TV-Shack extradition approved: Every UK citizen is now at risk

[tezza]

British student Richard O’Dwyer will be extradited after the Home Secretary approved the court’s decision. All British citizens are now at risk of a similar fate.

UK Home Secretary Theresa May has approved the extradition of 23-year-old British student Richard O’Dwyer to face copyright infringement charges in the U.S. — even though his alleged crimes were not committed there, and UK law dictates that his actions are not illegal.

The extradition paves the way for other Britons to be sent to the United States to face similar charges, setting a dangerous precedence for civil liberties.

O’Dwyer set up TV-Shack, an aggregator website that provided links to third-party sites where television shows and movies were available for streaming. No copyrighted content was hosted on servers he owned.

The servers were based in Sweden, but the .com domain name was under the jurisdiction of the United States. It has recently been noted that the U.S. government can seize domains even if they were registered outside of the U.S. because these registrars are either owned or operated by U.S.-based companies.

Once the domain was seized, O’Dwyer set up a .cc domain name, but this was seized once again because U.S.-based Verisign operates the Keeling Islands’ top-level domain name.

The domain names were seized, and the site was shut down by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The U.S. government agency claimed the site generated more than $230,000 (£147,000) in advertising revenue.

Following his arrest, he was warned he could face trial in the United States. O’Dwyer faces up to five years in a U.S. prison if convicted. He is expected to appeal, and the case could end up at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

A UK government spokesperson confirmed the request, and said the Home Secretary had “carefully considered all relevant matters” before approving the extradition.

Four conditions need to be met to refuse extradition, including if a British citizen faces the death penalty. One lawyer said speaking to ZDNet: “She had no choice but to grant the extradition.” Today was more of a formality than anything, but until he exhausts all his appeal options, he will not be put on a plane to the United States.

And here’s where the danger starts.

Lawyers for the U.S. government weakly claimed that the “victims” of O’Dwyer’s alleged crimes — the television and film studios — were based in the U.S. and should therefore be tried there. It was also claimed that “access to the website took place in the U.S.”, failing to recognise that the global inter-connected network of computers that runs the Web means that, bar governmental censorship, every websites is available to every country in the world.

But it was argued that the site was “no different to Google” in how it operated. In practical, objective terms, the site was no different to Google, or any other search engine for that matter.

O’Dwyer’s lawyer Ben Cooper said during his client’s trial that he would become a “guinea pig” for U.S. copyright laws. Previously, such a site was not illegal.

A court dismissed a case in 2010 where a similar site TV-Links was deemed to have not committed any offence under UK law. European law says that Internet firms like search engines may be granted legal protection from copyright infringement suits if they have little or no influence over the material they link to.

As the extradition has been approved, every British citizen is now at risk for a similar offence. This means that any British citizen who tweets or blogs a link to a file-sharing or peer-to-peer website where copyrighted materials are sourced, could face extradition under UK law.

But as the Telegraph reports, the judge in O’Dwyer’s extradition hearing ruled that he was “intimately involved in deciding who was allowed to post links” on the site, allegations which were comparable under UK copyright law.

Welcome to the United States of Great Britain, where once again a third-country’s legislation takes over the law of the land.

http://www.zdnet.com...ow-at-risk/3427

[DKT27]

Edited the thread a bit (added blank lines, image, etc.) and moved to Filesharing News as it's related to filesharing thing. :)

Really sad. People should fight/protest for such things.

[DKT27]

“Pirating” UK Student to be Extradited to the US

Richard O’Dwyer, the UK-based ex-administrator of the video linking website TVShack will be extradited to the US to face copyright infringement charges. Despite public outrage Home Secretary Theresa May approved the extradition order today. The 23-year-old student has never visited United States, but now faces several years in a US prison.

Last year Richard O’Dwyer was arrested by police for operating TVShack, a website that carried links to copyrighted TV-shows.

Following his detention in the UK’s largest prison, the site owner fought a looming extradition to the US, but without success.

After a UK Judge gave the green light to extradite the student two months ago, Home Secretary Theresa May officially approved the request from the US authorities today.

Julia O’Dwyer, Richard’s mother, is severely disappointed with the decision and says that her son is “sold to the US. An extradition that may disrupt his life for years.

“Today, yet another British citizen is betrayed by the British Government,” she said.

“Richard’s life – his studies, work opportunities, financial security – is being disrupted, for who knows how long, because the UK Government has not introduced the much-needed changes to the extradition law.”

The extradition is controversial because merely linking to copyright material isn’t an offense in the UK. In 2010, linking website TV-Links was deemed to be a ‘mere conduit’ of information and its admins were acquitted.

In the US recent court rulings are of a totally different kind. There, Richard O’Dwyer faces the same fate as several other operators of linking sites that were recently on trial.

In January Ninjavideo founder Hana Beshara was sentenced to 22 months in prison followed by 2 years of probation, 500 hours of community service and ordered to repay nearly $210,000. Fellow admin Matthew Smith received 14 months in prison, two years supervised release, and was ordered to pay back just over $172,000.

:view: View: Original Article

[stringy]

Unfortunately, the extrdition treaties America has with other countries weighs heavily in their favour.If these roles had been reversed an american student would not have been allowed to be extradited to England.

[DKT27]

Unfortunately, the extrdition treaties America has with other countries weighs heavily in their favour.If these roles had been reversed an american student would not have been allowed to be extradited to England.

Very good point there. That's not all, not only the US Govt. had stopped the extradition, but USA as a whole would have started protesting country-wide.

[marke68]

It's just another example of the "Special" relationship between the UK and the US,in other words the US Government say jump and the UK Government say how high.

I wonder if Amanda Knox would be extradited back to italy should the Italian prosecuters find her guilty of murder on appeal,i think we know the answer to that one.

[Ambrocious]

If he is not guilty in the UK but he IS guilty by laws that are meant for American Citizens, does this not mean that we are technically under a global law system...a New World Order of sorts?

There is a blasphemous thing known as the Georgia Guidestones that layout a "peaceful" sounding version of a new world order but it actually means utter and global enslavement for the every day average person on Earth. A new world order brought forth by free humanity WILL work out great but a new world order brought about by the world Elite is certain to be horrible.

By the way, these guidestones are not fake; they are located in Elbert County Georgia.

http://en.wikipedia....gia_Guidestones

Q: What is written on the Stones? It doesn't seem so bad...why do people hate this idea for?

A:

• Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. (Depopulation - mass killing of people)
• Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity. (Restricting humanity from procreating without permission - Restricting "what" we can eat - doesn't provide real diversity)
• Unite humanity with a living new language. (Making everyone "alike" - what you get is people who lack uniqueness and wholesome diversity)
• Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason. (Get rid of ALL other religions and belief systems if they want to)
• Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts. (Another way of saying "What we say is fair, that is what fair shall be")
• Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court. (Global oversight of dictatorial law which applies to all countries)
• Avoid petty laws and useless officials. (This gets rid of current laws, even good ones, in exchange for WHATEVER they put in it's place)
• Balance personal rights with social duties. (Forced and mandatory labor, removal of unalienable rights in place for a mindset of slavery and honor towards the rulers/leaders)
• Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite. (This is all about formulating a global mindset - forcing people to see it all one way)
• Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature. (This maintains a constant depopulation method for the future sake)

[bluntman420]

I'm sorry but the US government is taking things too far. I'm a canadian citizen myself and this is making me sick really. Does the US control the entire world? Let them try and take me from my house in CANADA not USA and i'd probably take some of them out before they got me. In all seriousness though this is bloody pathetic. All these goddamn movie studios and video game companies crying piracy are all full of sh*t. All these money figures being thrown around are bogus. GUESS WHAT, all this money that is supposedly lost due to piracy will NEVER be going to them anyways because the people that do pirate likely cant afford to buy the stuff anyways. And for the US to just grab someone from their home country because some .com registry says US is just making me sick. Sorry bout the rant but i needed to get that off my chest.

[DesiPirate]

Very sad :(

Why are they not taking any action against google ? :think:

They must first take action against google for linking to pirated contents,torrents............. and then think about troubling an 23 yr old student.

[kunjar]

The UK has always been the bitch of the USA. Whatever happened to the Great British empire? Aren't the main DNS internet servers all hosted in the US? Based on that alone, isnt the entire internet within the jurisdiction of the US then? I think the sentences for illegal file sharing and copy right infringement are beyond human comprehension. The US SOPA failed to gain support and anyone found guilty of copy right infringement will certainly pay the ultimate price, as the elitists are more than eager to make an example out of individuals given, that piracy is so widespread. The only way for the govt to tackle piracy is to make a concrete example out of a single person or a small group with the imposition of harsh sanctions to gain the attention of the masses.

[tezza]

The 2003 Extradition Act, agreed between Britain and America in haste after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on America, was designed to combat terrorism, but is now used by America to persue citizens of any country for whatever reason America sees fit. People extradited under the UK-US treaty is definately lop-sided, one American was transferred to the UK, and 24 Britons to the US, since 2004. These are hardly balanced international deals, given the high price being paid by the innocent.

[Ambrocious]

The 2003 Extradition Act, agreed between Britain and America in haste after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on America, was designed to combat terrorism, but is now used by America to persue citizens of any country for whatever reason America sees fit. People extradited under the UK-US treaty is definately lop-sided, one American was transferred to the UK, and 24 Britons to the US, since 2004. These are hardly balanced international deals, given the high price being paid by the innocent.

What happened on September 11th of 2001 was called a "false flag" attack. This is also known as an inside job. Adolf Hitler used the same tactic to enter into a massive war too as he fire bombed his own Reichstag. Watch "TerrorStorm - A History Of Government Terrorism" .