A man has been convicted on conspiracy charges concerning his operation of surfthechannel.com, a web site giving links to TV and video content.
Newcastle crown court heard Anton Vickerman's website had up to four hundred,000 users daily and created concerning £35,000 a month in revenue. whereas UK prosecutors didn't pursue a case on copyright offences, Vickerman was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and faces sentencing next month.
The conviction will increase pressure to halt plans to extradite Sheffield student Richard O'Dwyer to the US on copyright charges concerning a way smaller web site. At its peak, O'Dwyer's website reached concerning three hundred,000 users a month and was estimated by prosecutors to possess taken approximately £147,000 in revenue over around 3 years.
Supporters of O'Dwyer argue that if he's to face trial it ought to be within the UK instead of the US.
Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, launched a modification.org petition against the O'Dwyer extradition try within the Guardian on Monday, that at the time of writing had over eighty seven,000 signatories.
Among them were 2 members of the Commons culture, media and sport choose committee – its Labour deputy chairman, Tom Watson, and Conservative MP Louise Mensch.
Politicians of all parties have raised the O'Dwyer case, as well as home affairs committee chair Keith Vaz, former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell, Lib Dem president Tim Farron, Conservative MPs David Davis and Dominic Raab, and inexperienced MP Caroline Lucas.
Also among the signatories of Wales's petition was Graham Linehan, author of the sitcoms The IT Crowd, Black Books and Father Ted, who said the prosecution itself – not simply the potential extradition – was a cause for alarm.
"It simply looks to me that folks like Richard are being punished for having the ability to navigate the fashionable world," said Linehan. "The web has modified everything, they are doing what comes naturally in these new, uncharted waters and suddenly they are obtaining their collars felt by those that still have Hotmail addresses.
"And then [there's] the sheer surprising arbitrary nature of it all … to be told that you simply might face up to ten years for sharing links? once I heard that Nora Ephron died, I shared on Twitter a link to the total version of When Harry Met Sally on YouTube. Am I a criminal now? Why? Why not?
"The web means commerce and communication and culture and morality is changing, and changing thus quick that we have a tendency to struggle to stay up."
The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), a trade organisation of rights house owners, was a driving force behind the prosecution of Vickerman, passing a dossier of proof to police, who then arrested him in 2008. The body welcomed his conviction.
"These are landmark criminal convictions proving that those operating pirate websites don't seem to be outside the law however may be tracked down and dropped at justice," said truth director general Kieron Sharp.
"This was a criminal conspiracy for criminal profit to fund a criminal lifestyle and Vickerman is currently paying the worth."
Others, however, raised issues concerning the character of the conviction against Vickerman and therefore the involvement of business teams in getting it.
"This wasn't a case brought using copyright law. The interest teams concerned could not gift a case of copyright infringement and instead determined to press for the utilization of the common law offence of 'conspiracy to defraud'," said UK Pirate party leader Loz Kaye. "This is one amongst the foremost controversial crimes in English law – it criminalises conduct by 2 or a lot of those who wouldn't be criminal when performed by a private.
"The offence was notoriously utilized in the Nineteen Seventies to stop folks sharing film cassettes because the TV and film business believed video was a threat to their existence.
"In addition to flying within the face of recent findings in similar cases, this prosecution was driven by non-public interests. it's acknowledge that the terribly teams representing the victim helped with the investigation, were gift at the arrest, given access to the proof and were gift at police interviews. this can be deeply regarding."
In another UK case Alan Ellis, who ran a web site directory of BitTorrent links, was cleared of conspiracy to defraud in 2010 because the court deemed he couldn't be held accountable if his users used his platform to share links to copyrighted material. during a similar manner, Google isn't typically held to be liable for the contents of its links.
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