Interest

TVShack Founder Escapes Extradition to U.S.

On Wednesday November 28, Britain's High Court announced that Richard O'Dwyer, a 24 year-old university student, would not be extradited to America to face copyright infringement charges over his TVShack site. O'Dwyer from Sheffield had been facing up to ten years in prison for launching the British-based site, which did not host content itself but let users share links to other film and TV sites.

According to the Guardian newspaper, "The high court was told O'Dwyer's legal team and the American prosecutors had agreed a draft "deferred prosecution" in the past two days, which requires him to travel to the US and pay a small sum in compensation... Under the terms of the agreement, O'Dwyer will not only avoid a trial and criminal record, but will also then be free to travel internationally."

Reuters adds that O'Dwyer's lawyers "argued he would effectively become a test case for copyright law in the United States." When O'Dwyer travels to the U.S., he will pledge not to break copyright law again.

O'Dwyer had set up the TVShack site in 2007, which generated about £140,000 in advertsising over the next few years. O'Dwyer was arrested in November 2010; following bail, he was served with a U.S. extradition warrant in May 2011.

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.