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Student faces extradition over download website

A British student is facing extradition to the United States and up to five years in jail for running a website that offered links to illegally obtained films and television shows.

Richard O’Dwyer age 23, a computer science student at Sheffield Hallam University, is accused of criminal copyright infringement by US authorities. Mr O’Dwyer ran TVShack, a website offering lists of links to other websites that carried unlawful copies of the latest films. He was initially arrested and questioned last November, when police officers and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived unannounced at his student accommodation. He was handcuffed and spent a night in Wandsworth prison, Before his family could pay the £3,000 bail.

Mr O’Dwyer’s legal team will argue that any criminal prosecution should brought in Britain, as TVShack was not hosted on American servers.

The case comes amid concern over Britain’s extradition treaty with the United States, and comes shortly after the attempted extradition of Gary McKinnon, a computer expert with Asperger’s syndrome who hacked into Pentagon systems.

The extradition treaty has been criticised as unfair because British prosecutors do have to put their evidence to an American court.

A parliamentary review is due to report next week.

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