Presumably the yanks want to prosecute him in the US because he has committed no crime under Australian law. My understanding of copyright law in this country is that the copyright owners would have to take civil action against him, unless he has distributed pirated software for profit. Which doesn't appear to be the case. A problem for Microsft etc, given that he is pennyless.
So it appears to be a blatant attempt to force Australians to abide by draconian US copyright law.
A fucking outrage! I'm starting to comprehend why people take it into their heads to fly planes into American buildings.
http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2004/07/07/1089000229684.html
Accused web pirate back behind bars
Date: July 8 2004
By Leonie Lamont
An accused Australian internet pirate is back in a Sydney jail after the United States won the latest round in its landmark fight to have him extradited to face copyright charges.
Hew Raymond Griffiths, 41, of Bateau Bay, was arrested inside the Federal Court last night after the US won its appeal against an earlier decision to free him from jail. He was taken by Federal Police to Silverwater jail, where he had spent two months on remand earlier this year as he fought extradition.
Griffiths, whose online name was BanDiDo, is alleged by US justice agencies to have been the ringleader of an internet group, DrinkOrDie. Its members played a global game of one-upmanship with manufacturers, illegally cracking security codes and reproducing software, games and music worth $US50 million ($71.6 million).
It is not claimed that Griffiths, who is unemployed and lives with his father, made any money from the alleged piracy. After his arrest last night, his Legal Aid Commission lawyer, Antony Townsden, criticised Australian authorities.
"A number of people have been charged under British law and have been dealt with in their own country, and Mr Griffiths is the only one where extradition was sought. One has to ask whether we have abrogated our own responsibilities to properly deal with Mr Griffiths under Australian law."
Mr Townsden said the judgement would be examined, with an eye to an appeal.
Griffiths is making Australian legal history as the first extradition case under copyright law. If the extradition and a trial in the US go ahead, he faces a maximum 10-year sentence for copyright and conspiracy charges, and a fine of up to $500,000. Eleven DrinkOrDie members already have been convicted in the US.
The US had appealed against a decision by magistrate Daniel Reiss to release Griffiths from jail in March, after he found there was no extraditable offence. Justice Peter Jacobson said the magistrate had "misdirected" himself, possibly because he held the view that the alleged crimes had been committed in Australia - from Griffiths's home computer - when case law and the indictment showed it was committed in the US.
The US alleged Griffiths was one of the few who controlled access to the so-called drop site, located on a computer network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
While the US can now proceed on the extradition process, it was unsuccessful in its application that Griffiths pay its costs - estimated to be about $20,000.
"It is particularly invidious he should have to pay the USA's costs when the USA is seeking to incarcerate him," Cameron Moore, for Griffiths, argued.
Griffiths will be back before Mr Reiss within days.