It seems that the issue of piracy is being given more and more attention as a British IT student, also known as the mastermind behind TVShack, has been given five years in a federal prison shortly after a judge said he could be forced to go to the US to be charged for piracy and infringing copyrights.

As a quick reminder, TVShack was somewhat of a library for various links where viewers could watch internet videos and copyrighted material for free, including the latest movies, TV shows and programmes.

Richard O'Dwyer, 23, a student from Sheffield Hallam University, has been reportedly making roughly $230,000 from the website by adding banners and links to other copyright infringement facilitating websites.

Westminster Magistrates Court heard that while in 2010 TVShack's official URL has been seized, Mr O'Dwyer has brought the website back without a sweat, transferring the content to a similar URL, TVShack.cc.

The defence told the judge that too much time has already flown by and that Mr O'Dwyer could not be held responsible for copyright infringement because his website was merely a referrer to illegal content but did not host any of it.

The judge dismissed all and sentenced the computer science student to five years in a federal prison.

UPDATE:

it has been reported that Mr O'Dwyer could face extradiction where a possible prison sentence of up to ten years may await.