Judge bothered about Aussie pirate extradition

According to Associated Press, NSW Chief Judge in Equity, Peter Young is worried that the extradition of Hew Griffiths sets a dangerous precedent.

It is not that he is not guilty, even Griffiths admits he was a pirate, it is the fact that he is being tried and sentenced in the US rather than Australia.

Griffiths committed his crimes in Oz, and has never been to the US in his life. Yet instead of hauling him before an Australian beak, the US authorities used the extradition process.

Justice Young says that while international copyright violations were a great problem, a person should not be removed from their homeland to a foreign country merely because the commercial interests of that foreign country are claimed to have been affected by the person's behaviour in Australia.

It is a method that the US could use to impose its legal system over another country, he said.

Technically, Griffith's extradition was legal under the Australian law and it was really up to the Australian government to use its powers to force the US to mount a case within its own homeland.

Justice Young described as "bizarre" the fact that "people were being extradited to the US to face criminal charges when they have never been to the US and the alleged act occurred wholly outside the US".

It means that any Australian who has pirated software worth more than $US1000 could be subject to the same extradition process as Griffiths was.

Justice Young said that the Commonwealth Parliament must do more to protect Australians from this procedure. More here. µ