Well we already know that America is pretty much becoming world police that's nothing new. But when I read this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2087574/Richard-ODwyer-extradition-A-naive-British-student-facing-10-years-chains.html it made me slightly angry. Only because it seems that America can do what the hell it wants and my country (Britain) won't stand up for itself and will happily be Americas poodle.

If you don't know what I am on about I am on about Richard O'dwyer who basically profited from a making a website that hosted links to piracy material. Now the link explains it better but basically Google does the exact same thing yet a British citizen is being extradited and charged with crimes that are actually not crimes in his own country. But of course America isn't gonna charge a billion dollar company like Google are they.

Anyway what're your thoughts on this matter?

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First of all, I agree that double standards aren't fair. I don't see an exact similarity between the Google case and this one, but I agree that it bears examination.

Secondly, this issue is complicated. This is a British citizen whose actions encroached on the property of what I can only assume to be American companies. The unfortunate thing about our laws in the US is that our Corporations are people, thanks the the mind-numbingly stupid decision in Citizens United.

So, as per our laws, this is a foreign national stealing from a US "citizen."

This is a combination of bad laws and poor interpretation of good laws meeting in a very strange way.

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Not to mention US copyrights are made to be international. Not all countries honor them, but unfortunately for Richard O'dwyer, Britain does.

That said, I think it's WAY over-kill to deport the little crook and throw him into a high-security American prison. Just shut down his site and be done with it, for fucks sake. Or slap 'im with a little fine if you must. Forced deportation and imprisonment seems a bit much.

Quote from TheShawn

First of all, I agree that double standards aren't fair. I don't see an exact similarity between the Google case and this one, but I agree that it bears examination.

Secondly, this issue is complicated. This is a British citizen whose actions encroached on the property of what I can only assume to be American companies. The unfortunate thing about our laws in the US is that our Corporations are people, thanks the the mind-numbingly stupid decision in Citizens United.

So, as per our laws, this is a foreign national stealing from a US "citizen."

This is a combination of bad laws and poor interpretation of good laws meeting in a very strange way.

Well look at it this way Google the search engine hosts links to websites does it not? And some of those websites are illegal pirated websites. Now what is the diffrence between Ryan O'dwyer website hosting links on his website and getting money off the advertising?

I mean to me it's also shows how it's one rule for big corporations and and another for the smaller ones. I am probably being a little extreme in some cases but it has to stop.

Edit: Sorry might of sounded like I am getting to you or something haha just saying the simularities of the cases.

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Quote from TheShawn

First of all, I agree that double standards aren't fair. I don't see an exact similarity between the Google case and this one, but I agree that it bears examination.

Secondly, this issue is complicated. This is a British citizen whose actions encroached on the property of what I can only assume to be American companies. The unfortunate thing about our laws in the US is that our Corporations are people, thanks the the mind-numbingly stupid decision in Citizens United.

So, as per our laws, this is a foreign national stealing from a US "citizen."

This is a combination of bad laws and poor interpretation of good laws meeting in a very strange way.

I agree that citizens united had a totally insane ruling, but you're a little off. Corporations are allowed to act as "persons" in very specific legal contexts in order to protect their own best interests, which isn't quite the same thing. The logic in citizens united is that free speech is authorized because a corporation has interests, even if it's only a theoretical entity. On the other hand it's not as though you're stealing from a US citizen because corporations aren't, even in our current state of absurdity, entitled to all of the same rights. A corporation can't plead the fifth, for instance, and you can't prosecute- apologies for channeling Colbert- a person for 'murdering' a corporation.

This is basically legal, as per my own understanding, because the UK allows it to be legal. They don't have to comply, but they choose to in order to maintain good relations with the US. They're both SC countries, after all. Britain has more sway than, say, Zimbabwe would in a similar case because they have veto power if things were to accelerate and create UN drama.

The reality is that pretty much any SC country can do whatever it wants, to a certain extent. The international system is not only highly flawed, but inherently irreparable because the people who have power are never going to willingly vote to give it up, and according to the UN charter, that's the only way it could ever happen.

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lol i thought the south park guys were going to make a new movie. and ya america should not overstep their borders and they should not subsidize britian and the rest of the world through nato and other international organizations of which they are the main contributors

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Quote from TheShawn

First of all, I agree that double standards aren't fair. I don't see an exact similarity between the Google case and this one, but I agree that it bears examination.

Secondly, this issue is complicated. This is a British citizen whose actions encroached on the property of what I can only assume to be American companies. The unfortunate thing about our laws in the US is that our Corporations are people, thanks the the mind-numbingly stupid decision in Citizens United.

So, as per our laws, this is a foreign national stealing from a US "citizen."

This is a combination of bad laws and poor interpretation of good laws meeting in a very strange way.

I agree that citizens united had a totally insane ruling, but you're a little off. Corporations are allowed to act as "persons" in very specific legal contexts in order to protect their own best interests, which isn't quite the same thing. The logic in citizens united is that free speech is authorized because a corporation has interests, even if it's only a theoretical entity. On the other hand it's not as though you're stealing from a US citizen because corporations aren't, even in our current state of absurdity, entitled to all of the same rights. A corporation can't plead the fifth, for instance, and you can't prosecute- apologies for channeling Colbert- a person for 'murdering' a corporation.

This is basically legal, as per my own understanding, because the UK allows it to be legal. They don't have to comply, but they choose to in order to maintain good relations with the US. They're both SC countries, after all. Britain has more sway than, say, Zimbabwe would in a similar case because they have veto power if things were to accelerate and create UN drama.

The reality is that pretty much any SC country can do whatever it wants, to a certain extent. The international system is not only highly flawed, but inherently irreparable because the people who have power are never going to willingly vote to give it up, and according to the UN charter, that's the only way it could ever happen.

Now that I've taken a look at the exact reading of the ruling, I see that I've been mistaken about its extent.

My apologies. My studies have so far only extended to contract law, and I was inexcusably ignorant in this case.

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I wanna apologize in advance if my following words are offending to certain individuals/groups.
This is 'MY' opinion and my experienes and isn't compeletly based on facts whatsoever.
Your free of course to disagree.

I sincerely despise everything where America stands for...
From the moment I got self awareness I've seen America playing 'world cop' trying to spread their influence like it's some kind of crusade... It seems they find it their right to meddle in matters concerning other countries. Without the countries wanting/asking for assistance. Just let them solve it and just stay behind the sidelines and fullfill ur role as a oberserving party. Does it seem that the country isn't able to handle or take care of the problem themselves, then you can try to negotiate with other countries/allies what the best solution should be (of course involving the country itself). But don't go around making deccisions on your own by the least bit of trouble.

Also (I'll call it American) propaganda and nationalism are being taken to the extreme. Some good examples are the hollywood produced films/movies. With an average of displaying an American flag every 20 minutes in a movie, fictional superheroes even having the name and colours of the country (guess who I'm refering to?!), and the over the top cliche I call American sentiment with Opera and Dr phil topping the charts. The people really making a difference for society/people are most of the time regular people who don't walk/talk/show off about helping others but they take pleasure/happiness by doing so. And they certainly don't make a show about it, these are the people I respect most in my life.

Further minor points that caught my attention are: (most) Americans are unable to speak any other language than english and have no clue whatsoever where certain countries are and what's goin beyond their own borders. Their lack of interest in other people/cultures makes them being hated. They should drop the whole "I shoot first and ask questions later". The lack of a historie shloudn't be reflected on other countries. Let's face it America is what?! circa 300 years old?! It's just a like a newborn child only relatively big. It's still green only is hard to keep calm/peaceful because of it's size.

Well I'll stop with this.
I'm from The Netherlands ( That's western Europe ).
No I don't hate America I'm just against almost everything it stands for.
And yes America also brought us alot of wonderfull things.
It's a beautiful country.

Yours Truly,
The Steed.

P.S. The Steed has gone political...

He who hides the truth with lies,
Will only be left with his inner cries.

Sincerely Yours,
The Steed

Remember... America's not the UNITED STATES... thats where the wrong starts...

Quote from aagcnet

Remember... America's not the UNITED STATES... thats where the wrong starts...

While in principle I agree with you (the USA shouldn't be treated as the sole proprietor of the far west), the country isn't "the United States" it's "The United States of America." There's no reason that there couldn't, and I'm speaking purely hypothetically, but a "United States of China" from a semantic standpoint. "America" isn't anywhere, we have a place called North America and a place called South America (and Central America if you want to be technical) but you rarely talk about the entirety as a single unit, while using a shorthand for a powerful country with an annoyingly long name seems to be commonplace.

If you're going to argue semantics, think a little bit about what you're saying first. It's a technical complaint that conveniently ignores a few other technicalities. Ultimately meaningless.

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Im American, and i dont agree with lot of things it stands for and does.

my primary thing is america needs to stop acting like world cop, we need to fix our own problem first before trying to help others...or sometimes hurting them...

this is my point of view...and i think im patriotic (and i love the Patriots) and i like america, it gave my family opportunity at a better life but that does not mean i hav to blindly agree to everything.

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Quote from aagcnet

Remember... America's not the UNITED STATES... thats where the wrong starts... Noted! but an inhabitant of the US is called an American right?! Correct me if I'm wrong. Topic name is "America world police". So everyone knows I'm mainly pointing my finger towards the US (as does the topic creator imo). To keep things from getting hard to track I chose to keep it like this. But I'm seeing this is backfiring. And might not be completely logical.
My apologies.

Yours Truly,
The Steed.

P.S. Send from my Samsung Galaxy

He who hides the truth with lies,
Will only be left with his inner cries.

Sincerely Yours,
The Steed

Well, The Steed, I just ask that you remember that nearly all of our recent "world policing" has been done with the aid of numerous western powers. In fact, it's very rare that the US does something that England, Canada, and parts of the EU aren't also a part of. So, it isn't just America. All major powers are guilty of it.

Now, to address your problems with the US culture.

About languages, your point is fair. I myself know American English, passable Spanish, and am working on learning German, but I'm a minority.

Our geography skills... again fair point. I would simply like to add that it isn't just other countries that most Americans can't find. This rule extends even to our own States for many Americans. Apparently, we just don't care much for locations on a map.

Nationalism and "shoot first attitude": Many, maybe even most, Americans hate our government and its decision to involve itself in other countries... to the point that a large number of them don't even support sending foreign aid to starving nations. Now, our nationalism is stronger than in most countries, but, depending on where you are, it can be considered either good or bad. Considering Europe's experiences with nationalism, such as WW2, I can see why you'd dislike it.

As for a lack of interest in other people's and cultures, I fail to see what you mean. Of course, I'm a manga fan and a history major, and socialize with similar people. so I guess that my experience and views towards other societies is somewhat outside the norm. Especially concerning the Hittite Empire. I love the Hittite Empire. However, even among other sub-cultures I don't see much disdain for other cultures. The only place you'll find that to be a terribly prevalent attitude would be in hillbilly parts of the south. Please, PLEASE, don't judge our whole country based on them.

Lastly, American "sentiment." America is a massive collection of sub- and counter-cultures. There is a small "main-stream" culture shared by many, but this is for the most part simply the largest minority culture. Not everyone here likes the drivel spouted on Oprah and Dr. Phil. I myself can't stand it.

In short, judging America based on the common conception is unfair, especially if you haven't spent a significant amount of time here.

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Quote from TheShawn

Well, The Steed, I just ask that you remember that nearly all of our recent "world policing" has been done with the aid of numerous western powers. In fact, it's very rare that the US does something that England, Canada, and parts of the EU aren't also a part of. So, it isn't just America. All major powers are guilty of it.

Do you think the other "major powers" can disagree with, forget about stop, the USA even if they wanted to?

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Quote from TheShawn

Well, The Steed, I just ask that you remember that nearly all of our recent "world policing" has been done with the aid of numerous western powers. In fact, it's very rare that the US does something that England, Canada, and parts of the EU aren't also a part of. So, it isn't just America. All major powers are guilty of it.

Do you think the other "major powers" can disagree with, forget about stop, the USA even if they wanted to?

Considering many do OFTEN choose not to help us with our pursuits, yes, they can disagree. However, many also don't refuse to help, soooo, they're guilty too. Notice I'm not defending US actions, simply pointing out that the blame doesn't rest in one place.

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