” It’s been a long road and an eventful twelve months for Richard and Julia O’Dwyer. The Sheffield Hallam student and his mother now know their journey is not over yet.
The young web designer will have to potentially up to six more months before his appeal is addressed.

The fight to keep Richard in the country has led to thousands of supporters online and his petition has been signed by over 25,000 people.
With his appeal being pushed back from it’s original date of July 30th it will mean a long summer lies in wait for the computer science student who is entering the final year of his degree.

Home Secretary Theresa May ruled in January that Richard could be extradited to the US where he could face up to five years in jail.
His mother Julia spoke to me earlier and once again reiterated the fact that this case is not over and she will not giving up fighting for justice for her son.

When Obama was questioned on the Tvshack.net  creators potential extradition he refused to address the case directly and said “i can say broadly, intellectual property should be protected”.

The case was brought against Richard by the US Immigration and Customs agency which says that TVShack.net earned more than $230,000 (£147,000) in advertising revenue before US authorities seized the domain in June  2010 and then a few months later in January 2011 produced a warrant for the seizure.

The website only held links and did not host any copyrighted content. A recent freedom of information request to the UK home Office showed that no US citizen has been extradited to the UK for any crime committed on US soil,  this recent revelation supports the voices of campaigners in the UK who have long argued that the extradition treaty is imbalanced in favour of protecting US citizens who have additional protections in the First Amendment.