Richard O’Dwyer is facing going to prison in the United States for being the man behind the TVShack website. But the case against him and the extradition proceedings being sought are questionable.
TVShack Extradition
was a website linking to files hosted elsewhere on the Web which enabled the streaming on movies and television shows. Copyrighted movies and television shows which neither TVShack or the sites it linked to had permission to stream.
The guy, a 23-year-old student by the name of Richard O’Dwyer, was arrested last November and is now facing charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal infringement of copyright. Although O’Dwyer didn’t charge people to use the site he made money from advertisements on the site.
The U.S. wants O’Dwyer tried in its court system, and if this happens he could face five years in prison.
The Legal Questions
There is an interesting legal debate to be had here for various reasons.
Firstly, O’Dwyer is a British citizen who was present in the U.K. all the while he was running TVShack. Secondly, the TVShack server wasn’t based in the U.S. Thirdly, TVShack merely linked to copyrighted material rather than hosting it.
You could argue that the first two points don’t matter because the Internet is worldwide and the content being infringed upon was owned by companies mainly based in the States. But the third point is important.
It has consistently been shown that in Europe it isn’t illegal to link to copyrighted material or those who are hosting it. In the U.S. things are a little more muddied. So whether O’Dwyer is tried in the U.K. or the U.S. could make a vast difference to his defense.
Conclusions
I cannot fathom how extraditing O’Dwyer makes any sort of sense. So I hope the case against him is heard in a British court of law. Britain’s extradition treaty with the U.S. is already under review in light of the Gary McKinnon case, but that will not be concluded in time to help O’Dwyer.
[Via The Telegraph]
