Wiki founder criticises student's extradition
26 Jun 2012 12:07 PM GMT
Jimmy Wales, the creator of online giant Wikipedia, has launched a petition against the extradition to the USA of a British student accused of copyright infringement. The founder of the free Internet encyclopedia said that Richard O'Dwyer, a 23-year-old student at Sheffield Hallam University in northern England, had been caught in a war being fought by 'content providers' and Internet users.
The British home secretary Theresa May approved the deportation of O'Dwyer, who created a website allowing people to watch films and television shows for free, in March.
Wales launched the petition on Sunday on The Guardian newspaper's website, and accused the 'moguls of Hollywood' of using their muscle to bring about 'endless encroachments on our civil liberties'.
O'Dwyer allegedly earned tens of thousands of pounds through advertising on the TVShack website before it was closed down by the US authorities.
Wales said the student 'struck me as a clean-cut, geeky kid' when they had met and 'precisely the kind of person one can imagine launching the next big thing on the Internet'.
'Given the thin case against him, it is an outrage that he is being extradited to the US to face felony charges,' he wrote in the Guardian.
The entertainment industry has been fighting a running battle with websites over their illegal use of copyrighted material.
'O'Dwyer is the human face of that battle, and if he's extradited and convicted, he will bear the human cost,' warned Wales.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office, Britain's interior ministry, said the government had found 'no statutory bars to his surrender' when approving his extradition.
'On March 9 the Home Secretary, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for Richard O'Dwyer's extradition to the US,' she said.
O'Dwyer's mother Julia said her son was being 'sold down the river' by the British government.
'If Richard appears to have committed a crime in this country, then try him in this country,' she said.
The student would be the first British citizen extradited for such an offence. He faces jail if found guilty of the charges, which were brought after a crackdown by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The British home secretary Theresa May approved the deportation of O'Dwyer, who created a website allowing people to watch films and television shows for free, in March.
Wales launched the petition on Sunday on The Guardian newspaper's website, and accused the 'moguls of Hollywood' of using their muscle to bring about 'endless encroachments on our civil liberties'.
O'Dwyer allegedly earned tens of thousands of pounds through advertising on the TVShack website before it was closed down by the US authorities.
Wales said the student 'struck me as a clean-cut, geeky kid' when they had met and 'precisely the kind of person one can imagine launching the next big thing on the Internet'.
'Given the thin case against him, it is an outrage that he is being extradited to the US to face felony charges,' he wrote in the Guardian.
The entertainment industry has been fighting a running battle with websites over their illegal use of copyrighted material.
'O'Dwyer is the human face of that battle, and if he's extradited and convicted, he will bear the human cost,' warned Wales.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office, Britain's interior ministry, said the government had found 'no statutory bars to his surrender' when approving his extradition.
'On March 9 the Home Secretary, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for Richard O'Dwyer's extradition to the US,' she said.
O'Dwyer's mother Julia said her son was being 'sold down the river' by the British government.
'If Richard appears to have committed a crime in this country, then try him in this country,' she said.
The student would be the first British citizen extradited for such an offence. He faces jail if found guilty of the charges, which were brought after a crackdown by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
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