AfterDawn: News

Australian pirate to be extradited to the United States

A ground-breaking ruling against an Australian man accused of pirating software, games and music worth over $50 million should have all pirates in the world scared. Hew Raymond Griffiths who went by the online name BanDiDo, has never been to the United States but will be tried in a U.S. court after the U.S. won the battle to extradite him. First time around, an Australian magistrate denied the extradition request but after an appeal the U.S. won the right to try Griffiths. Senior associate at Auckland's Simpson Grierson, Mark Kelly, said that this decision will go down in history, as it means that people accused of piracy in one country could be brought to justice in another under extradition law.

Griffiths is accused of being the ring leader of an Internet Release Group called DrinkOrDie. The group allegedly worked from a computer network at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, there are no allegations that Griffiths made any money from his activities. Eleven members of DrinkOrDie have already been convicted in the United States. Griffith’s infringements all took place on his home computer in Australia, if the extradition and trial go ahead; he is facing up to 10 years in an American prison and a possible fine of $500,000.



This case is very controversial. Why would being accused of piracy allow the U.S. to try you there? If anything its more evidence that the U.S. think they can control the Internet completely under their laws, would it not be fair that Griffith is brought to justice in his own country under his own laws?

Source:
New Zealand News

Written by: James Delahunty @ 7 Sep 2004 6:46

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• 8 comments

• gozilla

  what next? are the F.B.I gonna start knocking our doors down and arresting us for using P2P software??
  geeez is this Australian government ever gonna stand up to one if its citizens.
  BanDiDo has obviously broken the law and should be prosecuted in australia, as we do have very stick anti-piracy laws as well.

  8.9.2004 00:44 #1

• hughie22

  the fellow broke the law and got caught,but he should be tried in his country.but this is tipical yanks they
  want to own every thing and every body,i think most of the world is getting a bit pissed off with them.

  12.9.2004 23:46 #2

• thor999

  hughie don't be a moron. This is not the United Stayes backing these actions, simply the endless cash flow of a fairly-well embedded industry. Most of us could care less about some Australian guy that pirates copyrighted material, we want osama bin laden and his punkass little beheading-silly terrorist buddies... say what you want about the political aspects of our invasion of iraq, go check out o'grish.com and check out some of the atrocities those people won't have to face on a daily basis anymore. My ex-girlfriend is from there, and she could not visit there because she would get food poisoning as a direct result of saddam's continuing poewr (un sanctions and what not) I'm tired of americans getting badmouthed and called names so often on this site. its almost racist, and at least very stereotypical, which is as always at best offensive. Will agree with you on the fact that corporate greed is becoming a serious problem here, but that can happen in any country, with potential. At least we can vote on these things, and oppression for our country NEVER lasts more than four years. Also keep in mind our doors have been open for over two hundred years now, we're not exactly saxons anymore. So blow.
  

  ...and the dead shall walk the earth...

  13.9.2004 02:00 #3

• domie

  Quote:"At least we can vote on these things,"yup and we all know how democratically fair your presidential elections are ;)
  Quote:"its almost racist"i think you mean xenophobic
  Quote:"oppression for our country NEVER lasts more than four years."tell that to a red-indian (native american)and anyway, the bush dynasty is 8 years and counting AFAIK.
  
  Not trying to dish the states, i like the place, just correcting your mistakes and that's the problem. When other countries decide to interfere internationally they are "the evil empire" yet when the US does it they are "freedome fighters" and "saviours of the world" just doesn't seem right from a NEUTRAL point of view.
  
  Hey, this topic is now way off-track..rewind ?
  

  13.9.2004 02:33 #4

• dufas

  --------------------------------------------------
  When other countries decide to interfere internationally they are "the evil empire" yet when the US does it they are "freedome fighters" and "saviours of the world" just doesn't seem right from a NEUTRAL point of view.
  --------------------------------------------------
  
  And yet when the US does nothing to assist another country, everyone will scream foul...That awful country never does anything.....
  
  The NEUTRAL points of view will always stick the US no matter what the country does

  13.9.2004 09:33 #5

• hughie22

  the griffiths mob went overboard in there pirating of software and should be brought to account but not in this fashion.the evidence should be turned over to that countrys authoritys and let them deal with it.the big american corporations seem to be all to powerfull when this sort off thing is allowed to happen.smells a bit of big brother.the average hard working american is a top bloke i have worked with a few of them in my life time and enjoyed nowing them,but the griffiths thing enforces the world perception that the americans can do any thing they please be it good or bad and i will be the first to say the yanks do a tremendice amount of good but there is a line.ps hands up who hasnt got any thing on there computer that is not illegale?

  13.9.2004 14:12 #6

• banjobill

  Hughie, You are painting all Americans with the same brush. The fact that Hollywood and the recording industry is all Jewish-owned and the fact that America is in Iraq to protect Israel, should tell you who is behind American actions. We Americans could care less about either movie pirates or Muslim maniacs. But since the Jews control both the entertainment industry and our Congress and have managed to put this country into a huge banking debt, our spineless politicians dance to the Jewish tune.

  14.9.2004 14:42 #7

• Pop_Smith

  well well, this is interesting, the MOMENT he steps on to US soil he will be granted a bunch of stuff that the goverment is too stupid to rememeber. I think that was the dumbest move they could have made.

  20.10.2004 13:31 #8