British student faces extradition to US over copyright infringement

A 23-year old student of Sheffield Hallam University in the UK faces possible extradition to the United States for linking to copyrighted content on his website. The student has set up a website with links to thousands of films and TV shows. His website, TV Shack, did not directly host any illegal files, however.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement decided to seize the website and request for the extradition of the British student, after his arrest on May 23. The website now only shows a government announcement of the seizure. If found guilty of large scale copyright infringements in the U.S., the young man can expect up to five years inprisonment.

The student is determined to fight the extradition attempt and his mother has pleaded with the UK government to "bring some common sense" to the entire affair and deny the extradition demand, which she called disproportionate, unnecessary and deeply traumatic.

Ben Cooper, the family’s lawyer, has expressed good hopes that the student can remain in England. He never hosted the copyrighted content himself and the server was not based in the US. Furthermore, extradition would be a disproportionate measure, considering the nature of the alleged crime. Mr. Cooper is also defending alleged military hacker Gary McKinnon, who equally faces extradition to the US. In the latter case, the Americans brought forward additional –and probably justifiable- concerns of national security. At this stage, it is unknown whether such additional reasons are necessary to support an extradition for copyright infringement. According to the US-UK Extradition Treaty of 2003, the Americans only need a ‘reasonable suspicion’ of a criminal offense to formally request extradition.

References: El Pais, The Inquirer, The Telegraph