He had faced up to 10 years' jail and $US600,000 ($A700,000) in fines after he pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to commit a criminal copyright infringement in April, following his extradition in February. Griffiths, 44, had feared that the three years he spent in custody in Australia while fighting the extradition request would not be taken into account when he was sentenced in the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, but his concern was unfounded.

US District Court Judge Claude Hilton sentenced him to 51 months' jail, but said with time already served, he would only have to remain in jail for 15 months. Griffiths' Australian pro bono lawyer, Nicolas Patrick from DLA Phillips Fox, said the sentence highlighted the "injustice of this process" and he would investigate prisoner-exchange options that might allow his client to serve his sentence in Australia. Griffiths could have been charged with the same offences in Australia, where he would have faced a far shorter sentence, Mr Patrick said.

"Effectively my client was sent to face charges in a foreign country where he has no knowledge of the legal system and no friends or family," he told The Sunday Age. "He has been surrendered to a country where the penalties for such offences are much harsher." Griffiths — who used the alias Bandido — admits he was the brains behind the international counterfeit software ring DrinkOrDie, which US prosecutors said cost American companies an estimated $US50 million in lost sales.

Sydney copyright lawyer Michael Napthali told The Sunday Age he was unsurprised by the severity of the sentence given the US Department of Justice's eagerness for a successful internet file-sharing prosecution. "The severity of his sentence is linked to the estimated $50 million of software piracy claimed by the prosecution, but it's questionable whether realistically the true value of lost sales is anywhere near that," he said. The US Justice Department celebrated the success of its case against Griffiths, a welcome diversion to its failed campaign in the US to pursue online consumers for internet file-sharing.

"From his home in Australia, Griffiths became one of the most notorious leaders of the underground internet piracy community by orchestrating the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in copyrighted material," US Assistant Attorney-General Alice Fisher said in a statement. US Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said that "theft is theft" whether committed with a gun or a keyboard and that the US was prepared to play global cop again to catch " those inclined to steal intellectual property".

Griffiths' ailing 76-year-old father, Neil Griffiths, who lives in the house he shared with his son at Berkeley Vale, on the NSW central coast, was shocked by the sentence and angered by the way his son had been described. "It's a load of crap … I just want my son back home," he said.