UK 'Piracy' student to be extradited to US

[RikuoAmero]

I like how they put "piracy" in quotations as if to imply he didn't do anything to do with piracy. He didn't put up the links himself, and some people will say that he's not guilty for that reason, but those people are also stupid.

He has provided a venue for piracy, and he doesn't have a very strong alibi. The whole premises of these sorts of websites is to view pirated material. It's not like some random uncontrolled thing you see with 4chan or even YouTube, this is a piracy hub, and he's running the show.

It's also incredibly flawed reasoning that your country should protect you from being prosecuted for crimes committed in other countries. Do people honestly think it's acceptable to blatantly break the law and cower behind a form of diplomatic immunity when the law catches up to you? Extradition cases are usually taken very seriously anyway, both parties must work together and determine whether or not there is even a real case before handing over one of their citizens.

Differences in standards of punishment also plays a huge factor, The States are usually known for having fairly harsh punishments compared to other countries, and it gets in the way of most extradition requests. I know here in Canada, we will refuse extradition of anybody to a country where it is believed they run the risk of a death penalty.

Anyway, people are always crying about how unfair it all seems, but the fact remains, piracy results in a loss of revenue in almost all cases, piracy is the loss of revenue for companies, it's not a loss of revenue by means of competition, it's a loss of revenue by means of actively using their products for your own gain. Piracy is theft.

It's not the small guys who get nailed, the guys who download music or the occasional movie, it's the people who are promoters that get nailed, and that's exactly what he was doing. Don't pretend that a maximum of 5 years imprisonment is unreasonable, that's about on par with any other theft case.

Completely agree here. You can't break laws in one country, then expect another country to shield you. At least not in the western hemisphere.

I know of a few guys who are homosexual, and of a few lesbians and others who are bi-sexual. They've just broken the law in Saudi Arabia. Its completely legal for them to be what they are in the country they live in and to carry out their activities in the country they live in, but according to your reasoning, they've now broken the law of Saudia Arabia and don't deserve their home nation's protection.

 

[n00beffect]

My goodness, how dare they?! This reminds me how much I despise authority, especially governments, ESPECIALLY the US one. It's run by complete morons, and the UK's is no different. Won't these old farts, and their sleezy proteges hit bucket already, so that some real genuine people be elected on their positions, and rule-out idiotic laws like this?

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

I like how they put "piracy" in quotations as if to imply he didn't do anything to do with piracy. He didn't put up the links himself, and some people will say that he's not guilty for that reason, but those people are also stupid.

He has provided a venue for piracy, and he doesn't have a very strong alibi. The whole premises of these sorts of websites is to view pirated material. It's not like some random uncontrolled thing you see with 4chan or even YouTube, this is a piracy hub, and he's running the show.

It's also incredibly flawed reasoning that your country should protect you from being prosecuted for crimes committed in other countries. Do people honestly think it's acceptable to blatantly break the law and cower behind a form of diplomatic immunity when the law catches up to you? Extradition cases are usually taken very seriously anyway, both parties must work together and determine whether or not there is even a real case before handing over one of their citizens.

Differences in standards of punishment also plays a huge factor, The States are usually known for having fairly harsh punishments compared to other countries, and it gets in the way of most extradition requests. I know here in Canada, we will refuse extradition of anybody to a country where it is believed they run the risk of a death penalty.

Anyway, people are always crying about how unfair it all seems, but the fact remains, piracy results in a loss of revenue in almost all cases, piracy is the loss of revenue for companies, it's not a loss of revenue by means of competition, it's a loss of revenue by means of actively using their products for your own gain. Piracy is theft.

It's not the small guys who get nailed, the guys who download music or the occasional movie, it's the people who are promoters that get nailed, and that's exactly what he was doing. Don't pretend that a maximum of 5 years imprisonment is unreasonable, that's about on par with any other theft case.

Completely agree here. You can't break laws in one country, then expect another country to shield you. At least not in the western hemisphere.

He is British. He broke no laws upon British soil. Yet the US can just demand he's sent over there because they're not happy with what he did.

 

[n00beffect]

It's also incredibly flawed reasoning that your country should protect you from being prosecuted for crimes committed in other countries. Do people honestly think it's acceptable to blatantly break the law and cower behind a form of diplomatic immunity when the law catches up to you?

You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you? First of all, a 'law' is not something universal - it's different for every country, especially in the case of the UK and the US, who use completely different judicial systems. So, he's not cowering behind some 'diplomatic immunity'; he ought to be cowering behind sheer common sense, when it comes to this, because they technically have no right to do that. Imagine if you break a Russian law over the net, and all of a sudden the KGB come knocking on your door, holding some bullshit deportation lease for you to be prosecuted in Moscow... Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Just because it's America, doesn't make it different from what I just gave you as an example, mind. I am not saying he should be given a free pass, or pardoned for that matter, all I am saying is, that he has the right to be prosecuted on his own soil, for f**ksake.

 

[Versuvius]

I like how they put "piracy" in quotations as if to imply he didn't do anything to do with piracy. He didn't put up the links himself, and some people will say that he's not guilty for that reason, but those people are also stupid.

He has provided a venue for piracy, and he doesn't have a very strong alibi. The whole premises of these sorts of websites is to view pirated material. It's not like some random uncontrolled thing you see with 4chan or even YouTube, this is a piracy hub, and he's running the show.

It's also incredibly flawed reasoning that your country should protect you from being prosecuted for crimes committed in other countries. Do people honestly think it's acceptable to blatantly break the law and cower behind a form of diplomatic immunity when the law catches up to you? Extradition cases are usually taken very seriously anyway, both parties must work together and determine whether or not there is even a real case before handing over one of their citizens.

Differences in standards of punishment also plays a huge factor, The States are usually known for having fairly harsh punishments compared to other countries, and it gets in the way of most extradition requests. I know here in Canada, we will refuse extradition of anybody to a country where it is believed they run the risk of a death penalty.

Anyway, people are always crying about how unfair it all seems, but the fact remains, piracy results in a loss of revenue in almost all cases, piracy is the loss of revenue for companies, it's not a loss of revenue by means of competition, it's a loss of revenue by means of actively using their products for your own gain. Piracy is theft.

It's not the small guys who get nailed, the guys who download music or the occasional movie, it's the people who are promoters that get nailed, and that's exactly what he was doing. Don't pretend that a maximum of 5 years imprisonment is unreasonable, that's about on par with any other theft case.

Completely agree here. You can't break laws in one country, then expect another country to shield you. At least not in the western hemisphere.

Your argument is invalid because it is not a crime in the UK. Your reasoning is that because in the US it is illegal their juridstriction extends outside their borders. It doesn't. I also disagree with the notion the US makes the rules for the rest of the globe. It doesn't and shouldn't. Oh yeah. And 5 years is unreasonable considering he is innocent. Not in the US but he doesn't live in the us. What is this about being unable to expect a country shield you? He fucking lives here! He is a british citizen not a US citizen. He should be shielded from the shit flinging monkeys who control the US. Except our government are also shit flinging monkeys who happen to get buggered every now and then by the congress chimps.

It's also incredibly flawed reasoning that your country should protect you from being prosecuted for crimes committed in other countries. Do people honestly think it's acceptable to blatantly break the law and cower behind a form of diplomatic immunity when the law catches up to you?

You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you? First of all, a 'law' is not something universal - it's different for every country, especially in the case of the UK and the US, who use completely different judicial systems. So, he's not cowering behind some 'diplomatic immunity'; he ought to be cowering behind sheer common sense, when it comes to this, because they technically have no right to do that. Imagine if you break a Russian law over the net, and all of a sudden the KGB come knocking on your door, holding some bullshit deportation lease for you to be prosecuted in Moscow... Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Just because it's America, doesn't make it different from what I just gave you as an example, mind. I am not saying he should be given a free pass, or pardoned for that matter, all I am saying is, that he has the right to be prosecuted on his own soil, for f**ksake.

HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG BY OUR LAWS EITHER. PROSECUTED FOR WHAT!?

 

[Fishyash]

I like how they put "piracy" in quotations as if to imply he didn't do anything to do with piracy. He didn't put up the links himself, and some people will say that he's not guilty for that reason, but those people are also stupid.

He has provided a venue for piracy, and he doesn't have a very strong alibi. The whole premises of these sorts of websites is to view pirated material. It's not like some random uncontrolled thing you see with 4chan or even YouTube, this is a piracy hub, and he's running the show.

To be honest... I don't see how that would be illegal (In the UK at least, where viacom doesn't dominate copyright laws) when this isn't.

What he did was immoral? Yeah. but plenty of people can do immoral things that don't break the law.

Justice (in the eyes of the law) implies someone actually commiting a crime, but he didn't. You know, if all governments thought this was okay to do, the pirate bay would have been gone a LONG time ago.

This is nothing short of a safe little test for the extradition treaty... a guinea pig experiment, if you will.

 

[estro_pajo]

What you may not know about this kid is that what he did is completely and 100% LEGAL in the UK. That's what started this shit-fest on the interwebz. He did something completely legal in the UK and yet...he's being extradited to the US for breaking their laws...
So explain to me again please. How is it that a British citizen, on British soil, can do an activity that his government has declared legal, and yet he can still be extradited to another country for breaking their laws?
Last I checked, the extradition treaty between the UK and US states that for someone to be extradited, they must have done something that is illegal in BOTH countries. Not just the one.

^^ THIS

Right on!

If the UK government will bend over for this one (oh yet again!) then good luck living on the Isles. While US can get a lot from UK just by looking at them firmly, this kind of bull**** would never fly on the continent.
Come good people, reason and sense are just on the other side of the Channel

 

[darthotaku]

ah, you see, there's his problem. he was going by British law, when of course American law is universal and applies to all people in every country. silly person, how didn't he know America ruled the world?

but seriously. this case should be getting international press and this guy should have an army of pissed off protesters rallying behind him.

 

[Durgiun]

You know, this shit reminds of Vampire- The Masquerade Bloodlines:

''All Vampires are members of the Camarilla, whether they like it or not.''

Now if only we had the equivalent of the Anarchs to go and kill the Camarilla leaders.

 

[LilithSlave]

This is just pure unjust tyranny. They aren't justified to do such a thing at all.

But then again, the whole of anti-piracy is unjustified. It's not really surprising to see anti-piracy stoop to such moral lows when it isn't morally justified to begin with.

 

[wintercoat]

-snip-

-snip-

Your argument is invalid because it is not a crime in the UK. Your reasoning is that because in the US it is illegal their juridstriction extends outside their borders. It doesn't. I also disagree with the notion the US makes the rules for the rest of the globe. It doesn't and shouldn't. Oh yeah. And 5 years is unreasonable considering he is innocent. Not in the US but he doesn't live in the us. What is this about being unable to expect a country shield you? He fucking lives here! He is a british citizen not a US citizen. He should be shielded from the shit flinging monkeys who control the US. Except our government are also shit flinging monkeys who happen to get buggered every now and then by the congress chimps.

-snip-

-snip-

HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG BY OUR LAWS EITHER. PROSECUTED FOR WHAT!?

He has, however, broken international copyright law. International laws supersede an individual country's laws. Otherwise the UN would be useless.

 

[Versuvius]

-snip-

-snip-

Your argument is invalid because it is not a crime in the UK. Your reasoning is that because in the US it is illegal their juridstriction extends outside their borders. It doesn't. I also disagree with the notion the US makes the rules for the rest of the globe. It doesn't and shouldn't. Oh yeah. And 5 years is unreasonable considering he is innocent. Not in the US but he doesn't live in the us. What is this about being unable to expect a country shield you? He fucking lives here! He is a british citizen not a US citizen. He should be shielded from the shit flinging monkeys who control the US. Except our government are also shit flinging monkeys who happen to get buggered every now and then by the congress chimps.

-snip-

-snip-

HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG BY OUR LAWS EITHER. PROSECUTED FOR WHAT!?

He has, however, broken international copyright law. International laws supersede an individual country's laws. Otherwise the UN would be useless.

No he hasn't. It isn't illegal to point to content either. Again it might be in the US but the US isn't international law. Google does the exact same. I google demonoid.me and lo and behold, there it is. We had better begin some legal dispute over Google. If google isn't persecuted this has no grounds either.

 

[Harper0341]

He may not have committed a crime according to British law, but he was committing a crime against American citizens(companies). THAT is why he is being extradited. If his site only profited off of British or European companies products it would be a different story.

And the "Pirate Bay" defense* is bullshit. He knew damn well that he was making money off of copyrighted material being shared through his site.


As much as I hate to say this, the entertainment industry is in the right to wanting to press charges against this guy. *BARF*




*The Pirate Bay Defense: "Well I'm not actually hosting the files, so I'm not doing anything wrong hur hur hur."

 

[Nurb]

Maybe you should be complaining about the corporate influences in your country manipulating the government to approve treaties that do this instead of making nationalist generalizations of others hmm? Your ISPs are the ones freely giving up this information too, which are owned by conservative billionares that are pro-censorship and pro-customer spying.

Most of the EU members supported ACTA... doesn't anyone remember that before SOPA started? People's own governments and businesses are screwing them over but the first thing they do is ***** about the US, which they're actually glad about because that means no one is paying attention enough to stop them.

I know it's instinct to shout "world police" over there, but think first and maybe you'd have better luck dealing with the real problem and take control away from business writing these treaties that do this in the first place

 

[CobraX]

Oh look America is playing at being the world police, how surprising.

The man should be tried by Britain's courts, not The USA's courts. It's wrong and should be stopped, but that's America, what are you gonna do?

This is a disgusting little story and I hope the poor fellow get's off easy. That said he did make a website that blatantly pointed people towards pirated material, so it's understandable why he is getting put on trial, he did make a website, whose whole purpose was to help people get their hands on Pirated material.