TV Shack creator can be extradited to the US, UK court rules

STUDENT Richard O'Dwyer can be extradited to the US over copyright infringement allegations related to his web site TV Shack, a UK court has ruled.

O'Dwyer created the TV Shack web site and is the subject of an order for his extradition to the US, much like Gary McKinnon.

He is accused of copyright infringement after setting up the web site TV Shack, which had links to thousands of films and TV shows but did not directly host them. If extradited to the US and convicted of criminal copyright infringement, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Support for O'Dwyer had been building on Twitter, with Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye saying after the news, "Devastated. Protecting copyright has come to mean accepting unacceptable human collateral like Richard O'Dwyer."

Devastated. Protecting copyright has come to mean accepting unacceptable human collateral like Richard O'Dwyer. #RichardO

— Loz Kaye (@LozKaye) January 13, 2012

O'Dwyer is likely to appeal the court's ruling. His mother wrote on a blog earlier this week, "Richard's Counsel, Ben Cooper of Doughty Street Chambers, has argued that the TVShack website, simply acted only as a linking website, directing users to other websites on the internet where films & TV shows were hosted and available for viewing."

"The web site itself did not host any content. Ben Cooper has pointed to a number of similar cases previously tried in the UK in which prosecution has failed, for exactly this reason. Judge Purdy has all the relevant information and has already himself at an earlier hearing admitted that Ben Cooper's argument was a strong one."

She said that if the case was lost, she and the legal team will continue to pursue other options, "one of which will be to take the matter to a higher authority". µ