Copyright infringement is the unauthorized use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's "exclusive rights", such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, spread the information contained within copyrighted works, or to make derivative works. It often refers to copying "intellectual property" without written permission from the copyright holder, which is typically a publisher or other business representing or assigned by the work's creator.

Copyright infringement is often associated with the terms piracy and theft. Although piracy connotes brazen high-seas robbery and kidnapping, it has a long history of use as a synonym for certain acts which were later codified as types of copyright infringement. Theft is more strongly hyperbolic, emphasizing or exaggerating the perceived harm of infringement to copyright holders who choose to utilize their copyrights for profit; it connotes a kind of loss which infringement may not actually effect, and the U.S. Supreme Court has even ruled that infringement does not "easily" equate with theft.

Richard O'Dwyer is a 24-year-old in Sheffield, England, whom the US Justice Department has been seeking to extradite from the UK since May 2011 in relation to alleged copyright infringement on his website TVShack.net. The Southern District Court in New York has charged O'Dwyer with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal infringement of copyright. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years. Richard O'Dwyer's lawyers opposed extradition and argued that any criminal prosecution should be brought in the UK, as TVShack was not hosted on American servers. On 13 January 2012, a UK Magistrate ruled that O'Dwyer can be extradited to US to face copyright infringement allegations. The extradition order has been approved by UK Home Secretary Theresa May. O'Dwyer has appealed against the extradition.

O’Dwyer is a student of Interactive Media with Animation at Sheffield Hallam University.

O'Dwyer established the website TVShack at the domain name TVShack.net in December 2007. The site, which had the categories Movies, Television, Anime, Music and Documentaries, included the disclaimer 'TV Shack is a simple resource site. All content visible on this site is located at 3rd party websites. TV Shack is not responsible for any content linked to or referred from these pages.' The site stated that it was governed under the law of 'Sweden, the country in which this site is based and from which all services are provided.'