Abandoned by British justice: Student faces 10 years in U.S. jail for setting up 'illegal' website

A British student faces up to a decade in a U.S. prison for actions which are not even a crime in the UK. Campaigners say Richard O’Dwyer, 23, is being abandoned by his country in the same way as computer hacker Gary McKinnon. Mr O’Dwyer is accused of listing places where films and TV programmes could be illegally downloaded, on a website he ran from his university bedroom in Sheffield. Scroll down for video Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

Legal experts say this is not an offence under British law, and he did not download any of the entertainment himself. Yet the ‘quiet and vulnerable’ son of a GP could spend ten years in a high-security American jail after he lost his fight against extradition yesterday. The case has chilling similarities with the attempt by the U.S. to extradite Asperger’s sufferer Mr McKinnon, who hacked into Pentagon computers from his north London bedroom Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

mORE NEWS CLICK LINKS: www.dail... ymail.co.uk/news/article-2086310/Richard-ODwyer-extradition-Student-faces-10-years-US-jail-echo-Gary-McKinnon.html




Site is hosted in Australia, not US. so US has no legal jurisdiction under its own laws. No crime has been committed even if his site was hosted in the US, if what he did [provide a landing page with links to files sharing sites] was illegal in the US, then Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Bing etc are all guilty of this crime and should expect to face the same penalties. This a political move aimed at establishing America as the worlds internet police, and our politicians have abdicated their duty to protect the citizens of this country, by doing this they have abdicated their right to govern. We need to take this to the European court [human rights] and get this obscene agreement voided. Meanwhile can all of you please report google etc to the US state prosecutors office for this 'crime' and demand action. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...[/color ]

Seized: The message from the authorities now displayed at O'Dwyer's TVShack web address Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

edit on 15-1-2012 by Illuminati_2012 because: (no reason given)

Yeah read this. Pretty disgusting really, we bending over to the us masters again.

Its time to stand up for our rights. Our biggest problem is fear we must never let ourselves be ruled by fear.

In addition many people just dont give a s**t unless things affect them. These people have no friggin idea what a community is. We need to be individuals standing up for each other, not indiduals who dont care about eachother.

reply to post by Illuminati_2012


Ugh, theyre really cracking down on us because of SOPA. Best thing you can do is if you like to steal stuff off the internet by illegal downloading, you better break yourself of that habit. Used to be they wouldn't come after you unless you were pirating the content for monetary gain (like China and S. Korea like to do) but not anymore. If you use Vuze you better uninstall that sh*t and forget about downloading crap. It doesn't matter if somoene has uploaded their copy they bought, the content is owned and copyrighted.

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
reply to post by Illuminati_2012

 

May not be a crime in the U.K. but when youre in a other country, you have to obey their laws same as we have to obey your laws if we go to the U.K. There's been many an american citizen that ends up locked up abroad for breaking other countries' laws. It behooves you to learn the laws of the place you go to visit and obey them because you are expected to act like you are a citizen while youre in the U.S.

The internet doesn't belong to the US??
He made the site in the UK and lived and studied in the UK??

How is it any of America's business?

This is what I posted in the other thread too...

Originally posted by blupblup
This is a joke.. I hope he doesn't get extradited, it seems to be one way traffic.
Also the judge even said it was a minor offence and would not be an extradition case.... now all of a sudden the US want this student.... for what? Providing links?

Hell ATS has done the same.... most sites online link to movies and shows and stuff.


The guy kept no stuff on his site and did not break the laws.


I hope they tell the US immigration and Customs agency to go F themselves.

Originally posted by blupblup

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
reply to post by Illuminati_2012

 

May not be a crime in the U.K. but when youre in a other country, you have to obey their laws same as we have to obey your laws if we go to the U.K. There's been many an american citizen that ends up locked up abroad for breaking other countries' laws. It behooves you to learn the laws of the place you go to visit and obey them because you are expected to act like you are a citizen while youre in the U.S.

The internet doesn't belong to the US??
He made the site in the UK and lived and studied in the UK??

How is it any of America's business?

Doesn't matter, if the content being downloaded belongs to any company in the U.S. they have the right to press charges. Hollywood is out for blood over this kind of stuff and so is the music business. It's all about the money.

Surely what he did was no different than what google does every day? Don't see anyone hauling them into court.

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000

Doesn't matter, if the content being downloaded belongs to any company in the U.S. they have the right to press charges. Hollywood is out for blood over this kind of stuff and so is the music business. It's all about the money.

He didn't keep any content on his site? He didn't download anything?
It's a private case and one of those companies should take him to court and not the US immigration and customs agency.

It has nothing to do with the US

Nothing.

I can't believe things like this are still happening. This is like the great Google debate. They link to tons of places to download movies, yet they remain untouched.

Never did make sense to me. Hope this kids brings up some of the old google trials to get himself out of this. Long as he agrees to take down links as they are reported.

Welcome to Hollywood

He is a british citizen, if the USA wanted him, they need to start a war with Britain first, no way this guy would just go over to the USA and turn himself in lmao.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
Surely what he did was no different than what google does every day? Don't see anyone hauling them into court.

You`re absolutely right.
Google gives you links to anything.
The UK government are a disgrace for letting the US dictate to them.

Wonder what the UK would have done had it been the Chinese or Russians.

reply to post by blupblup


Well said!

reply to post by Illuminati_2012


The US has no right to take down a website in another country. WE ARE NOT TEAM AMERICA WOLD POLICE.

already a thread on this soon to be poor sod and family.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

regards f.

How come we do not extradite businessmen from Saudi Arabia and China who make a fortune on copying books, movies, music. Additionally China also copies musical instrument, cars, and airplanes.

Instead we go after a kid who is not a businessman.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


It is not and cannot be stealing. If I copy what you have I didn't steal it. You still have yours. You can't steal media like that. Not possible.

I have 60 cds and 3,000 mp3's. I would have never in a million years have bought enough albums to recreate my mp3 collection. That is zero lost sales. I have however bought a dozen of my cds after downloading them free online. Sales that otherwise would not have been made.

Maybe if they put more effort into making new media that is entertaining instead of the sewage they try to pass off as music and movies they wouldn't be losing money.

And again, if they would make copyright s reasonable term of 20 years this would all be moot anyway. It is mind boggling to think that a song is more valuable than any invention.

Ironic how people jump on this guys band wagon with the argument he broke no domestic laws yet the same people have argued in other threads that Bush should be charged for war crimes, even though he broke no US domestic laws.

Contrary to the claims the guy did break a law in the UK. The UK is a signatory to the UN treaty on copyright / trademarks, and as such the guy broke the law.

He is not being charged under any anti terror legislation either and the only reason thats being invoked is to play on sensationalism. Also he has not even been formally arraigned yet, let alone a trial so the insinuation he is going to spend 10 years in prison, is again, sensationalism designed to play on the fears of the people and grandstanding for the media.

Now with all this being said the entire incident may very well be a moot point with the latest supreme court ruling that downloading / streaming does not constitute a public performance. Since the ruling came after the charges against this guy, the ruling doesn't really apply however the argument can be made using the ruling that the law was flawed from the start and the charges should be chucked.

If anything I see this going down the road of case law in favor of the defendant and not the government.

reply to post by Illuminati_2012


reply to post by isyeye


The UK should in this instance tell the US to # right off... Really keep your laws in the US. Dl music is a worse crime than killing someone. Its messed up.



and who are the people you are taking from..

Originally posted by purplemer


The UK should in this instance tell the US to # right off... Really keep your laws in the US. Dl music is a worse crime than killing someone. Its messed up.

It's more than messed up. Don't forget that this week we got the news that a US marine is going to suffer little more than a demotion after admitting to leading a massacre of Iraqi civilians including children.
edition.cnn.com...
Pirating from the rich is clearly more heinous than a war crime.
Priorities anyone?