Extradition

• Author: International Law Group

On March 12, 2003, a federal grand jury sitting in Virginia indicted Hew Raymond Griffiths (appellant) having a screen name of "Bandido," with conspiring to engage in, and to have in fact engaged in, internet software piracy in the United States in violation of its federal criminal copyright laws. The infringed items included copyrighted software, computer games and movies.

The violations consisted of their reproduction and distribution over the Internet, during 2000-2001, of at least ten (10) or more copies of one or more of the copyrighted works having a total estimated retail value of many millions of dollars. The criminal organization had about 60 members and called itself "Drink or Die" (DOD).

The American authorities have asked for his extradition from Australia under the Extradition Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act). Although the U.S. has alleged that appellant has been committing these offenses in the United States, at all pertinent times appellant was residing in Australia. Requesting his extradition under the Extradition Act of 1988 (Cth) (the Act), the U. S. filed an affidavit that described the investigations leading to the charging of appellant, the grand jury's indictment and the charged offenses together with their elements and the evidence supporting them.

A magistrate sitting in New South Wales ruled that, pursuant to Section 19(10) of the Act, appellant was not eligible for surrender. In review proceedings under Section 21 of the Act, a judge of the Federal Court in Sydney held to the contrary.

Appellant appealed. Although he raised, inter alia, several issues about the sufficiency of the supporting documents, the more novel ground of appeal lies in the question of whether the U.S. request has satisfied the "dual criminality" demands of Section 19 (2)(c) of the Act. The Federal Court of Appeal, in a per curiam opinion, dismisses the appeal and holds that the appellant is eligible for surrender in relation to both extradition offenses.

DOD members began their pirating with the work of "suppliers" who upload new software on to DOD's "drop site" before the manufacturers' public release date. (The U.S. describes the drop site as a secure computer site hosted by a DOD member on the computer network of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.) Other DOD members known as "crackers" would then remove the software from the drop site and use their skills to "crack" the software's embedded copyright protection. Next "testers"...