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Richard O'Dwyer

Richard O'Dwyer (born 5 May 1988) is a British computer programmer who created the TVShack.net website while a student at Sheffield Hallam University.In May 2011, the U.S. Justice Department sought to extradite O'Dwyer from the UK in relation to the website.The site did not host any infringing media, but American authorities say it contained indexed links to media hosted on other sites, and defined it as a "linking" website.The Southern District Court in New York charged O'Dwyer with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal infringement of copyright. Richard O'Dwyer's lawyers opposed extradition, stating that the site acted as a mere conduit, and should be afforded the same protection given to search engines such as Google and Yahoo!. In addition, his lawyers argued that any criminal prosecution should be brought in the UK, as TVShack was not hosted on American servers.On 13 January 2012, UK District Judge Quentin Purdy rejected those arguments and ruled that O'Dwyer could be extradited to the U.S. to face copyright infringement allegations. The extradition order was approved by UK Home Secretary Theresa May in March, 2012, and O'Dwyer launched an appeal.On 28 November 2012, it was announced that O'Dwyer had signed a deferred prosecution agreement to avoid extradition. He was ordered to pay a fine of £20,000 and remain in contact with a US correctional officer over the next six months. In return, the US would drop all charges.Judge Sir John Thomas called the outcome "very satisfactory", adding, "It would be very nice for everyone if this was resolved happily before Christmas".