Wikipedia founder slams extradition case

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LONDON, June 25 (UPI) -- Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has slammed a U.S. attempt to extradite a British student whose Web link-site operates similarly to Google.

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked for the extradition of 23-year-old Richard O'Dwyer to face trial for alleged copyright offenses.

O'Dwyer created TV-Shack, a site that provided links to television and film content elsewhere on the Web but stored no copyright material of any sort onsite.

Two years ago in a similar case, a British court ruled such link-sites are not illegal, ZDNet.com reported Monday.

Wales, describing O'Dwyer as a "clean-cut, geeky kid," said he considers the case against him "thin" and said it was "an outrage that he is being extradited to the United States to face felony charges for something that he is not being prosecuted for here."

Writing in The Guardian, Wales argued O'Dwyer's site was "no different [than] Google" or any other search engine in how it operated.

O'Dwyer even took down links from his site when notified, complying with the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown system, ZDNet.com reported.

British Home Secretary Theresa May has given the go-ahead for O'Dwyer to be extradited, but he remains at home pending an appeal to the High Court in London.