US Seeks Extradition For UK Student's Copyright Violation

[vxicepickxv]

Well for a start, what the hell America? Why should he have a trial in your country rather than the country he lives in and was caught in. This has nothing to do with America, or at least nothing more to do with America than any other country.

Secondly, I'm pretty sure linking to illegal sites isn't illegal, and if it is it shouldn't be. In fact, if his site linked to The Pirate Bay and other torrent sites, then all he was doing was linking with a site that has it's own links to illegal software. If that's illegal then where does it end?

Surely Google is just as guilty of this crime as the student is? Try searching "Pirate" in Google and look what the top result is.

Should we then punish the sites that link to TV Shack?

What about the sites that link to the sites that link to TV Shack?

This simply doesn't work, and the only reason these kind of stupid laws get allowed in the first place is because the companies who are hurt by this have all the money, and therefore all the power. Obtaining copies of things you don't own should be illegal, that's fair enough, but I think this is just ridiculous.

American law, the best a company or major organization that a company works for can buy. Sometimes it's federal, sometimes it's just based on in a state.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/nc-gov-anti-muni-broadband/ North Carolina law making municipal broadbands illegal to form.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/05/protect-ip-act-coica-redux Description of the PROTECT IP act, which scares the hell out of a lot of people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act A description of an act that gives all kinds of powers to do things that kind of scare me.

Of course, that's nothing compared to the power grab that was the patriot act, or the war on drugs. Don't even get me started on how much of a federal government power grab that +++CARRIER LOST+++

 

[Vykrel]

i agree with geek.com, this isnt illegal. its actually what i prefer when it comes to how i get my favorite TV shows that basic cable doesnt offer. its not illegal to provide links to websites that actually are breaking the law.

the gov'mint tried to do this to the website i use, and the creator of the site had to create hundreds of carbon copies of the website, and base it in Norway or something. i dunno

point is, if he didnt upload or download the content himself, hes not breaking the law.

 

[Smooth Operator]

When companies enforce law, ah such a wonderful world.

 

[Denamic]

You can't convict because you linked to a place where you can get a torrent.
That's like charging you for murder if you see someone getting shot.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Just start making things we don't like illegal and demanding folks be extradited here.

Start flooding the US State Dept with extradition applications for US citizens who violate British firearms laws.

Lol can you imagine the Daily Mail headlines? 'US immigrants cause massive wave of gun crime and obesity epidemic, house prices plummet'

The sad thing is, we're so obsessed with immigrants over here, we'd probably be happy to send our own citizens anywhere, we're so 'full'.

I suggest just accusing the FBI of copyright infringement 3 times, then cut off their internet, should slow down the extradition process a bit if they have to do everything by carrier pigeon.

I also hate the idea of celebrity, and that their opinions should be important,but when I see who's on the side of 'gah, death penalty for home taping' and who's on the 'yes it's bad but we don't need to string em up' side, I'm gonna side with Stephen Fry, Billy Bragg, Joss Stone and many others. When it comes to the artists, it seems mainly the ones who are already internationally famous and have nothing to gain from word of mouth who are most angrily anti piracy, see Metallica.

As stated above:
the War on Drugs
the War on Terror
the War on Piracy

Kinda makes Vietnam look like a clean victory. I genuinely don't think this is a winnable fight, unless you just turn off the internet and make us go back to burning cds and dvds. Sadly I think if they could, those in power would happily take the internet away, sacrificing all that is good, free, educational and social about it to protect the threat to the bottom line of big business.

As the guy above said, we're not defending the pirates, they should be punished for spreading the material, IF they break the law, but the laws shouldn't be ignored in the hunger for revenge,and we shouldn't be letting our politicians throw all our freedoms on a fire because their rich friends don't like us watching the new episode of the Daily Show a few days early.

 

[Shiftygiant]

Ha ha... Wait. Oh crap. BURN EVERYTHING! IF THERE'S NOT ENOUGH FIRE, EAT IT! IF YOU CAN'T EAT IT, JUST SHOVE IT DOWN THE TOILET!

Wait, inst it his right to free speech? And also, doesn't the copyright laws in america ONLY apply to america? Life is confusing.

 

[FoOd77]

quit trolling FogHornG36

the BBC is the largest broadcaster in the world.

Now now, he said "of value" can't argue with him there! All that crap we get on BBC America is mindnumbingly stupid, especially "Doctor Who", EUUUUUGH!

But seriously though, is this REALLY worth extraditing somebody for? Seriously? Copyright infringment? Christ alive, don't we have more important things to worry about that some college student on the other side of the Atlantic breaking COPYRIGHT LAWS?!

 

[PinkiePyro]

this is just ridiculous he didnt really pirate anything only link and yet we are pushing to exctide him... its not like he is the guy running pirate bay or anything..
just a big fat waste of money..

and as this is piracy related I have a feeling anon is gonna come and stick their noses into this too

 

[Gustavo S. Buschle]

Interesting, but I can't see UK courts granting extradition for a case that could be brought in the UK as a civil charge. The owners of the copyright should be suing him, since copyright infringement is a civil matter in the UK (until you ignore a court order...). I hope to God I'm right.

The idea of Americaland gaining the legal right to enforce it's laws on British soil remotely is, frankly, terrifying.

My thoughts exactly, it seems more of a futuristic dystopia setting for a low budget old movie.

 

[devotedsniper]

I'm sorry but since when did America own the internet? last time i checked they didn't, at most the UK has jurisdiction because it's UK servers (well i'm guessing the servers used to host are in the UK here) on UK soil and the owner is from the UK. 5 years though, it's abit much for someone who wasn't even hosting the content, a year or less at most (and even then i don't agree with punishing someone for meerly linking the content) and even then it should be the UK to deal with it.

Whats next, the US coming after me for hosting a .rar which contains drivers which allows the laptop i brought with my money to run XP instead of Vista which the manufacturer didn't supply?

 

[Baresark]

And the authoritarian arm of the US government reaches across seas once again. If they say no, are we invading? What a joke. I hope they don't give him up.

Also, I hate how people refer to the US as, "the land of the free". We have the largest prison population on the planet, both statistically and using real numbers. For those interested, 7.2 million people or 2.4% (rounded for our purposes) of our total population. Which is a much larger tax burden for both prisons and law enforcement to rack up such a large percentage.... so free we are.

Edit: this also should not be a criminal matter, but only a civil one. Another reason to dislike the US government... which incidentally doesn't represent me at all for anything (though they would disagree).

 

[Plinglebob]

Considering Gary Mckinnon still hasn't been extradited when its obvious he did commit a crime against the USA (clarity: I don't think he should be, but he did break the law), I doubt this guy will ever set foot on US soil. Spoils any plns he may have had to go to DisneyLand though

 

[LZeroK]

Ha ha... Wait. Oh crap. BURN EVERYTHING! IF THERE'S NOT ENOUGH FIRE, EAT IT! IF YOU CAN'T EAT IT, JUST SHOVE IT DOWN THE TOILET!

Wait, inst it his right to free speech? And also, doesn't the copyright laws in america ONLY apply to america? Life is confusing.

But can't you see that in their mind (generalising here) all the world is America (USA) because they are such badasses when it comes to war? /SARCASM

 

[Geamo]

I'd like to know if it was actually him putting up the links, of if they were user-generated (i.e. users register, post links to torrents/whatnot)?

Anyway, I hope he doesn't get extradited.

(Also rather interesting since I had an offer to study Computer Science at Sheffield Hallam)

 

[devotedsniper]

I'd like to know if it was actually him putting up the links, of if they were user-generated (i.e. users register, post links to torrents/whatnot)?

Anyway, I hope he doesn't get extradited.

(Also rather interesting since I had an offer to study Computer Science at Sheffield Hallam)

If i remember rightly the links where added by users not the owner of the site himself.

 

[vxicepickxv]

And the authoritarian arm of the US government reaches across seas once again. If they say no, are we invading? What a joke. I hope they don't give him up.

Also, I hate how people refer to the US as, "the land of the free". We have the largest prison population on the planet, both statistically and using real numbers. For those interested, 7.2 million people or 2.4% (rounded for our purposes) of our total population. Which is a much larger tax burden for both prisons and law enforcement to rack up such a large percentage.... so free we are.

Edit: this also should not be a criminal matter, but only a civil one. Another reason to dislike the US government... which incidentally doesn't represent me at all for anything (though they would disagree).

Representation is hard when you can't afford a senator.

I'd say we need to burn it down and start again, but nobody can afford fire anymore.

 

[Herbsk]

So, my government is wasting time, money, and reputation attempting to extradite a non-citizen for... putting up links to torrent sites?

Fantastic.

Agreed. The idea that the US is trying to make their laws applicable internationally should be taken as a clear threat to the sovereignty of other nations in my view. Don't we have enough preblems at home without stupid politicians and their lobbists trying to push their own agendas.

If this is a problem to the US industries, they should be pushing their agendas in the country of origin - not on US soil and using US tax dollars.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Dear United States Government, fuck off. Your laws do not apply to us. I would squee with joy if we were to respond in something to this effect.

 

[vxicepickxv]

So, my government is wasting time, money, and reputation attempting to extradite a non-citizen for... putting up links to torrent sites?

Fantastic.

Agreed. The idea that the US is trying to make their laws applicable internationally should be taken as a clear threat to the sovereignty of other nations in my view. Don't we have enough preblems at home without stupid politicians and their lobbists trying to push their own agendas.

If this is a problem to the US industries, they should be pushing their agendas in the country of origin - not on US soil and using US tax dollars.

But then how will congress get their "fundraising" money?