British student Richard O’Dwyer is being extradited to the US to face copyright charges. Â Given that the US taxes it’s citizens anywhere in the world they earn money, there may be a tax avoidance component to this case. The bleating on the innerweb, is that the USA are bullies and they should leave the poor man alone.
At some stage a precedent is going to be set by the US and his main mistake was getting caught. Good on him for having an entrepreneurial go if he believed there was no wrong to his actions. Unfortunately he has to accept the law believes it is as much a crime to steal electronic art as it would be to rip off a bank. This goes to the very heart of the copyright debate.
http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/us-v-odwyer-ruling.pdf
Inventors and artists should be paid. Portraying him as a victim is rubbish. However there would be less of an inclination to cheat if art were made available in all timezones simutaneously. There is also he large cut of funds taken by the greasy middlemen. This stifles the industry as much as unfettered theft and prevents the establishment of new artists.
