US Seeks Extradition For UK Student's Copyright Violation

[Warlord211]

Why is our government so focused on matters overseas when we are drowning in debt over here. It's complete bullshit. They seriously want to punish someone from the UK for copyright infringement when they can't even enforce it here.

I would like to quote George Washington. "The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations to have as little political connection as possible".

Last time I checked George Washington was probably the greatest president we have ever had. I think it's time we listened to him.

 

[AngloDoom]

English citizen commits crime in England. US infuriated.

I understand not.

In other news: the guy is just linking to illegal websites. Considering the things I've found on just about any old search-engine, this is quite a slippery slope to go down.

 

[Sparrow]

I don't care if he plotted to kill Obama, the kid sure as hell better be tried in the same damn country as me.

WHICH IS ENGLAND, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING.

Seriously though, shit like this pisses me off. America tried to pull it last year with that austistic hacker. He's English, therefore not American and therefore the American customs service can direct my foot within range of their arse.

[sup]Can you tell I'm a bit upset?[/sup]

 

[Arafiro]

I don't care if he plotted to kill Obama, the kid sure as hell better be tried in the same damn country as me.

WHICH IS ENGLAND, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING.

Seriously though, shit like this pisses me off. America tried to pull it last year with that austistic hacker. He's English, therefore not American and therefore the American customs service can direct my foot within range of their arse.

[sup]Can you tell I'm a bit upset?[/sup]

This post basically sums up my feelings on the subject.

Why is the US even sticking their nose in? The guy isn't even a US citizen.

 

[Scrubiii]

No way this guy will get extradited. Look how much of a fight we put up over the extradition of that guy who hacked the Pentagon, were not gonna let this guy get shipped across the Atlantic for linking people to illegal downloads.

It pisses me off that the USA even tries to do this. They want to extradite terrorists planning to bomb the white house, go ahead. Even when they wanted to extradite that guy who hacked the Pentagon, they at least had some case for it. If the guy hadn't had Aspergers I probably would have even supported it. This though, is just fucking ridiculous. As SenseofTumour said, would the US want him extradited for stealing actual DVDs? No, they wouldn't give a fuck. It's only the US government's big-headed desire to establish itself as the internet police that instigated this move.

The US government's overly patriotic hubris is getting way out of hand, and someone needs to stand up and tell them to fuck right off before they start trying to pass a law that makes England the 51st state.

 

[SlasherX]

I hate my country. I hate it more and more every day. That is all.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I hate my country. I hate it more and more every day. That is all.

There's only one way to actually fix it, BUT, it would be so expensive as well as illegal that I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

[Scrubiii]

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).

I believe that the statistic is something like the US makes up for 4.5% of global population, but 25% of global prison population.

 

[ExodusFlame]

Right now I'm thinking what does streaming do that TV does not? its the same difference except the TV networks aren't getting as many viewers there is so many things that are not shown globally that people in other country's might enjoy but are not shown over seas apart from major films its actually advertising the shows to the world.

The reason they get so pissed is cause people have found a way to show people what they could see on a TV for free on the internet for free oh sure its not through a pay site that pays so much of every subscription to those who participate. But it is not right to play things off by going around arresting people from other country's for no reason like this they are LINKS to the websites not THE ACTUAL websites so he has broken no laws. As i have said before US and UK laws are very different indeed and the US should not be able to prosecute a citizen of a country of which is not sovereign to them and can not impose a proper legal sentence because what might be 5 years in the UK could be 2 years here or just a fine and a civil suit.

The thing is in the UK our law system is a government law system not a company law system where you can just buy your freedom and assure it with enough money the reason Google is never taken to court is because they have lots of money and lawyers that will get them out of any trouble they can think of. Where as a student in a different country is a target students have no money as it is so there for no power over the USA and probably cant afford they're own lawyer so again i think they are just looking for money see who and what they can milk for $5,000.

Morally and socially to try and fly him to another country to make him adhere to they're laws and they're more than likely bias judges its an easy target especially since a UK citizen isn't likely to know very much about US law all they are doing is picking an easy target here and victimizing them and trying to back them into a corner from which they cannot escape.

 

[Srrrh]

Sod off America, we've only just got the hang of keeping hold of our own criminals instead of shipping them halfway across the world, let's not go backwards hm?

No seriously, it's a ridiculous idea. Why can't he be tried in the UK? We have copyright laws too yanno.

Having said this, if our Gvmt agree to this request, I'll probably immigrate to the US in exasperation at the idiocy of our MPs.

 

[Cavehybrid]

In prison, in the land of the free...... He hehe hehe heee Ohh irony is funny especially when you're british.

In regards to the actual point this seems bollucks, if what he did was make money for providing links to illegal content then charge him for that don't charge him for copyright as he clearly didn't do it.... also EXTRADITION Really! Is that neccasary? Seems a little much.

God the semi-secret organisation that rules America must have some entertainment Officials in it because they are not happy with this illegal content are they?

I am no conspiracy theorists but thats all I'm seeing.

 

[dmase]

I really wish the studios would make the programs more accessible, some are but not all and when they do its usually paying through the nose when you put the content itself in context. Head off copyright violations with accessibility and good advertising guys.

 

[Cavehybrid]

I like living in England, If you're born here you get used to the bad weather and sit and laugh at the daft news that appears on your laptop as other countries act like nutters. Not saying England doesn't do this as well but America, how do I put this, does it the best to make me laugh from its excellent comedy television programmes to its mental law enforcement and corrupt industry (e.g.fox news)

 

[vxicepickxv]

Right now I'm thinking what does streaming do that TV does not? its the same difference except the TV networks aren't getting as many viewers there is so many things that are not shown globally that people in other country's might enjoy but are not shown over seas apart from major films its actually advertising the shows to the world.

TV=Region locked, locally paid for commercials and broadcast rights.Streaming=Much fewer controls, to the point of either no commercials or just random ones that might or might not work, plus there might not be region locks on shows. Plus if you're streaming, the producers might not get their kickbacks.

The reason they get so pissed is cause people have found a way to show people what they could see on a TV for free on the internet for free oh sure its not through a pay site that pays so much of every subscription to those who participate. But it is not right to play things off by going around arresting people from other country's for no reason like this they are LINKS to the websites not THE ACTUAL websites so he has broken no laws. As i have said before US and UK laws are very different indeed and the US should not be able to prosecute a citizen of a country of which is not sovereign to them and can not impose a proper legal sentence because what might be 5 years in the UK could be 2 years here or just a fine and a civil suit.

I'm not going to argue with you at all. This is total bullshit in every way possible, and a gigantic heading for anyone in the US who even has a little bit of sanity left. I'm sorry those assclowns in charge are bought and paid for by our Corporate Oligarchy.

The thing is in the UK our law system is a government law system not a company law system where you can just buy your freedom and assure it with enough money the reason Google is never taken to court is because they have lots of money and lawyers that will get them out of any trouble they can think of. Where as a student in a different country is a target students have no money as it is so there for no power over the USA and probably cant afford they're own lawyer so again i think they are just looking for money see who and what they can milk for $5,000.

Morally and socially to try and fly him to another country to make him adhere to they're laws and they're more than likely bias judges its an easy target especially since a UK citizen isn't likely to know very much about US law all they are doing is picking an easy target here and victimizing them and trying to back them into a corner from which they cannot escape.

I think they're using him to set an example, and it does little more than just piss me off. This is total bullshit, and if it wasn't for our shortsighted culture probably never would have happened at all.

 

[GeeksUtopia]

sounds to me that this student here didn't exactly hacked his way or breached his way into any form of corporation created copies of a certain work and distribute them to where he makes a buck off of stolen material. That people is a prime example of stealing and making a quick buck. What i seen this student do so far from the article was that all he did was post links to said sites that committed such an act of stealing and allowed people to find it better (U.S. government sure did). Which they could use those links find the torrent site creators and get them arrested. This student did nothing wrong, didn't cross any line that can be said unforgiveable to where he has to stay locked up in a prison for five years. And people really prison, that is a place for hardened criminals, a place where people have killed, assaulted and abused others for their enjoyment. Sending this 23 year-old computer science major to prison is like sending an innocent veal to a slaughter house and some how surviving. This guy will have to endure cult like gatherings in prison walls where they will tell him that because he of this race he has an obligation, or will have to some how get himself in solitare and endure the isolation. Either way prison is to much, if they want him to pay for what he done, why not get him to do community service for the people or one or two companies.

 

[Liudeius]

Why are so many pirating posts noting Game of Thrones recently? Because it isn't widely available resulting in more pirating?

 

[blindraven]

Oh jeez, I really hate how my country works sometimes...

In manner of US law as I know it he is rather heavily skirting the law. It is illegal to upload/share/seed/host copyrighted material without permission. What he did was merely link to other sites(and by sounds allow his users to add links as well, though any website with some method of posts/comments users can do this as well) and also make ad revenue from visitors. If he himself actually followed links and used the resources he and his users provided then yes he violated the law as I know it in the US. If they argue solely that he provided a means to find and download material illegally, then it can be argued(thought not very strongly) that any search engine also hits this area unless they filter/report such results, for what more empowering way to allow people to easily find illegal data then to search almost the entire internet?

However, he is a citizen and resident of the UK, if they have similar laws, he shall be tried in a court over there. If not, then he did not violate the laws of the nation he lives in and should be left be. If this is the case, extradition is complete bogus, for he may have violated US copyright laws, but those laws don't apply to every single person with an internet connection around the globe, if it did the pi...'that giant torrent site you know of' would be long gone by now.

On a random tangent from that, if our laws are to be applied to anyone who uses the internet, then the laws of other nation's apply as well, and that is just asking for not only an entangled mess, but imagine the laws some random country would pass and say 'ah, but its our law and it applies to internet users world wide!'. Yeh, crazy I know, but if it is so for the US then it can be applied elsewhere. I wonder how long until the US gets extradition demands for news reporters...

*edit* Few things that just popped to mind... If he ran a website that linked to who knows how many illegal sites and services, is the US seizing those sites as well? and why attack and demand extradition of the guy who compiled a website listing instead of those running the actual direct infringement? Also, unless the server the guy ran was in the US, how much of a grey area is it that there is no outcry of a US govt body seizing a foreign website? if it is a grey area go take over 'that giant pirating site'

 

[vxicepickxv]

sounds to me that this student here didn't exactly hacked his way or breached his way into any form of corporation created copies of a certain work and distribute them to where he makes a buck off of stolen material. That people is a prime example of stealing and making a quick buck. What i seen this student do so far from the article was that all he did was post links to said sites that committed such an act of stealing and allowed people to find it better (U.S. government sure did). Which they could use those links find the torrent site creators and get them arrested. This student did nothing wrong, didn't cross any line that can be said unforgiveable to where he has to stay locked up in a prison for five years. And people really prison, that is a place for hardened criminals, a place where people have killed, assaulted and abused others for their enjoyment. Sending this 23 year-old computer science major to prison is like sending an innocent veal to a slaughter house and some how surviving. This guy will have to endure cult like gatherings in prison walls where they will tell him that because he of this race he has an obligation, or will have to some how get himself in solitare and endure the isolation. Either way prison is to much, if they want him to pay for what he done, why not get him to do community service for the people or one or two companies.

I'll give you a better hint on what should happen. The US should stop this pretentious corporate ass kissing bullshit and let him go on his way.

 

[ExodusFlame]

I consider this an invasion not of the military kind but of a different kind.

I think we would also be less inclined in Europe to do these things if we had any kind of service resembling Netflix or Hulu.

On another point we have our own copyright laws why do we need Americas? as far as i know he has not broken ours and can not be prosecuted for something that is not illegal or even given this ridiculously harsh sentence.