- Undergraduate faces U.S. trial for copyright offences
- Case echoes legal battle of hacker Gary McKinnon
Last updated at 6:48 PM on 18th June 2011
Facing extradition: Student Richard O'Dwyer ran the TVShack website
A British university student faces being extradited to the United States for hosting a website which provided links to downloadable pirated films and TV shows.
Undergraduate Richard O'Dwyer, a student at Sheffield Hallam University, was arrested late last month and is accused of criminal copyright infringement by U.S authorities.
The 23-year-old could now be extradited to America to face trial there, in a case echoing that of Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who has spent years fighting U.S. extradition.
Mr O'Dwyer, who lives in student accommodation in Sheffield city centre, was first visited by U.S. officials last year when he ran the site TVShack.
The website, which he has since shut down, provided links to other sites where users could download pirated films and TV shows like The Hangover and Lost.
The student appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court this week for a preliminary hearing into the planned extradition, which he is strongly contesting.
Still studying: Mr O'Dwyer is currently reading computer science at Sheffield Hallam University
Jailed: The 23-year-old was made to stay overnight at Wandsworth Prison until his family could answer the 3,000 bail
His mother, Julia O'Dwyer, from Chesterfield, said the case was 'beyond belief' and the possibility of extradition was 'madness.'
She said: 'The first we knew about it was this visit from the police and the American officials in November.
'He shut the website down the very next day and I don't think he expected it to go this far.
'But then in May he had to spend the night in Wandsworth Prison as the court was too slow for us to sort out his passport and bail.'
GARY MCKINNON'S 10-YEAR LEGAL BATTLE
Mr McKinnon's ordeal began almost a decade ago when he hacked into Nasa and other military computers from the bedroom of his North London flat, searching for evidence of 'little green men'.
Over the past decade, the British courts have repeatedly refused to block the 45-year-old Asperger's sufferer's extradition, despite doctors saying he will kill himself if bundled on to a plane to the U.S.
Mr McKinnon's hopes of avoiding extradition to the U.S. suffered a severe setback last month when Barack Obama declined to allow him to be tried in Britain.
Mr O'Dwyer spend the night in jail and was only released after his mother paid a 3,000 bail fee.
Mrs O'Dwyer, a nurse, added: 'Richard clearly has a talent for web design but was foolish in not understanding the implications of copyright.
'Yet to try to haul him off to America for trial while he's midway through his university studies is so utterly disproportionate it defies belief.'
The UK's 2003 extradition agreement with the USA, which came in for heavy criticism in the Gary McKinnon case, is thought to be at the centre of the latest row.
The law currently contains no proviion for 'forum', a legal term referring to judges being allowed to consider whether a case is heard in the UK or abroad.
Mr O'Dwyer's family have argued that since the student has not been to America since he was a child and he did not have any copyright material on his website, the case should be heard in the UK.
His barrister, Ben Cooper, told the preliminary hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday: 'The computer server was not based in the U.S. at all.
'Mr O'Dwyer did not have copyright material on his website; he simply provided a link.
'The contention is that the correct forum for this trial is here in Britain, where he was at all times.'
Legal fight: Mr O'Dwyers lawyers argued that the student should not be extradited the the U.S. as his site was not hosted no American servers
The student's legal team will argue that he should not face extradition as the site he ran was not hosted on U.S. servers.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized the web address TVShack.net last July. Mr O'Dwyer moved it to TVShack.cc, but that was also seized later last year.
Julia O'Dwyer said her son shut down the site after being contacted by police.
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