Digital piracy

In recent weeks, a British student has been named in an extradition case filed against him by American law enforcement authorities.

The United States Department of Justice charged Richard O'Dwyer, 23, with violating American intellectual property laws via his website, TVShack.net. That domain name was seized by American officials in May 2011 and now displays a message listing the penalties for copyright infringement.

TVShack.net did not actually host any files - usually TV shows and movies - but provided links to other websites where the material could be found. Earlier this year, the US shut down TVShack, along with a hundred other similar sites as part of "Operation in Our Sites."

The site was specifically named in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) press release from June 2010.

"ICE and our partners at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center are targeting pirate websites run by people who have no respect for creativity and innovation," John Morton, ICE's assistant secretary, said in the statement. "We are dedicated to protecting the jobs, the income and the tax revenue that disappear when organized criminals traffic in stolen movies for their own profit."

Through his attorneys, O'Dwyer declined to be interviewed for this story.

American authorities pursuing digital piracy

While the US Department of Justice has been aggressively pursuing websites that host or link to unauthorized copies of TV shows, movies and music, this is the first time that Washington has actively attempted to extradite someone alleged to have broken American laws from outside the United States. O'Dwyer will face an extradition hearing in the United Kingdom in September.

"I think in terms of extradition, it's the first time for hosting or linking," said David Cook, a lawyer and digital crime expert based in Manchester.

He said it's premature for the United States to be seeking Richard O'Dwyer's extradition for something may not even be illegal in the UK.

"If you make a collection on your website of links to different websites from which you can download material which may or may not be copyrighted, but you don't know for sure, that is the basis on which they are attempting to extradite O'Dwyer," he said.

"Now it would be a different case entirely if he was hosting the material and was openly flouting US policy," he told Deutsche Welle. "Mr. O'Dwyer is so far removed from the commission of the offence and the real culpability that in UK law, I'm not sure he'd be convicted."

However, that hasn't convinced industry bodies such as the UK Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT).

Although the organization hasn't been involved in the O'Dwyer case, and doesn't allege that he stole from its members, FACT routinely provides information to the police on alleged copyright infringement.

"If you're setting up a website today that is going to be harvesting all the pirate content that you can find for the film industry and then you're making that available to people globally, and you have advertising, you may even be charging for membership, or asking for donations, you've pretty much set out to do something quite deliberately," said Eddy Leviten, a spokesperson for the organization.

Leviten estimated that the UK film and television industry loses over a 100 million British pounds (114 million euros, $163 million) per year because of online piracy.

Legal questions remain

But legal experts note that the question concerning the legality of O'Dwyer's site is just one aspect of this landmark case. They argued that the case also addresses the issue of who polices the Internet.

The American government said it has jurisdiction over O'Dwyer because his site - like all domains with .com and .net addresses - are routed through Verisign, a key Internet infrastructure company that is physically located in the American state of Virginia.

"The suggestion that anyone commits an act that may or may not be a crime in the US is liable under their jurisdiction because they do so through a dot-com or dot-net domain is quite worrying," said Pete Bradwell, an activist with Open Rights, a UK-based digital rights group. "And I think it's pretty egregious to try and extradite him under these circumstances."

Bradwell also told Deutsche Welle that he's worried that the US is using the O'Dwyer case to assert legal control over parts of the Internet.

"I don't see how it particularly makes any difference [that his domain was routed through the US]," said Cook, the Manchester attorney.

"For example what would happen if they used proxy server in UK, and the information was passed through that proxy server, they would then have a link back to UK. If it went through China, would people be extradited to China?"

While O'Dwyer said he shutdown TVShack after the first enquiries from police, a similar-looking site with the .bz domain name is still up and running. Sites with the .bz domain are registered by the University of Belize.

But intellectual property owners, like the companies represented at groups such as FACT, and their counterparts around the globe, said they need to stand firm to oppose what they view as theft.

"If we have cases that need work outside UK we've got have partner organizations that work in different territories," Leviten said. "Or we'll pass it over to a law enforcement body in a different territory via those partners."

Author: Robin Powell, London / cjf
Editor: Sean Sinico