Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has launched a petition to stop the extradition of TV Shack founder Richard O’Dwyer’s to the US over copyright infringements calling O’Dwyer the “human face” of the interests of the general public versus the content industry.
In an open letter to the guardian Wales begins his argument by stressing that he supports copyright laws, but added “much of what you will hear about the case of Richard O'Dwyer will be misleading propaganda designed to persuade you that people who defend him are defending copyright violation or "piracy". At least in my case, nothing could be further from the truth.”
Wales also points out that though O’Dwyer amassed links to many copyrighted TV shows he did remove links when asked to do so – linking to copyrighted content isn’t illegal under UK law but which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison stateside.
Wales wrote: “Given the thin case against him, it is an outrage that he is being extradited to the US to face felony charges. No US citizen has ever been brought to the UK for alleged criminal activity on US soil. There is a disparity here that ought to raise concerns at the highest levels of government in both the US and UK.”
Home Secretary Theresa May signed O’Dwyer’s extradition order in March.
Write Your Comment