Richard O'Dwyer (Aged 23) is the founder and owner of TVShack.net (or was) he created the site as a teenager, its purpose was to provide links to video hosters like megavideo, much like similar sites Side Reel and TV links. The US Justice Department has been seeking for O'Dwyer to be extradited since May 2011 in relation to alleged copyright infringement on his website. The Southern District Court in New York has charged O'Dwyer with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal infringement of copyright and each charge carries a maximum 5 year sentence. According to the Open Rights Group UK citizens should not be subject to US legal standards on copyright infringement. They also called the extradition request absurd.
In June 2010 TVShack.net was part of a large domain seizure which involved 6 other domains. They were seized by ICE officials for "violations of Federal criminal copyright infringement laws". TVShack later appeared with a similar domain with a Rap Video on its homepage entitled "F*ck Tha Police".
His lawyers argued that any criminal prosecution should be brought in the UK, as the site is not even hosted in the US. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been criticized by many for targeting websites with no direct link to the US, they responded in July stating that "ICE would now actively pursue websites similar to TVShack even if their only connection to the US was a website address ending in .com or .net." As the suffixes route through Verisign, which is in Virginia. The ICE believes this to be sufficient to start a US prosecution.
Also his defense pointed out that the site had a similar function to Google and that the only UK prosecution of a link site, which was TVlinks, ended last year and had been thrown out.
Last Friday a UK district Judge ruled that O'Dwyer can be extradited to US to face copyright infringement allegations. O'Dwyer has the right to appeal it and stated after the verdict, "I am obviously disappointed with the judge's decision today. I think I have got faith in the high court for making the right decision."
The decision of the judge will of involved the 2003 US-UK Extradition Treaty, which has been criticized heavily by many and the current UK coalition government.
He will face the high courts in the coming future.
The Judge ruled that O'Dwyer should nonetheless face trial in the US. "There are said to be direct consequences of criminal activity by Richard O'Dwyer in the USA, albeit by him never leaving the north of England," Purdy said. "Such a state of affairs does not demand a trial here if the competent UK authorities decline to act, and does, in my judgment, permit one in the USA."
