NationStates Jolt Archive

On the radio today I heard someone talking about various music download and radio web sites. He mentioned a few that were legal in the UK but not the US, and vice versa, because of different copyright laws. Which leads to my question:

if something illegal were done over the Internet, how would the guilty party be tried? For example, if I made a death threat to someone in Japan on this forum (and actually had things to make the person worry, like real name, address, etc.) would I get in trouble with the US or Japan?

US because you did it on US soil

or inter-court!

Probably rihgt. But could Japan extradite for that?

U.S., I think, because you're a U.S. citizen.

You are under the jurisdiction of the country in which you acted.

Therefore, everything you do online is subject to the laws of the country in which you are acting.

In your example, you would "get in trouble" in the US.

I'm not so sure, the complaint would be filed in Japan - it may depend on whether it's a Japanese citizen or not but I'm still not sure - I would say that it would come under the jurisdiction of Japanese law and extradition would come into it.

It's my understanding of international criminal law that you could be tried under either jurisdiction because it's a crime on U.S. soil (U.S. jurisdiction) and against a Japanese citizen (Japenese jurisdiction). Since both countries have about equally severe laws against that sort of thing, Japan would be very unlikely to demand extradition and would instead let you be tried and sentenced in the U.S.

See this is why the internet needs to be left alone. All the Japanese could do is try and find out who you are and put out an alert if you ever do come to Japan, IMO.