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With milk dripping from your chin you get up to see who's there.

Shock! It's the police and they're all set to arrest you.

Even worse, they tell you that you're probably going to be extradited to the USA where you'll stand trial for a crime that many people consider to be little more than shoplifting.

It turns out that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has been snooping around inside your computer thanks to the P2P software you run, and discovered a sizeable stash of MP3 files representing your collection of commercial music.

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Hang on a minute...

This can't be right!

How could the USA demand (and obtain) the extradition of a foreign citizen for simply engaging in file-trading copyrighted material?

How can someone be extradited to a country they've never even visited simply because they've shared some of their music collection with other people on the Net?

Well sorry but that appears to be "the new world order" and although it may sound far-fetched, it's a scenario that's probably just around the corner.

Don't believe me? Well check out this news story which details how something very similar has already happened to an Australian-based pirate.

Personally, I have no sympathy for the individual in this case -- if you break the law to the extent alleged then you deserve everything you get -- well almost.

It still becomes rather difficult to swallow that a foreign country can demand you be extradited for a crime they allege you have committed, even though you have never even been to that country before.

Obviously Australia has sold many of its citizen's rights in order to gain a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the USA -- I certainly hope that our own government isn't quite that hell-bent on doing the same.

Perhaps the most important thing to learn from the Australian case is that when you're on the Net, you are not really safely at home in your own home. Rather, you are actually *everywhere* in the world and if you break the laws of a country that has an extradition agreement with NZ, you might find yourself in very hot water -- and a foreign jail.

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