The "Long Arm of the Law", in this case, US Law, is stretching out across the Atlantic to prosecute persecute a British student for "links".
In an Extradition Hearing today, the UK Court is allowing the extradition of a British Subject, Richard O'Dwyer, 23, whose crime was setting up a website that "linked" to sources that the US Authorities are claiming breached copyright.
There was no copyright material on the site, not any down-loading facilities from it. This guy's "crime" was to simply link to sites that do contain copyright materials.
BBC has the story:
Mr O'Dwyer's lawyer, Ben Cooper, indicated during the hearing that he would appeal against the ruling.
Mr Cooper said the website did not store copyright material itself and merely directed users to other sites, making it similar to Google.
He also argued that his client, who would be the first British citizen to be extradited for such an offence, was being used as a "guinea pig" for copyright law in the US.
This puts at risk EVERY website that contains links to any sites that the US deems in breach of copyright. Facebook, Blogs the world over, and this one, Daily Kos.
In this case there was no "cease and desist" order, no warning, no communication of any kind. The US seized the domain name and closed it. When the guy re-established the site, UK and US Police arrested him and seized his computer equipment.
No charges, of any kind, have been made in the UK, but the UK is prepared to allow a British Citizen to be extradited to a foreign country, simply because that country demanded it.
The US has provided no prima facia evidence that a crime has been committed, and, what is more, THEY DO NOT NEED TO.
Under the terms of the UK/US Extradition Treaty, all the US has to do is ask the UK to hand over its own citizens, and the UK has to comply. This abandonment of Sovereign Protections for the citizens of the UK is shameful.
Indeed it doesn't work the other way round. It is incredibly difficult for the UK to gain the extradition of a US citizen from the United States.
More from the BBC on extradition:
The Home Office's extradition review argued that there was no real difference between the US tests of "probable cause" and the introduction of "reasonable suspicion".
The panel said that both tests amounted to the basic standard of proof used by police officers in both countries to make an arrest.
But critics say that's a red herring. Campaign group Friends Extradited says the real issue of imbalance is that while the US courts don't allow an extradition until a judge has examined the quality of the evidence, because of the constitutional rights of the suspect, a British judge is merely examining the quality of the application - not the case the individual faces on arrival in the US.
It is likely that this case, and there may be others, is being used to "test" the new and draconian powers codified into SOPA. Although one wonders why they need SOPA if they already have the Government extraditing foreigners to the United States, to face criminal sanctions merely for "linking" to other sites.
This is not the first time that the British have abandoned their own citizens. In a previous well-publicised incident, three British Bankers suffered a similar fate
You can read all the grisly details here.