Slashdot Mirror
US Government Seeks Extradition of UK Student For File-Sharing
Gimble writes "The BBC reports that UK student Richard O'Dwyer has lost a legal battle to block his extradition to the U.S., where he faces copyright infringement charges for running a file sharing site (ruling). O'Dwyer operated the site 'TV-Shack' from 2007 until 2010, which didn't offer any files itself, but posted links to streams and files hosted elsewhere. O'Dwyer was first arrested in June last year by British police acting on information from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The domestic investigation was subsequently dropped, but Mr. O'Dwyer was re-arrested in May on an extradition warrant to face charges in America."
Next up: Extradition because you violated a website's policies.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Boycott. Stop watching, stop buying, stop feeding these asshole media publishers. If you must buy, buy used.
It's funny you should mention that.
The entire framework of diplomacy and international relations is predicated on the principle of sovereignty, which is being joyously trampled here.
It just means that the UK is not a real country, but rather a protectorate or colony of the US. Here's to hoping the Scots wake up and head for the exit this time around.
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
The UK has fairly similar copyright laws to the US. Running a torrent site probably isn't illegal in either country as it's only a link, not the actual file. But if it *IS* illegal in one then it's quite probably illegal in the other.
Morally it's all a bit of a mess. The movie and music industries are morally vaccuous, but that doesn't make this kid a good guy. If the accusation is right that he's made "over $230,000 in advertising revenue" from enabling other people to avoid paying for consuming the results of artistic creativity, then he's in the wrong too. However extraditing from a friendly nation with similar copyright laws seems to be vastly overstepping the mark.
The problem now is even if everyone stops watching movies and listening to music RIAA and MPAA wil simply claim that it is because of the piracy and we need a media tax. Say 20% of your total income. Or 50%. That sounds fair. And if you don't like it, there is nowhere you can go, as US is expanding their policies bought by RIAA and MPAA and paid for by your money to other countries as well.
Getting as many people on the watchlist creates the fine-grained control the government appears to want. Seems that the powers-that-wanna-be took lessions from Lavrentiy Beria.
Comrade Beria was 'Uncle Joe' Stalin's hatchetman in the NKVD, precourser to the KGB. He came up through the Party ranks in the original 'Cheka' by reputedly setting up his superiors in some kind of scandal, usually coming up with evidence of sexual scandals, either real or manufactured. When his boss resigned in disgrace, Comrade Beria was standing there ready to go to work in his new job, usually purging possibly disloyal 'coworkers' in the process.
When 'Uncle Joe' died, Beria was the frontrunner to become the 'big boss' of the Soviet Union, until Nikita Khrushchev, Gregori Malenkov, and Vyacheslav Molotov (of 'Molotov Cocktail' fame) had him arrested on over 150 counts of rape, sodomy, child molestation, and abuse of office. In the 'investigation' that followed, he was tried for high treason and reputedly executed in December 1953, although apocryphal evidence claims he was actually shot and killed during his arrest in July '53.
Whether Beria did what they say he did is immaterial. The lession we garner from the events is, it just don't matter what you do, at the end of the day, if the powers-that-wanna-be want you bad enough, they'll find a way.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.