Steve G

Comment Threads

• DaveBell commented on Merciless
  Greg @416, apparently the US Senate has ratified the Treaty now. But the whole thing still looks a bit dodgy: it seems to take away any requirement for the US to show a credible case to a UK court, and that wasn't changed by ratification. Has anyone been extradited from the US yet?...
• Charlie Stross commented on Merciless
  Kent: I'm not happy with the Scottish street either. I demand a replacement population! (Hint: trying to convince me I'm isolated in a matter of moral principle isn't going to work; "eat shit -- a million flies can't be wrong" is a lousy basis for changing your belief structure.)...
• DaveBell commented on Merciless
  I think a part of the problem is that we don't have a good handle on the problems ot territoriality and the internet. McKinnon was in the UK when he committed the acts for which he faces criminal charges. The computers were in the USA. Which country's laws? We have the Computer Misuse Act (1990). If somebody hacked into an MoD computer from the USA, that law allows for charges to be brought. Has that ever happened? Here in the EU we are building a system to cope with the problems. The European company for Paypal has moved at least...
• Charlie Stross commented on Merciless
  Jennifer @438: it's bullshit -- politically-motivated astroturf. The Times is a Murdoch paper -- owned by News International (see also Fox News) with a political axe to grind in favour of the Conservative Party. This story puts Labour and Scotland in a bad light. However ... First, some background: the Scottish justice minister, Kenny McAskill, is an SNP minister -- Scotland's government is a (minority) SNP government. The SNP and Labour are both socialist parties (nominally, in Labour's case) and hate each other's guts. (Labour are currently the largest opposition party in Scotland.) So: conspiratorial cooperation between Scotland and Westminster...
• Charlie Stross commented on Merciless
  krum @447: no, this is only the second most-commented blog posting here. To hit the jackpot you need to read The High Frontier, Redux. Now that was a comment thread and a half! @451: No we don't, actually. I've been trying not to make a point of this but Megrahi is almost certainly innocent. The appeal he was proceeding with prior to his release was in progress because ...the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred Megrahi’s case for appeal. "The commission is of the view," said its chairman, Dr. Graham Forbes, "that based upon our lengthy investigations, the new evidence...