The US has sought the extradition of the UK’s Richard O’Dwyer since May 2011 in relation to alleged copyright infringement through his website, TVShack.net (link shows the US take-down notice followed by an anti-piracy video). Home secretary Theresa May approved the extradition in March 2012. This is currently being appealed.
“I am writing to you to stop the extradition of British citizen, Richard O'Dwyer to the USA,” states Wales’ new petition. It points out that O’Dwyer is not a US citizen, and did not operate in the US. “I don’t understand why America is trying to prosecute a UK citizen for an alleged crime which took place on UK soil.”
In his explanatory notes, Wales says that O’Dwyer “did his best to play by the rules.” Whenever he received a takedown notice, he complied; and his “site hosted links, not copyrighted content, and these were submitted by users.”
Wales is concerned that the unfettered rise of copyright enforcement is impinging on civil liberties. Copyright is important, but it “does not mean that we should abandon time-honored moral and legal principles to allow endless encroachments on our civil liberties in the interests of the moguls of Hollywood.”
In an accompanying op-ed in the Guardian's comment is free, Wales notes, “From the beginning of the internet, we have seen a struggle between the interests of the ‘content industry’ and the general public. Due to heavy lobbying and much money lavished on politicians, until very recently the content industry has won every battle. Internet users handed the industry its first major defeat earlier this year with the epic Sopa-Pipa protests... O'Dwyer is the human face of that battle, and if he's extradited and convicted, he will bear the human cost.”
While writing this report, the number of signatures to Wales’ petition rose from 8385 to 13,550.