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from the we-just-want-to-make-sure-he-gets-a-fair-trial dept.
Lauri Love[*], in the UK, is facing extradition requests from three separate US court districts and a potential 99 year prison sentence for his alleged involvement in the online protests that followed the death of Aaron Swartz. Depsite no evidence offered by the US, the British courts have preliminarily agreed to extradition and his appeal will be on the 28th and 29th of November. Again, no evidence has been presented against him, but if he were tried in the UK he would be facing a maximum of 32 months in prison, not 99 years as the US is aiming for.
[*] According to Wikipedia's entry for Lauri Love:
Lauri Love is a Finnish-British activist charged extraterritorially with stealing data from United States Government computers including the US Army, Missile Defense Agency, and NASA via computer intrusion.
Previously: Lauri Love to be Extradited to the U.S.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @04:05PM (7 children)
Don't commit crimes in the US and you don't have to worry about our courts. We're hardly the only country that has stiff punishments for some crimes.
If you think that breaking into government computers shouldn't result in a stiff penalty, then I recommend you stay wherever you are, because the US is hardly the only country to do that. We're not even the most strict in that regard.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @04:11PM (3 children)
He wasn't in the US.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aiwarrior on Tuesday November 28 2017, @05:11PM
This is exactly the point of this article. You do not have to be in the US to break it's laws. This person organized protests for God's sake. Of course I do not consider purposefully breaking the laws of any country, even if I do not agree with them, otherwise I would not go there in the first place. In Roman be a Roman!
The problem with the US the penalties are so high that if the justice system fails [1] or if for some reason i am the wrong person in wrong time and place I can be just be apprehended and have my charges presented afterwards[2].
The problem with such a draconian justice system is that it's based on pure retribution almost like biblical/sharia justice. What good is a good constitution like the American one, when it's justice system deals punishment like in 1 BC?
Tangentially on topic: I have been taking an interest in natural language processing and I saw an analysis of speeches by US presidents. The word "America" was almost irrelevant in the early days of the Republic only becoming highly frequent recently. The "Freedom" word followed the same pattern. To me this sounds like populist propaganda is infecting America's minds at an alarming rate. On the other hand "duties" died. It seems "freedom" and "democracy" and "america" are all there is now.
[1] see the news of a California man who served 39 years. He had no prior criminal history. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-pardon/after-dna-test-california-man-freed-from-prison-in-1978-double-murder-idUSKBN1DN1XK [reuters.com]
[2] VW executives (I do not stand to defend their actions
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @08:45PM (1 child)
The crime he committed was in the US, so you haven't exactly got a leg to stand on. Requiring foreign courts to prosecute computer crimes committed against computers in a country makes it incredibly hard to prosecute as most foreign countries don't have much investment in seeing that justice is carried out.
It's been a problem with the Russians, North Koreans and Chinese for years. They turn a blind eye as long as the crimes are committed abroad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @09:02AM
Just like the west turns a blind eyes to crimes committed against prophets in the middle east.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 28 2017, @05:32PM (2 children)
"then I recommend you stay wherever you are,"
But, the character in TFS and TFA actually DID stay wherever he was.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday November 28 2017, @08:20PM (1 child)
"If you don't come to Lagardère, Lagardère will come to you!"
The US claims jurisdiction over the whole world, and the right to punish anyone that displeases it, regardless of local sensitivities.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday November 29 2017, @11:07AM
Or the US version, "Si tu ne viens pas à Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut ira à toi!".