[Infowarrior] - more on ... Is BitTorrent Done? Major Torrent Sites Consider Shutting Down

[Richard Forno]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: George 
> Date: February 7, 2012 6:42:50 PM EST
> To: rforno at infowarrior.org
> Subject: Re: [Infowarrior] - Is BitTorrent Done? Major Torrent Sites Consider Shutting Down
> 
> 
> On 2/7/2012 12:55 PM, Richard Forno wrote:
> ...
>> The fact that a German citizen can be arrested in New Zealand upon request from the US authorities signaled that regardless of local laws, people connected to file-sharing sites have become a global target.
> ...
> 
> The increasing abuse of universal jurisdiction by the USA is a trend I have been concerned with for some time. The first case I'm aware of was in regards to the extradition of an Australian citizen who'd never set foot in the US over copyright infringement several years ago of an Australian citizen who had never set foot in the US, which was the first case of it kind.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hew_Raymond_Griffiths
> 
> http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/advice-from-a-convicted-file-sharer-give-up-and-go-to-us-20120117-1q4r4.html
> 
> There are now a number of other cases similar to this involving foreign citizens being extradited to the US over copyright infringement issues despite the fact that they never set foot in the USA, including the Megaupload case, and several cases in the UK (Richard O'Dwyer. etc.)
> 
> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120113/09184917400/us-to-extradite-uk-student-copyright-infringement-despite-site-being-legal-uk.shtml
> 
> The scary thing about this is that for the most part these cases are really a matter for civil law, not criminal law, and in any case involve only economic damage. There is nothing stopping the copyright owners from prosecuting foreign citizens in their own countries - why should foreign countries allow their citizens to be extradited to the US when they have never set foot in the US.
> 
> Even more to the point what will happen when one of the EU countries demands the extradition of some hapless US citizen for something they post on their blog? Don't know how you feel about this but thought I would vent a little, and if you see fit find some way to highlight the issue - I don't think it's getting enough coverage or thought.
> 
> --George



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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.