Tag Archives: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
DVDs and Blu-Rays Will Now Have Two Government Warnings
The U.S. government will now have two copyright notices in DVDs and Blu-rays being sold. Everyone knows the first label that warns people about how the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of copyright work is illegal and criminal copyright infringement is investigated by federal law enforcement, which can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The second label will be used for “educating” people that copyright infringement is not a victimless crime. Above is what the new message looks like (credit: Ars Technica).
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Justice Department Seizes Over 130 Domain Names
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have started a large new round of domain name seizures as part of a global crackdown on piracy. Although the seizures are disputable, these types of governmental actions would be legitimized by the SOPA bill. This initiative is called “Operation In Our Sites.”
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US Judge Rules: Feds Shuttering Websites Does Not Go Against 1st Amendment
US District Court Judge Paul Crotty has ruled that the 1st Amendment does not prevent the government from seizing web domains. The issue was raised by the ICE’s shuttering of a sports streaming website called Rojadirecta.com. The owners of Rojadirecta claimed that because the site contained some legal content, seizing the website counted as a suppression of free speech. The judge disagreed, stating that “the main purpose of the Rojadirecta websites […] is to catalogue links to the copyrighted athletic events – any argument to the contrary is clearly disingenuous.” [Gizmodo]
Oops! U.S. Government Accidentally Takes Down 84,000 Websites
This week, the U.S. government has taken down some domain names. The Department of Justice and the U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement seized several domain names related to counterfeit goods and child pornography. However one of the domain names was on a free DNS provider so 84,000 other websites were wrongly accused of the aforementioned crimes. Thousands of website owners were surprised with the above banner. The domain names and subdomains were restored on Sunday, but it took about 3 days before the image disappeared completely. [TorrentFreak]
Torrent-Finder Domain Name Seized Without Complaint Or Court Notice
The U.S. government has been proactive about taking down torrent websites. ICE – Homeland Security Investigations seized the domain of BitTorrent meta-search engine Torrent-Finder.com without giving them a court notice or complaint.
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