Richard O'Dwyer strikes deal with US authorities to avoid extradition

Richard O'Dwyer will not now be extradited to the US after reaching an agreement with US authorities.

The 24 year old university student, who was facing up to 10 years in a US jail, has signed a draft "deferred prosecution" and will now have to travel voluntarily to the US and pay compensation, the UK High court was told.

Read more: Filesharing news | copyright news

According to the BBC, Sir John Thomas, president of the Queen's Bench Division said the deal was a "very satisfactory outcome" to the long-running and highly controversial case.

O'Dwyer set up the TV Shack website, which offered links to websites where people could download TV programmes and films free of charge four years ago.

The site was closed down and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency then began pursuing O'Dwyer for piracy offences because it said he had generated thousands of dollars in advertising revenue.

Its application for O'Dwyer to be extradited to face charges in the US was approved by Home Secretary Theresa May in January. This prompted a huge outcry and anger with Wiki founder Jimmy Wales setting up an online petition to save O'Dwyer which gained over a quarter of a million signatures.

The argument against his extradition was if he had committed any offence it was on UK soil and he should face charges in the English courts.The news that the extradition attempt has been dropped comes just over a month after May blocked attempts to extradite Gary McKinnon to the US.

However last month O'Dwyer's mother Julia had told us she was less than hopeful her son would be as lucky.

Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group welcomed the decision to drop the extradition request made for Richard O'Dwyer.

"It's great that the extradition request will be dropped. But we must remember that without this deal, he was due to be sent to the USA for an alleged crime apparently committed in the UK.

"Is the UK government happy for the US to assume jurisdiction over every UK Internet user? The government would do well to take a long hard look at its extradition arrangements with the USA," he said.