English student to be extradited to US over TV links...

[faceless]

Student TV file sharer facing extradition to U.S. after arrest for 'running site providing links to pirated films and TV shows'
18th June 2011

A British university student faces being extradited to the United States for hosting a website which provided links to downloadable pirated films and TV shows. Undergraduate Richard O'Dwyer, a student at Sheffield Hallam University, was arrested late last month and is accused of criminal copyright infringement by U.S authorities. The 23-year-old could now be extradited to America to face trial there, in a case echoing that of Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who has spent years fighting U.S. extradition.

Mr O'Dwyer, who lives in student accommodation in Sheffield city centre, was first visited by U.S. officials last year when he ran the site TVShack. The website, which he has since shut down, provided links to other sites where users could download pirated films and TV shows like The Hangover and Lost.

The student appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court this week for a preliminary hearing into the planned extradition, which he is strongly contesting. His mother, Julia O'Dwyer, from Chesterfield, said the case was 'beyond belief' and the possibility of extradition was 'madness.' She said: 'The first we knew about it was this visit from the police and the American officials in November. He shut the website down the very next day and I don't think he expected it to go this far. But then in May he had to spend the night in Wandsworth Prison as the court was too slow for us to sort out his passport and bail.'

Mr O'Dwyer spend the night in jail and was only released after his mother paid a £3,000 bail fee. Mrs O'Dwyer, a nurse, added: 'Richard clearly has a talent for web design but was foolish in not understanding the implications of copyright. Yet to try to haul him off to America for trial while he’s midway through his university studies is so utterly disproportionate it defies belief.'

The UK's 2003 extradition agreement with the USA, which came in for heavy criticism in the Gary McKinnon case, is thought to be at the centre of the latest row. The law currently contains no provision for 'forum', a legal term referring to judges being allowed to consider whether a case is heard in the UK or abroad. Mr O'Dwyer's family have argued that since the student has not been to America since he was a child and he did not have any copyright material on his website, the case should be heard in the UK.

His barrister, Ben Cooper, told the preliminary hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday: 'The computer server was not based in the U.S. at all. Mr O'Dwyer did not have copyright material on his website; he simply provided a link. The contention is that the correct forum for this trial is here in Britain, where he was at all times.'

The student's legal team will argue that he should not face extradition as the site he ran was not hosted on U.S. servers. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized the web address TVShack.net last July. Mr O’Dwyer moved it to TVShack.cc, but that was also seized later last year. Julia O'Dwyer said her son shut down the site after being contacted by police.

---------------

Crikey...

[pirtybirdy]

That's B.S. I hope he beats the extradition. Don't they have anything better to do, like catch real criminals? FFS!

[eefanincan]

How can the US extradite him when he didn't host anything on US servers? Seems to me the alleged "crime" took place in the UK and therefore so should the legal action.