Andre Yoskowitz
24 Mar 2012 1:10
23-year-old British student Richard O'Dwyer will be extradited to the U.S. to face multiple copyright infringement charges, despite never having been to the country.
The former owner and creator of TVShack's plight will set an unfortunate precedence in the UK, as others in the future can likely face similar charges. O'Dwyer, according to UK law, is completely innocent, but he will likely not be so lucky in the U.S.
TVShack was a streaming link aggregator site that hosted no content itself but linked to third-party sites, (like Megavideo), where users could stream unauthorized TV and movies for free.
Additionally, the servers were based in Sweden but the domain was under the jurisdiction of the United States. U.S. authorities can seize domains registered outside of the country because most, if not all registrars are based in the U.S.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has accused O'Dwyer of making $230,000 in advertising revenue from the site.
Despite never being to the U.S., the student now faces 5 years in an American prison.