Two years ago,
Richard O'Dwyer was in his second year of college in the U.K. In his spare time
he ran a website that acted as a search engine for users to find links to watch
TV and movies online.
He respected
the rules -- deleting content when he received requests to remove it. But
despite this, he’s now been accused of copyright violation and could
face 10 years in a U.S. prison, after the British Home Secretary,
Theresa May, signed an extradition order in March.
Richard is not
a U.S. citizen, he's lived in the U.K. all his life, his site was not hosted
there, and most of his users were not from the U.S. The U.S. is trying
to prosecute a U.K. citizen for an alleged crime which took place on U.K.
soil.
Given the thin
case against him, it is an outrage that he is being extradited to the U.S. to
face charges. That's why I've just launched a petition on Change.org
to stop his extradition -- and why I hope you will sign it today. Click here to
sign the petition.
When I met
Richard, he struck me as a clean-cut, geeky kid. Still a student, he reminds me
of many great entrepreneurs and the kind of person I can imagine launching the
next Wikipedia or YouTube.
Copyright
matters but from the beginning of the internet, we have seen a struggle between
the interests of the "content industry" and the general public.
Richard
is the human face of that battle, and if he's extradited and convicted,
he will bear the very real human cost.
The internet as
a whole must not tolerate censorship as a response to mere allegations of
copyright infringement. As citizens we must stand up for our rights
online.
Together, the
public won the battle against SOPA and PIPA. We proved that when we work
together we can protect freedom on the internet. Together, I know we
can win this battle too.
Thanks,
- Jimmy Wales,
Wikipedia Founder
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