Aussie software pirate extradited to the USA because enough people downloaded software cracked by him and his cohorts that, had every single copied program been sold would have generated retail revenue of $US50 million.

In a fun aside, the article points out that anyone accused of pirating software worth more than USD$1000 could also be extradited.

Now I don’t know about you, but every time I’ve seen commercial software cracked it’s so that it could be used as shareware – try before you buy. Which I see as a perfectly reasonable thing to do, given the returnability and fitness-for-purpose clauses within commercial software – i.e. if it sets fire to your house, it’s your problem not ours. So testing before dropping hundreds of dollars on something seems sane. And those who would steal the software rather than test it were never going to buy it in the first place, even if it was impossible to pirate software. I really don’t see what the problem is.

In the meantime, the USA is the only country which voted against a resolution for an arms trade treaty to control the proliferation of small arms in areas of conflict.

I think the places that copyright law is taking us will lead to an uprising. This is getting ridiculous.