UK student faces extradition to US after piracy case ruling
A 23-year-old student is facing extradition to the US, and possibly five years in a federal prison, after the British courts ruled he should face charges of copyright infringement for linking to websites hosting pirated content. Richard O’Dwyer, a computer science student at Sheffield Hallam University who had never even left …
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@JimC
You must be one of them Ahmerican* idiots.
*yes i know there is an H in there.
and how long
Before the word "proportional" enters the Merkin lexicon?
@NoDosh: Given that everything here is a giant willy-waving contest, I wouldn't hope for much until a good generation has passed into and out of the positions that enable things like this to happen.
I've been here 10 years and it's all over the place. Everyone has to have something *bigger*, *better*, *newer* or otherwise perceived as superior to what their neighbours/friends have. Otherwise they think they're a failure. Personally I think it stems from childhood - nowadays some schools and other institutions don't use words like lose - it's "runner up" (even for last in a field of 8) or "fail to execute". You lost. No-one died, no-one was hurt, accept it, learn from it, be better next time. It's not a crime, like some I know seem to think.
Speaking of crime, the UK needs to grow a set and tell them where they can shove their treaty until it's re-worded that the extraditable offense must be considered a criminal act in both countries at the time of the signing of the treaty and the requestor has the burden of proof to convince the requestees government/judiciary that an extradition is warranted. Since they won't get a conviction at trial based on "reasonable suspicion", they must have proof. Surely....
Of course the US probably won't like this, but the UK could always make the point that, regrettably, it was considering switching a percentage of its national reserve from the dollar to the yuan.
Otherwise the US won't stop. After all, there's a whole world out there that can have a willy shaken at it.
Beer. Cos it's Friday :)
"Before the word "proportional" enters the Merkin lexicon?"
Since he has not yet been sentenced, your point is actually pretty pointless.
"dollar to the yuan"
Who really fucking cares if you switch from the dollar to the yuan?
It wouldn't be a big deal as you people are already well on your way to becoming a third-world country, thanks to your political class cashing in on the global warming scam, and raking in the lower classes' cash hand over fist. After all, they are already planning to start rationing electricity, which is the real rationale for those "smart meters" they want to install - for the sake of carbon reduction they are going to de-industrialize and impoverish you, and they are going to send you so far back into the Middle Ages that map makers are going to start locating the UK in Africa, right next to Botswana or Rwanda - in fact,. you can look at your future neighbourhood right here: http://www.therichest.org/world/poorest-countries-in-the-world/ because you are going to be on that list as soon as your politicians and bureaucrats can manage it.
Your political class, however, will be leaving for sunnier climes and happier times, most likely in the Bahamas, or maybe Monaco. But I am sure that some of them will drop in now and then, if only to see how the proles are doing.
Good luck enjoying that pirated content on computers and widescreen tvs when your living in communal flats in council estates powered solely by candles and compost, chumps!
@Yankee AC
"It wouldn't be a big deal as you people are already well on your way to becoming a third-world country..."
That's downright funny, coming from a (presumably) citizen of a country that is mostly owned by the Chinese and other "furriners" - but apparently hasn't yet noticed. You Yanks are in exactly the same position as Wile E Coyote when he runs over the cliff edge - legs pumping away, happy as a clam until he looks down. Then...
Even an American can not be serious with this comment.
How long has California been bankrupt in part or whole? I say, Michigan, especially Flint, is doing really well. Detroit is a model for the world. I gather from Americans who saw the old Soweto that Soweto seemed to be better off than some areas in the American South in the prosperous times! I believe it has got no better and even the USA has had its credit rating questioned or was it down-graded?
I bet you are glad the Euro is having problems as it lessens the risk that the holders of American purse strings, the Arabs and Chinese, will switch their reserves precipitously. But note how the Chinese are considering supporting the Euro.
What you have got is size and bluster. But much of your talent, ideas, invention is actually imported, even from Great Britain.
Sorry, how many people did you say have got no medical insurance? 20 % of the country and even those with it are financially buggered if seriously ill for more than a week or two?
Must be great to be such a runaway success as a world leader. And you call that democracy and justice? How many mistaken executions occur, let alone wrongful convicitions leading to hundreds of years of imprisonment? No wonder extreme religiosity is so popular in USA, God is the only hope many of its citizens have got. Still, you can get a cheap gun whenever you want, so that's all right.
What baffles me is why the rest of the world misses the good parts of it and imports the rubbish parts of its language, failed attitudes and "culture".
@merkin AC 14th JAn 11:36
"Who really fucking cares if you switch from the dollar to the yuan?"
I'll tell who cares, the fat cat cunts that run AmeriKan business, that's who, its all about protecting the dollar hegemony.
Why do you think amerika invaded Iraq? It wasn't for the oil, it wasn't because Hussain was a despot sadistic leader, FFS, how many of them has the land of the fee 'installed' over the years? Amerika fabricated the myth of WMD because in In 2000, Iraq converted all its oil transactions under the Oil for Food program to Euros. When the amerikans invaded Iraq in 2003, it returned oil sales from the euro to the USD. If all those petrodollars and dollars held as currency reserves came home to amerika, then the value of the value of the dollar would plummet causing amerika to become _the_ third world country.
For the record, Japan and china hold the largest dollar currency reserves, Japan holds around $800 billion, and China holds over $600 billion. Obama issued $600 billion in quantive easing and look at the effect that had on the amerikan economony.
Said the man in the AA rated country to the man in the AAA rated country.
Big Fish vs Little Fish
It is that this kid doesn't have the expensive lawyers that Google and other search engines have, making him and easy target. You also have to ask yourself, would America deport one of there citizens over here for trail?
If he has broken the law let it be dealt with in the UK, not the US.
...and if you're wanting to set a precedent, why not pick on someone who *MADE MONEY* (shock) doing something that might just seem a bit naughty to many people - even if it wasn't actually illegal in the UK.
Interesting...
It'll be interesting to see (if he's extradited) what crimes they'll charge him with. I don't have any opinion as to whether I agree with or disagree with what he enabled folks using his site to do, but I know personally of a couple of guys who got busted a few years ago (equipment seized, etc) for running a very similar high-profile site but they were never charged because no one seemed to be able to figure out where the crime is in hosting HTML pages with a bunch of plain old links.
I presume the laws have been tightened to cover the act of 'facilitating' copyright infringement rather than just the older laws against the act of infringement themselves. Interesting parallels with search engines though - I wonder if tvshack showed up in google listings and - if so - whether the only difference is that O'Dwyer did it wilfully...
THEY MAKE THE LAW up as they go along
As simply as they have changed it from a civil offence of copyright to a criminal offence of copyrights.
In a months time it will be a crime to talk about it, with extradition orders flying around.
GOD BLESS THOSE CRETINS IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, FREE TO F*** YOUR LIFE UP.
@Lars
"Land of the free to do as we tell you"
There, fixed that for you ;-)
charges
The US prosecutors will simply threaten him with 5+ years in the toughest prison in the state vs 3 years in a less risky environment if he pleads guilty. The conviction rate in the US for criminal trials is extremely high, so if you can't convice the police/DA of your innocence early on its probably best to stop worrying about facts and negotiate before a case gets to court.
"It'll be interesting to see (if he's extradited) what crimes they'll charge him with"
The crime of being foreign, I would imagine.
Simples
"It'll be interesting to see (if he's extradited) what crimes they'll charge him with..."
Making money while not American, of course.
The thought occurs
that this is either the greatest practical joke in history, or these guys are seriously trying to force the public to rise up against this sort of stupidity.
That's the meeting we're having tomorrow at the docks.
Of course it's a long-term plan to provide more funding for America's military-industrial complex. They provoke us into rising pu against this, then declare us enemies of freedom and democracy and drop bombs on us.
Obviously!
Actually this is a bad satire of the things I've read on the more crazy sites out there but, there are times when I can almost believe it could come true...
So they can arrest you if you provide links to criminal activities. Hmmmmm...
I wonder why the CNN web site is still operational?
Simple; because they need that company to appear as a democratic country. Without that news agency the people wouldn't know who to vote for anymore.
Mafia at it again?
Wonder who has brought the charges and how will it be enforced. If there is a fine, who will get the money!
Reminds me of an old joke:
"A third world country person was once asked which side he would favour in the event of a Thirld World War.
Of course the Russians, he said proudly.
Why ??
Because, if I am captured as a POW, Ill get to stay in an American prison. "
So let them extradite half of European population there and see what happens. And there will be lots who have benefitted finanacially too.
Wankers, these yanks!
When he gets out, will he have spent enough time in the US to qualify for a Green Card?
Maybe there is a new way to 'sneak' in to the US, all expenses paid even.
Joke needs updating
On the other hand, if he gets KIA - his body will be urinated on.
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2012/01/varieties-of-pissing.html
"In the parlance of the day, or what would be that parlance if we spoke more plainly, we can say with accuracy and precision: The ruling class of the United States pisses on the entire world, just as it pisses on every human being who is not favored by privilege and power. This is the ultimate foundation of our lives today. This is the truth that will almost never be spoken."
@AC 19:59
"Maybe there is a new way to 'sneak' in to the US, all expenses paid even."
It will only be all expenses paid if he accepts the public defender assigned to the case. My guess is the U.S. Department of "Justice" is actually out to ruin him financially so he could count on the worst they can find or pony up the cash to buy someone more skilled. Either way they feel they win since their sense (a)morality is satisfied by a win and prison time or a loss and delivering financial ruin. What they don't understand is that their "example" making will do more to make a martyr in the eyes of most Americans. Sure the "mainstream" press will own the story up front but it will become pretty clear that they are just corporate lackeys owned by Disney, Vivendi, et al. Let the revulsion begin.
"Wankers, these yanks!"
Did you just invent a new word?
"Yankers"
Ooh, the downvotes from anyone over the pond who can read will be a record!!!
i think that
The average Yankee doodle will actually agree with us on this. Those that can read and spell that is.
"When he gets out, will he have spent enough time in the US to qualify for a Green Card?"
Well it didn't stop murdock....
Stop this right now
The Ministry of Justice (or whatever, meh) should commit to throwing this request out before it even gets here...
@AC
We have, like, an icon for that stuff. Saves us from having to read all those words ;-)
This country's a Joke.
I just hope that Scotland has the sense to no longer be part of it.
If you want to follow Ireland sterling lead please be my guest.
The scale of this legal president, if allowed through, is so shocking it would have been unbelievable 10 years ago. Its time people made a stand against this to send a clear warning to our leaders that a line has to be drawn against them and their endless abuses of our freedom and their manipulation of the law, to warp it to mean whatever they and their rich friends want it to mean.
This extradition law was brought in to stop terrorists. That was it, from what we were told. Now its being abused into a way to drag a 23-year-old student to America to stand trial for telling people where to find something! Seriously, do our leaders want a revolution against them and the growing global Corporatocracy that rules them and us?!
Its time a stand was made, because their kind are not going to stop pushing for ever more control without people standing up to them and saying no more. A limit has to be created somewhere!?!
The original mistake was the extradition law itself; that it would end up being abused like this was a given, regardless of its stated purpose. I remember saying so at the time.
@Drew V,”The original mistake was the extradition law itself “
I totally agree. I have said before I consider whoever signed the extradition law in are guilty of literally an act of treason against all of us and our country, by effectively handing control of our county and us, over on a plate.
The treaty is literally a blatant violation of allegiance to our own country by placing our citizens under the control and jurisdiction of another power. That is literally Treason to fail to show allegiance to protect our country and our citizens.
Our so called leaders have been going too far for ages, but this is the limit, we have got to the point now where we have to make a stand against them, because if we don't, they have endlessly shown they will continue to abuse our freedom ever more to do whatever they want to all of us. It really is time a stand was made, because their kind are not going to stop pushing for ever more control over all of us without people standing up to them and saying no more. A limit has to be created somewhere!?!
@Asgard
I agree, but who is going to do what about this? Unfortunately, most people don't care - it doesn't affect them. "It's just some bloke on the internets". Let's face it, if anyone cared the Doncaster Airport twitterer (Paul Chambers) would have had a lot more support, and pressure applied to change the law.
Many of us on El Reg have a very good idea of the dangers in these laws, but we are in the minority, sadly.
People who don't care about this are exhibiting the height of stupidity. As O'Dwyer's mother said, "it could have been any one of us". Any one of us who uses the internet could theoretically run afoul of American copyright bloodhounds. It does not get much more universal than this.
Maybe we should all travel with O'Dwyer to America (all of us who can afford the plane ticket, anyway) and demand to be arrested at the same time as him. Put us in jail! We will break this disgusting system by overloading it with a million extra living bodies, with the collective body politic itself.
@Drew V.
"Maybe we should all travel with O'Dwyer to America"
I think you'll find that the US border, courtesy of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance operation, now extends to quite a few international airports, they'll stop anyone who might embarrass them from ever travelling to the amerikan reich. If you want to make sure you wont be let travel to amerika, just wear a keffiyeh.
Any room available at Gitmo?
After the last successful suicide through the use of torn underpants, I mean.
Extradition treaty is not symatrical
> In her ruling District Judge Quentin Purdy rejected the defense arguments that extradition would be disproportionate to the crime, or that too long had passed since it had occurred, and said that there was sufficient criminal law on both sides of the Atlantic to have him shipped off to the US
Except the extradition treaty is not symatrical, as in on the the same grounds, an American citizen could not be extradited to the UK. But then again we're not an independent country ever since WW2 ...
Interesting, the number of empires that have been brought down by internal corruption combined with oppression. I wonder if we are witnessing the start of the next collapse.
@Will Godfrey
"I wonder if we are witnessing the start of the next collapse."
We can but hope.
Further proof that the British judiciary is now a spineless piece of sh*t that will do whatever it's told.
"The site had no content" - hold on, he's already said the site *did* have content - links to other sites.
IF YOU GO TO SHEFFIELD CENTRAL LENDING LIBRARY YOU CAN BORROW MOVIES AND WATCH THEM FOR FREE.
There. This website now has directions on how to obtain and watch movies for free. When are we going to get extradited?
@JGH
I'm not making any comment about the case here, but:
You do realise that libraries buy DVDs which are specifically allowed to be loaned? This costs them rather more than the fiver you pay at HMV.
My God. What have you done?
You've doomed us all! That's what!
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