Extradition of Warez Suspect Blocked

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on an earlier Slashdot story, the extradition of alleged DrinkorDie leader Hew Raymond Griffiths has been denied. The judge in the case ruled that Griffiths, an Australian who had never set foot in the United States, had committed the alleged actions in Australia and had never fled from an extradition country. Therefore, the US hadn't made its case. Griffiths' attorney points out that he should have faced trial in Australia if anywhere, but .au authorities never charged him, which upset the DOJ and led to the extradition attempt. More info can also be found. The US (represented by Australian prosecutors) have fifteen days to appeal. One wonders how the US government would react if a foreign nation tried a similar approach."

Comments

Thats a new twist

[boogy nightmare]

Getting the criminals OUT of Aussie...

Damn it we tried very hard to get them all in there :)

Re:Thats a new twist

[rishistar]

The country would be Oz (as in Wizard of).

The people are Aussies - not Ozzies.....which would make a nation of ex-heavy metal rockers who did too many drugs in their youth and now walk around not quite sure whats really going on in the world who would still vote John Howard as premier.

For real hardcore nerds you can add Oz to the list off programming languages you have heard about but never delved into.

Re:Thats a new twist

[mabinogi]

Actually, New Zealanders as a whole are far more likely to use the full word. We don't tend to go as overboard as Australians when it comes to abbreviations and acronyms.
Until moving to Australia, I never believed it possible that anyone would abbreviate so many words and names by taking the first syllable (or sometimes just the first letter) and adding "o" "ie" or "az" (or "azza") to the end....
Arvo, Servo, Garbo, Presie, Daz(za), Shaz(za), Baz(za), Jez, etc...

Though I think you're probabbly right about Aussie though...

Re:Thats a new twist

[Snaller]

Can America be referred to as Yankee?

No no, we refer to America as the Axel Grease of Evil.

Re:Thats a new twist

[NotZed]

oh they're not in heaven. Remember, if you're not a god-fearing christian, you're headed to hell for eternal damnation!

Re:Thats a new twist

[c1ay]

Can we get Darl extradited to Finland for trying to steal Linus' code?

Reaction

[piquadratCH]

One wonders how the US government would react if a foreign nation tried a similar approach. Invade it? Ofcourse only if said country sits on shitloads of oil.

Don't speak such thoughts aloud

[Raul654]

Or they'll give you the boot

Re:Don't speak such thoughts aloud

[boogy nightmare]

Just dont take any frogs with you :)

Didn't Iran try that?

[wirefarm]

I remember hearing that during the 1980's, Iran's government officially tried to extradite Madonna and Michael Jackson so that they could be put to death on obscenity charges.

Google is not proving helpful in finding any references to this at the moment...

Re:Didn't Iran try that?

[Zog The Undeniable]

Finally, a good reason to become a hardline Islamic fundamentalist!

Re:Favourite Quote

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe the phrase is "Hear! Hear!"

OT Re:Favourite Quote

[notamac]

It's late... it's Friday... I'm still at work
My apologies for an such an awful abuse of the English language. Possibly the first for Slashdot I suspect.

Clearly a plot by terrorists

[Anonymous Coward]

This is clearly a plot by terrorists to undermine the western IT industry.

We, the USA, must vigorously defend ourselves against this outrageous act of terrorism by sending our troops over to liberate the good people of Australia currently being held hostage by these cyber terrorists who are allegedly tied to the radical Al Quesa Dia sect of Muslims known for promising 72 tacos in heaven to their starving martyrs.

What makes these terrorist particularly dangerous is that the good people of Australia don't yet realize they are being held hostage. But fear not, we will establish a truly fair and balanced news media led by Fox News to help educate their population.

And in the unlikely event that we damage critical infrastructure, our highly experienced nation-building corporations such as Halliburton will send the most expensive engineers over to help rebuild the country--the cost which our patriotic and God-fearing middle class is more than happy to bear for the sake of freedom.

Re:Clearly a plot by terrorists

[Wild Wizard]

But fear not, we will establish a truly fair and balanced news media led by Fox News to help educate their population.

er we already own Fox, you'll find more info at their AGM's held in Adelaide, South Australia.

We Australians enjoy our control over your country while we use the media to spread the propaganda that you control us.

Damn, that's news

[ehintz]

The bloody Aussie government didn't immediately assume the position in negotiations with the US. Is Howard growing scrotum? Backing off from consistent kissing of Bush's posterior area? Enquiring minds want to know.

Re:Damn, that's news

[VirtualWolf]

No, see, Howard was so far up Bush's ass, they have to pull him out first. ;)

Re:Damn, that's news

[Psiren]

He can probably see Blair's shoes then.

Re:Foreign Nation?!

[tfinniga]

While my parents were on vacation in London, they overheard another guy at the hotel desk trying to check in. He was pretty upset that they weren't taking his American Dollars.

Before he stomped off, he asked "Is it going to be like this everywhere I go around here?!?"

One can only hope he gave up vacationing anywhere more exotic than Niagara Falls.

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

In other news, US President George W. Bush announces that Australia is now a part of the Axis of Evil. "We would not tolerate nations harboring these terrorist pirates. We would like to send our forces to help liberate Australia of these terrorist pirates, especially that they're harboring these WMDs (Warez of Mass Destruction)!"

all we need?

[DanThe1Man]

So, to safely trade W4R3Z, all us Americans need is a proxy server in Australia?

How they'd react?

[dave420]

Napalm.

bandido "cannot" be busted

[shiburzi]

http://www.defacto2.net/apollo-x/bandido.htm

[biXen] : Have you ever been close to getting busted or anything like that ? Any incidents with members or something ? [BanDiDo] : I cannot be busted, I have no warez here... And it is not a crime to be in a group.

Isn't that entering part of the US

[maroberts]

Isn't Disneyland US territory, in the same way embassy grounds are?

Re:Funny you should say that

[CountBrass]

No but we'd probably be willing to consider letting the North American Colonies back into the British Empire- as long as they ask nicely and promise not to throw any more tea into the harbour. Oh and spell words (eg colour, armour, specialise and centre) correctly.

Think about the advantages: You get a Royal Family of your very own and no more George Dubblyah Bush. You do however get Tony "I am the Law" Bliar as your Prime Minister. Hmm.

On second thoughts maybe you guys wouldn't be any better off after all.

A similar but funnier account

[SpaghettiPattern]

I know of a hotel owner (owner, resort and country shall remain unnamed) with a reputation of being a prankster, that used to ask his American guests when leaving whether they had a stamp of the resort in their passports. Most of his guests answered with the innocent/naive "No, we didn't get one when we passed customs." Whereupon he kindly offered and actually succeeded in providing one. After a couple of months he received an official letter from the US embassy where he was asked to stop his actions otherwise they'd send in the US navy. What better statement of your whit would you like?

Please I'd like to be modded down as insulting to the US of A.

Re:Foreign Nation?!

[CountBrass]

Hehe I have another flamebait "bigoted yankees" tale to tell you. But hey I have plenty of spare Karma to burn so I'll post it :-P

Was staying in a nice hotel near Marble Arch (posh-ish area of London at the top-end of Mayfair). Walking up the stairs I notice a practically round guy standing smack bang in the middle of the top of the stairs. So I stepped past him and through his beachball family. He comes out with this inciteful comment: "If it hadn't been for us you'd all be speaking German." Well ignoring the fact that a) he was far to fat ever to fought anything and b) too young I turned around and said:

"Ich kann Deutsch sprechen. Fuckwit".

You should have heard the rant :-)

Bit of shock at the time, my first encounter with a redneck, especially as most of the Yanks I'd dealt with before were the complete opposite (they would be shocked if I used "Damn" in a meeting).

Re:Well, I hate to say it...

[escallywag]

So what's keeping you then?

There are a couple of reasons that could start a massive public uprising in the US :

• Gas prices rise to a realistic level that reflects the costs of fossil fuel and global supply and demand => Hence the Iraqi oil grab to delay the inevitable for a couple of years.

• All TV networks suddenly go down.

• Sudden Collapse of the "World" Wrestling Federation

• Janet Jackson flashes her pussy on national TV

• US government suddenly is bereft of "The Enemy" and there's not enough time to create another one.

Re:source, please?

[CritterNYC]

wasn't it agreed between the parties to not use 9/11 as a political springboard during re-election?

Source, please.

You're new here, aren't you?

One Word.

[El_Ge_Ex]

One wonders how the US government would react if a foreign nation tried a similar approach.

France

Just ask Roman Polanski, who fled there to avoid statutory rape charges.

Re:source, please?

[Ec|ipse]

New?!
heh, I must be ancient. :)

Re:What's really funny is

[subtropolis]

During the negotiations (over the reparations, settling of borders, etc. of the various European nations) between Britain, US, France, and Italy after the first world war, much of the treaty for Austria was copied verbatim from that for Germany. Consequently, the Austrians were amazed to find that they were forbidden from having any submarines.