Thousands back Wikipedia founder’s call to oppose extradition of British student to US over alleged internet copyright offences

A petition launched by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to halt the extradition to the US of Sheffield Hallam University student Richard O’Dwyer has garnered 160,000 signatures in less than five days.

O’Dwyer, 24, faces up to 10 years in US prison for alleged copyright offences relating to TVShack.net, a website that provided links to places where users could watch TV shows and films online.

Wales’s petition, which calls on the home secretary, Theresa May, to revoke her permission to extradite O’Dwyer, has picked up more than 75,000 signatures in the last 24 hours alone after being circulated among US supporters of Change.org.

The petition is now the fastest-growing Change.org petition in the UK. In the Guardian article that launched the campaign, Wales said the extradition represented a battle between the film industry and general public.

“Given the thin case against him, it is an outrage that he is being extradited to the US to face felony charges for something that he is not being prosecuted for here,” Wales said. “No US citizen has ever been brought to the UK for alleged criminal activity that took place on US soil.”

O’Dwyer’s extradition has been opposed by figures from all three political parties, including members of the culture, media and sports select committee, Louise Mensch and Tom Watson, the Liberal Democrat president, Tim Farron, and the chair of the home affairs committee, Keith Vaz.

Graham Linehan, the writer of sitcoms The IT Crowd, Black Books and Father Ted, also signed the petition. He said: “It just seems to me that people like Richard are being punished for being able to navigate the modern world. The internet has changed everything. They’re doing what comes naturally in these new uncharted waters and suddenly they’re getting their collars felt by people who still have Hotmail addresses.

“The internet means that commerce and communication and culture and morality is changing, and changing so fast that we struggle to keep up.”

Richard’s mother, Julia O’Dwyer, who has campaigned for her son online and at protests for much of the last year, has welcomed the efforts to date and called on the Home Office to take note. She said: “I’m blown away by the response to Jimmy’s petition. It’s been a tough year campaigning for my son, but this outpouring of support from around the world has really made politicians sit up and take note of Richard’s case. Now it’s time for Theresa May to do the right thing by Richard.”

In a statement issued earlier this week, the Home Office stood by its decision to give permission to extradite O’Dwyer.

“Richard O’Dwyer is wanted in the US for offences related to copyright infringement,” it said. “The UK courts found there were no statutory bars to his surrender under the Extradition Act 2003 and, on 9 March, the home secretary, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for his extradition to the US.

“Mr O’Dwyer has appealed against the decision of the district judge and an appeal hearing will be held in due course.”