Andre Yoskowitz
29 Nov 2012 0:01
In March, we reported that 23-year-old British student Richard O'Dwyer was set to be extradited to the U.S. to face multiple copyright infringement charges, despite never having been to the country.
O'Dwyer was the former owner and creator of TVShack, and his plight will have set an unfortunate precedence in the UK, as others in the future could likely have faced similar charges. O'Dwyer, according to UK law, is completely innocent, but he is not so in the U.S.
TVShack was a streaming link aggregator site that hosted no content itself but linked to third-party sites, (like Megavideo), where users could stream unauthorized TV and movies for free.
This week, the student has struck a deal to avoid extradition that will only require him to pay a nomial fine. O'Dwyer will now voluntarily travel to the U.S. to sign the agreement.
In their original claim, the U.S. ICE claimed TVShack had made over $200,000 in advertising revenue from the site.