According to the Metro, the owner of TV Shack Richard O'Dwyer is facing extradition to the states over copyright infringement.
I don't know where to start with this - Not only were the servers not hosted in the states, but they also did not host any infringing material. For those of you that don't know, these sites work by providing links to other sites on which TV shows and movies can be found, meaning that the infringement is actually happening on these other hosts servers.
So why aren't they going after these other hosts? Simple. Because they can't. Mostly the videos are uploaded to legitimate video hosting sites (Similar to YouTube) by members of the public. Under Americas DMCA laws, the hosts are not liable so long as they take down this material when properly notified. This means that they would have to go after the up-loaders. Of course this is difficult, time consuming and ineffective because there are many up-loaders (There's a clue there Corporate America - People want to access content this way) so they don't bother - they try to twist the rules to suit themselves, meaning people like Richard getting caught in the middle.
Did I mention that copyright isn't clearly a crime under either American or UK law? There isn't sufficient case law yet, and as it stands its closer to a civil matter than a criminal one. Yet they want to extradite him to the states to face (I assume) criminal charges.
All of this is smack in the middle of his university education, so whatever else happens, "they" will get to see him punished by wrecking the final stage of his education. Look at the stress Gary McKinnon is under - imagine trying to get through uni with that happening to you. Guaranteed victory for some American corporations at the cost of on of our own.
There is something fundamentally wrong here, and it genuinely frightens and angers me that our government does not seem to realize it.
I don't know where to start with this - Not only were the servers not hosted in the states, but they also did not host any infringing material. For those of you that don't know, these sites work by providing links to other sites on which TV shows and movies can be found, meaning that the infringement is actually happening on these other hosts servers.
So why aren't they going after these other hosts? Simple. Because they can't. Mostly the videos are uploaded to legitimate video hosting sites (Similar to YouTube) by members of the public. Under Americas DMCA laws, the hosts are not liable so long as they take down this material when properly notified. This means that they would have to go after the up-loaders. Of course this is difficult, time consuming and ineffective because there are many up-loaders (There's a clue there Corporate America - People want to access content this way) so they don't bother - they try to twist the rules to suit themselves, meaning people like Richard getting caught in the middle.
Did I mention that copyright isn't clearly a crime under either American or UK law? There isn't sufficient case law yet, and as it stands its closer to a civil matter than a criminal one. Yet they want to extradite him to the states to face (I assume) criminal charges.
All of this is smack in the middle of his university education, so whatever else happens, "they" will get to see him punished by wrecking the final stage of his education. Look at the stress Gary McKinnon is under - imagine trying to get through uni with that happening to you. Guaranteed victory for some American corporations at the cost of on of our own.
There is something fundamentally wrong here, and it genuinely frightens and angers me that our government does not seem to realize it.
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