I think we have a cognitive bias that suggests piracy is more criminal here than in Europe. That's mostly not the case. For instance: the UK's criminal copyright infringement laws, which date back to the late '80s, are just as stringent as ours.

nextparadigms 15y ago
So then why was the UK guy extradited if what he did wasn't even illegal in UK?
- tptacek 15y ago
  What he did was illegal in the UK, and has been since 1988.
  - philjohn 15y ago
    Then they should be forced to pursue a private prosecution in the UK, where the crimes were committed instead of relying on a technicality that allows them to wrest "jurisdiction".
    - tptacek 15y ago
      Why? He has better due process protections in the US than he does in the UK. I think you just don't like the idea of people being prosecuted for crimes that involve file sharing.
      - radu_floricica 15y ago
        Taking him in another country by force for what is essentially a civil matter is not ok. The process can take a long while, and all this time I assume he will be in custody - which most likely would not happen if he were to stand trial in his own country. Plus yeah, we really don't like that he's being prosecuted for that. In all the talk about whether it's illegal or not it's too seldom that it's said "the law is just wrong". It protects too much the copyright holders, and the evidence that this is actually for the common good is getting sketchier and sketchier.