Sure, to be clear, I also think Valve's response was over the top. Conspiring to extradite a foreigner, as a private corporation, is straight out of cyberpunk fiction. Axel's a very lucky person, all things considered. If he had been held liable for Agobot's staggering DDOS/theft/remediation costs many in this community might otherwise think it fair.
This is an habit with USA to try to extradite in a trap attempt, suspected « hackers ».
This happened to Gaius, in late 90th, for impersonating US president on the hacked White House pabx.
This happened to Casper/leader2 connecting to a shell of military US server after someone on IRC asked him to kee the connection alive.
Back in the day cyber force of USA were fighting for budget, and having hacker arrested and judged in a very advertised way was helping them get more money for their work.
Even if it means to totally disrespect internationnal procedure/law/agreement on dealing with « criminal ».
Once a foreigner puts a feet on US ground, he is totally in the hand of US officials, in disregard of any official treaties and international laws.
Anyone remembering this Russian guy arrested straight from plane when he landed in USA going to make a talk to defcon ?
> Anyone remembering this Russian guy arrested straight from plane when he landed in USA going to make a talk to defcon ?
I had to look it up, but it's Dmitry Sklyarov [1], who worked for the russian-based ElcomSoft, which was known for selling all sorts of DRM cracking programs.
>> However, ElcomSoft's product, and thus presumably the efforts of its employees including Sklyarov, were entirely legal in Russia. Sklyarov was eventually released on bail, but forced to remain in California, separated from his family, until his case concluded
