Jimmy Wales Calls UK Government To Halt O'Dwyer Extradition 94
judgecorp writes "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has called on the UK government to stop the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer. O'Dwyer was accused of infringing copyright with his site TVShack, but charges were dismissed in the UK. Wales has set up a petition and calls this the start of a new 'Internet war' following the successful opposition to SOPA earlier this year."
worrying use of extraditionb laws (Score:4, Interesting)
Traditionally, extradition laws were clear. You kill someone, flee the country and that country asks for you to be returned. As long as what you did is a crime in both jurisdictions, you get returned. Slightly more complicated: you stand near the border and shoot someone across the border; here, I think, most people would agree with extradition, even though you weren't in the target country when the crime was committed.
Now what we have is , someone not resident in country X, sets up a web site not hosted in country X, but because some users access it from country X, country X has the right to extradite you, even if the country you reside in doesn't think a crime has been committed. So, should a US-hosted site that (amongst other things) sells Nazi memorabilia, have its operators extradited to Germany? Etc.
john perry barlow quote (Score:4, Interesting)
"The DeCSS case is almost certainly a harbinger of what I would consider to be the defining battle of censorship in cyberspace. In my opinion, this will not be fought over pornography, neo-Nazism, bomb design, blasphemy, or political dissent. Instead, the Armageddon of digital control, the real death match between the Party of the Past and Party of the Future, will be fought over copyright."
John Perry Barlow, http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/1000/barlow.html
Re:Extradition? WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
due to the borderless nature of the internet, what this guy does in the UK most certainly has an impact on the media business in the USA
this is not a statement in support of this bullshit extradition, this is to point out how utterly fucked american IP law is in the modern world, eventually
because you would have to constantly extradite citizens of other countries to the USA to continue the existence of this rent seeking parasitical media business
obviously, the idea that you are extraditing people from other countries for this "horrible crime" should rise to the level of such moral stink that there is no way this can continue... were it not for the media corporations greasing the palms of enough legislative whores and executive enforcement goons
i'm not one to give up the game so easily, as some cynical cowards are when it comes to the wholesale purchase of our government by corporations. no, the game is not over. yes, you can defeat the corruption of our government: with enough people caring and not just throwing up their hands at news like this
we the people still matter, so let us fight the good fight and raise the proper moral stink our corrupt, compromised conflicted government cannot
I object, your honor (Score:5, Interesting)
It's unbelievable. I object to this crap on so many different levels:
First, nations have little control over the laws in other nations. The UK, for instance, has scant control over the insane copyright laws in the US. But they are considering extraditing one of their citizens to the US for allegedly breaking those laws. What if some other country makes it illegal to look at an image of a woman with an uncovered face? Will the US extradite me to that nation for breaking their "laws"? Where does it end?
Second, it's old news that copyright and patent laws in the US have long strayed past their constitutional purpose. In fact, at this point, it's well established that the laws actually act counter to, rather than in support of, the intent of Article 1, section 8. How much longer will we blindly assent to this?
Lastly, we are in a bad economy, and the government is flailing for resources. Especially in that situation, I don't want them spending my tax dollars to extradite and prosecute someone for breaking stupid laws on behalf of tainted, greedy and evil corporations. There are much better ways to use our Justice Dept. monies.
Really, stop the madness. It's gotten so bad I don't even know where to begin working to make it better. I suppose a donation to the EFF is a good start.