Richard O'Dwyer

U.K. Home Office won't block O'Dwyer extradition in copyright case

The U.K. Home Office has confirmed that Home Secretary Theresa May will not block the extradition of British student Richard O'Dwyer to the U.S., despite calls for her to intervene.

The 24-year-old is to be extradited to the United States to face copyright infringement charges related to a Web site he founded.

The site, which U.S. prosecutors claim generated up to $230,000 in advertising revenue, did not at any point host copyrighted material. Instead, it linked to other sites that hosted television shows and movies -- including content uploaded to YouTube.

While the U.K. … Read more

Jimmy Wales launches campaign to stop O'Dwyer's extradition

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has launched an online petition to stop the extradition of a 24-year-old British student to the U.S. for alleged criminal copyright violations.

The U.S. Department of Justice has been attempting to extradite Richard O'Dwyer to face criminal copyright charges for allegedly linking to copies of copyrighted films through TVShack.net, a crowd-sourced site that has been seized by the Department of Homeland Security. O'Dwyer faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

In an article penned for The Guardian, Wales called O'Dwyer the "human face" a global battle … Read more