Richard O’Dwyer, a 23-year-old computer science student at Sheffield Hallam University, faces extradition to the US on copyright infringement charges.
Richard ran a web site, TVShack.net, posting links to other sites where people could download copyrighted content including movies and TV programmes. Despite not breaching UK laws, US prosecutors demanded his extradition to the US where he could face up to 10 years imprisonment if found guilty. His extradition was cleared by a British court earlier this month.
Richard is appealing. The World Socialist Web Site spoke to his mother, Julia, about the case and its implications.
Julia: We don’t know the laws in America, and we follow British laws. But you can be doing something that is completely legitimate here that may be a crime in America. If they spot you doing something on the Internet that’s illegal in their country, they are able to come and get you and exert their jurisdiction. And, if you e-mail, fax or phone someone in America, then they will say that you’ve been in a conspiracy because there is somebody in America who you’ve communicated with........
WSWS: Under the European Arrest Warrant, they send people from all over Europe back to their own country on the basis of the flimsiest of accusations.
Julia: Every time we go to court, it’s crammed with a lot of east European people. They just take people for the most trivial offences, an unpaid mobile phone bill when it’s actually been paid. I’ve seen these. Some of them are true crimes, but the thing that annoys me is they are being sent back to their own country. This is Richard’s own country. He has never been to America or fled from it.
With America, it is a whole different treaty and law. It’s very difficult to fight because you’re not addressing the alleged crime. You are fighting the extradition law. When you go through the extradition courts, they want you to go to America to prove your innocence. They don’t want to be looking at the allegations against you.
WSWS: Richard has never broken any law in this country?
Julia: We have been led to understand that it’s not a crime in this country. To be extradited to America, the offence has to be a crime in both countries. When they ask for your extradition, they say, “What’s the equivalent charge in the UK?” So they’ll just write copyright infringement.
We have to prove what he did is not a crime in this country. The problem is the judges in the extradition court—they are not interested. Consequently, we lost that first fight at court. Richard’s barrister made the legal arguments in November, and the judge said, “You’ve got a good strong argument.” So did the prosecutor for the Americans. Then two hearings later, the judge tossed all that out of the window........
WSWS: We understood that if he is charged in America and found guilty, he could get a maximum of 10 years.
Julia: That’s the maximum. They always have to quote the maximum sentence. To be extradited from England, the penalty has to be no less than 12 months in prison. If Richard was accused and tried in this country, a first time offender is never going to be sent to prison for a copyright offence. Even if he was found guilty, he would get a fine. So they quote the maximum penalty.
In America, it is five years for each offence. They have Richard down for two offences, so that could be 10 years. I don’t think it’s likely, but you wouldn’t want to go to jail for 1 year, never mind 10.......
WSWS: There is a wider political issue in Richard’s case—and that is the attempts of the US government to clamp down on the freedom of the Internet and bring in new laws like SOPA, PIPA.
Julia: I don’t know the detail of these laws, but I can see that it’s about America trying to control and police the Internet. Well, it doesn’t belong to them, does it? It’s wrong that America should lay laws down on the Internet for other countries. I don’t think America should rule the world.