Richard O’Dwyer is a 23-year-old Sheffield Hallam University student who set up TVShack, a website which United States authorities allege uses links to pirate copyrighted films and television programmes. Today an English District Judge ruled that he may be extradited to the US to face copyright infringement allegations and a sentence of up to 5 years’ imprisonment. He is to appeal the order.
Interestingly perhaps, no United Kingdom authority has felt it appropriate to bring charges against him, but the case has been pursued by the US Customs & Border Agency at a time of increasingly hard line responses to online copyright infringement in America and Europe. Last year the Hollywood Movie Studies successfully secured a court order forcing BT to block access to Newzbin2, a members-only website that allegedly uses links to copyrighted material. In America SOPA (Stop Online Policy Act) legislation has been widely criticised by a number of technology firms. SOPA aims to stifle online copyright pirates by stopping web advertising networks and payment processors from doing business with them. Google, Twitter, Ebay and Wikipedia have criticised SOPA as a new form of censorship.
More importantly perhaps this ostensibly decent young man faces extradition to a foreign jurisdiction and a period of pre-trial imprisonment as a foreign national with no ties to that country. The perils which a fresh-faced youngster faces during incarceration while he awaits a long-winded trial process are all too obvious. His lawyer has quite properly pointed out that Richard would be the first British citizen to be extradited for such an offence and is being used as a guinea pig for copyright law in the United States.
If the courts feel bound to enforce this appalling piece of legislation introduced by the last Labour government, then it is time the coalition government showed some backbone and repealed it forthwith. Of course it is right that criminals facing serious offences like murder and kidnapping should be extradited in appropriate circumstances, but Richard O’Dwyer is not one of those people. It is a pity perhaps that prosecutors in this country did not show similar aggression to that exhibited by American prosecutors in this case when we wanted terrorists to be extradited from the US.
The first duty of any government is to protect its own citizens. Ironically, perhaps, the United States is the leader in this respect. The last Labour government failed its citizens lamentably. The coalition government has an opportunity to put that right and it should do so now. Every Member of Parliament should now stand up and be counted. Don’t let Richard O’Dwyer be another victim in order to appease American politicians and prosecutors.
