14 DAY TRIAL // Jimmy Wales' recent petition to block the extradition of Brit Richard O’Dwyer to the US has a small chance of being successful, it seems. O'Dwyer is accused of various copyright infringement related offenses in the US, despite being a UK citizen and hosting a site outside of the US.
There has been quite an outcry over the matter in the UK since it would essentially mean the extradition of someone that hasn't done anything illegal in the UK. Several similar cases went to court in the country only to have the owners of the site found not-guilty.
Not wanting to risk this again, perhaps, the media industry's lobbying groups want an extradition. And the UK courts are more than happy to grant it. The Home Office secretary also indicated that she had no problem with the extradition.
Adding to the voices against the move is Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. He created an online petition asking to block the extradition. The petition has been signed by some 200,000 people in the past week or so.
But that doesn't mean anything to the British authorities that are determined to go through with the matter, pending, of course, the result of the appeal O'Dwyer filed.
"Richard O'Dwyer is wanted in the US for offences related to copyright infringement," the Home Office told V3.
"The UK courts found there were no statutory bars to his surrender under the Extradition Act 2003 and on 9 March the Home Secretary, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for his extradition to the US," it said.
In essence, the Home Office makes it clear that it's not going to be swayed by popular opinion no matter how loud or many the detractors are.
Granted, justice is supposed to follow the law and not popular opinion, but the law should also follow the socially accepted norms. And in the case of copyright infringement, the law is awfully out of sync with what the people think is normal and acceptable.