Who's dictionary are they using?
From an Los Angeles Times article re: Roman Polanski from 12/2009:
"The doctrine, which dates to the 1800s, holds that defendants who flout the law by fleeing a jurisdiction cannot then call upon the court for help."
I read that as saying that if he was a U.S. citizen, or resident in the U.S. at the time the charges were filed in open court, then "fugitive disentitlement" could be applied to his U.S. assets as he's no longer in the U.S.A. On the other hand, if you blur the lines between the MPAA/RIAA-Justice Department and the FISA/DEA/FBI/NSA/CIA, then you can argue that no matter how impure the law was in the 1800s, it isn't even as pure as that anymore.
I, personally, can't be a fugitive from New Zealand because I've never been there, although, if you want to charge me with something just so you can fly me there and back, go right ahead.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
