re the inimitable rushdie re an anecdote about islam jaeger buphy bu edu gregg jaeger writes why would the rushdie case be particularly legitimate as i ve said elsewhere on this issue rushdie s actions had effects in islamic countries so that it is not so simple to say that he didn t commit a crime in an islamic country actually it is simple a person p has committed a crime c in country x if p was within the borders of x at the time when c was committed it doesn t matter if the physical manifestation of c is outside x for instance if i hack into nasa s ames research lab and delete all their files i have committed a crime in the united kingdom if the us authorities wish to prosecute me under us law rather than uk law they have no automatic right to do so this is why the net authorities in the us tried to put pressure on some sites in holland holland had no anti cracking legislation and so it was viewed as a hacker haven by some us system administrators similarly a company called red hot television is broadcasting pornographic material which can be received in britain if they were broadcasting in britain they would be committing a crime but they are not they are broadcasting from denmark so the british government is powerless to do anything about it in spite of the apparent law breaking of course i m not a lawyer so i could be wrong more confusingly i could be right in some countries but not in others mathew
