Wikipedia founder joins fight against O'Dwyer extradition

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 25 Jun 2012 at 10:31

There is mounting opposition to the extradition to the US of Richard O’Dwyer, with a petition winning 15,000 signatures in hours.

The student is fighting extradition to the US for running a website that allegedly linked to illegal copies of movies and TV shows, and has now received high-profile support for his cause.

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, and The Guardian have started a campaign to get the 24-year-old O’Dwyer’s extradition stopped on the grounds that it is not proportionate and his alleged copyright infringement was not illegal in the UK.

According to Wales, the student faces ten years in prison if sentenced in the US for providing links to copyright material via his TVShack.net website. US officials allege he made huge profits from advertising on the site.

“O'Dwyer is not a US citizen, he's lived in the UK all his life, his site was not hosted there, and most of his users were not from the US,” said Wales on the petition website, which was attracting hundreds of votes a minute at the time of writing.

“America is trying to prosecute a UK citizen for an alleged crime which took place on UK soil.”

Richard O'Dwyer is the human face of the battle between the content industry and the interests of the general public

US and music industry officials say the student, who was 19 when he set up the site, pocketed £15,000 a month, but Wales argues TVShack.net complied with takedown requests and was being used as a pawn by the copyright lobby.

“Richard O'Dwyer is the human face of the battle between the content industry and the interests of the general public,” Wales said. “Earlier this year, in the fight against the anti-copyright bills SOPA and PIPA, the public won its first big victory. This could be our second.”

Media support

Within hours of its launch, Wales’ campaign has already passed its initial target of 15,000 signatures, and perhaps as importantly, has the backing of at least one mainstream newspaper.

The Guardian, which ran the article penned by Wales on the subject, joined in the criticism, likening the proposed actions to a “sledgehammer hovering over a walnut, because what this case is really about is proportionality".

“The prospect of extraditing a student to America, where he would face up to ten years in prison, is unfair. It should also be said that it is preposterous,” the paper said in an editorial.

“Mr O'Dwyer is a UK citizen whose website was hosted in the UK and attracted only a minority of American visitors. There is absolutely no reason to try him in the US. All the more so since his case was investigated by the UK authorities and dropped.”