[BelenusMordred]

> Not much they can do to her in X

I think you really underestimate the power of smear/ blackmail campaigns and how effectively they have worked in the last century for the intelligence services. This has nothing to do with upholding the law.

[imglorp]

Look what happened to Kim Dotcom over US copyright at the behest of the corporate content owners: swat team, extradition hearings, the works. The US penalties are greater than murder.

[matheusmoreira]

Yeah, it's insanity. That guy somehow got worse treatment than violent drug traffickers.

[erikpukinskis]

As far as I can tell he didn’t do anything illegal either? Same business model as YouTube, which didn’t have any SWAT teams on it.

[guerrilla]

He wasn't in Russia though, Snowden is in Russia.

[danuker]

Note to self: if I find myself in the crosshairs of the US government, move to Russia.

[periheli0n]

Not that Snowden leads an open and tremendously free live in Russia. At least that's not what it sounded like in his autobiography.

[seniorivn]

surprisingly his life is a lot more free and open, than you would imagine, so much that russian politically involved people suspect he has some kind of a deal with KGB(FSB, etc) that he can't talk about.

[periheli0n]

He wrote that he‘s changing apartments every few months and that he’s always wrapping his face in a scarf as much as possible when going outside. Didn’t sound like a tremendously free and relaxed life. Plus he’s in exile.

[nurgasemetey]

I don't understand one thing. Why Germany didn't interfere extradiction? (I assume that he held Germany citizenship)

[periheli0n]

Because Schmitz was in New Zealand at the time. Not much Germany can do to overturn NZ law. Germany is not the US after all…

[ryanlol]

Germany could interfere if they wanted to, Kimble just isn’t worth the trouble (few people would be).

There are things you can do, see how Russia is handling these things when their VIPs are targeted for extradition.

Ordinary citizens with no high up political or IC connections never receive any significant state aid in extradition cases no matter what passport they hold. At best your embassy might refer you to a lawyer or help you arrange money transfer from your home country.

[ryanlol]

Why would they?

[newacct583]

> This has nothing to do with upholding the law.

No, the law is actually very clear here. What sci-hub does is clear copyright violation. There's no real debate to be had.

Civil cases where damages get into the tens of millions of dollars routinely involve law enforcement. It's no different from a big insider trading case as far as the FBI is concerned.

The fundamental truth behind the protest (and again it's important to realize: sci-hub is an act of protest) is that the law is unjust. Rosa Parks was in clear violation of the written law too.

The reason for the pedantry is that if you imagine this as solely an act of an unrestrained state actor, you won't be incentivized to work for the actual solution, which involves passing laws and otherwise working with the same state you're complaining about.

[BelenusMordred]

> What sci-hub does is clear copyright violation.

Think you've misunderstood my point, this is without a doubt a fishing expedition for no real purpose.

Alexandra Elbakyan is already convicted and will be extradited the moment she steps outside the country, there's very likely sealed indictments waiting in the shadows too, the evidence for her crimes are overwhelming and without dispute by anyone.

Things like this are just another chance at a smear campaign, they really don't care about what laws have been broken now, that part is over, all they want is leverage.

Flashback 2 years:

> A former senior U.S. intelligence official said he believes Elbakyan is working with Russia’s military intelligence arm, the GRU, the same organization that stole emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and then provided them to WikiLeaks in 2016.

As reported in the Washington Post and others. See how conveniently these two seemingly unrelated matters are being connected? Why would a respected newspaper go off on a segue like that?

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191226/14393243638/acade...

[lostlogin]

> This has nothing to do with upholding the law.

It had everything to do with New Zealand politicians trying to impress the powerful. It’s was embarrassing.

Said as a New Zealander.

[ipaddr]

It definity made New Zealand look like a place where the rule law doesn't necessarily apply fairly. Ironically the rule of law would prevent the US from doing the same thing if New Zealand made a similiar request.

[that_guy_iain]

But this isn’t a intelligence agency matter. Just standard law enforcement.

[janeroe]

> you really underestimate the power of smear ... campaigns

Not much they can do really. Elbakyan is a Stalinist who thinks the mass killer was a saint sent by God. She discredits herself at interviews and on her personal web-site just fine. None of that matters. People are using sci-hub because it's useful, crazyness of its author is irrelevant.

[dang]

Your account has been using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's against the site guidelines and we ban accounts that do it, regardless of which ideology they're battling for or against. We have to, because it destroys the curious conversation that HN is supposed to be for.

Would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use this site in the intended spirit from now on? We'd be grateful.

[janeroe]

Which comment exactly did you perceive as ideological? Criticism of Stalin?