I'm signing the petition because I don't believe he should be extradited, however it's quite clear that he broke the law and was profiting from his crimes. I hope this petition is only against extradition and he will still be charged here in the UK.
> The case was brought by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which claims that the TVShack.net website earned more than $230,000 (£147,000) in advertising revenue before US authorities obtained a warrant and seized the domain name in June 2010.
I have been unable to find any evidence that he has denied this claim, so I am assuming that what the ICE claimed is accurate. TVShack.net (and TVShack.cc) were very high traffic websites (top 1000 at their highest according to Alexa) and based on my own knowledge of advertising revenues at such volumes of traffic the suggestion that he earned >$200,000 is one that I don't have a hard time believing.
Specific to whether or not he committed a crime, a UK Judge has said he did:
> during O'Dwyer's extradition hearing, it was held by the Judge that the offences alleged were also illegal under UK law.
Earning money via advertising is not a crime. Google does this.
Annoyingly, O'Dwyer's wikipedia article is scant for information on UK charges & the reasons for extradition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_ODwyer. If anything, it is quite unclear which UK laws he has broken.
Also just to add, If he did start providing evidence as to why he didnt break the laws (UK/US), it would show that he has a reason to extradited. (in order to defend the claims against him)
"His extradition hearings are based solely on proving he has a case to answer in the US" - [1]
"O'Dwyer cannot present an in-depth response to the allegations he faces during his extradition cases, as these need only prove he has a case to answer and the actions" - [2]
So it could be argued that it's possible that the ICE intentionally made misleading claims (eg: he earned $230k) in the hope that it would force him to address the claims and then cause justification for the extradition?
Maybe, although i'm sure he has said he did receive this money, but was spent on hosting bills etc, so he wasnt really earning anywhere near that amount.
