Richard O'Dwyer: Lib Dems fight to halt extradition to US on piracy charges
Source: The Guardian
Richard O'Dwyer: Lib Dems fight to halt extradition to US on piracy charges
Sheffield student – who founded tvshack.net website – faces 10
years in high-security prison
James Ball
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 April 2012 21.30 BST
The government is coming under cross-party pressure from within the coalition to stay the extradition of a Sheffield student who founded a website sharing links to TV shows, and to review the US extradition treaty in the wake of the case.
The home secretary Theresa May signed an extradition order last month for Richard O'Dwyer, 23, to be sent to the US, where he faces 10 years in high-security prison.
O'Dwyer founded a website, tvshack.net, in 2007, which acted as a search engine for people to find out where they could watch and in some cases download popular TV shows, typically programmes not yet available outside America. Some of the links led to legal sources, others to unauthorised sites.
The president of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, called on Theresa May to review her decision to approve the "ludicrous" extradition, while Conservative backbenchers said extraditions such as O'Dwyer's serve as "a thorn in the side of the special relationship".
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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/18/richard-odwyer-extradition-piracy-charges