U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites in Piracy Crackdown

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

In what appears to be the latest phase of a far-reaching federal crackdown on online piracy of music and movies, the Web addresses of a number of sites that facilitate illegal file-sharing were seized this week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

By Friday morning, visiting the addresses of a handful of sites that either hosted unauthorized copies of films and music or allowed users to search for them elsewhere on the Internet produced a notice that said, in part: “This domain name has been seized by ICE — Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court.”

In taking over the sites’ domain names, or Web addresses, the government effectively redirected any visitors to its own takedown notice.

“ICE office of Homeland Security Investigations executed court-ordered seizure warrants against a number of domain names,” said Cori W. Bassett, a spokeswoman for ICE, in a statement. “As this is an ongoing investigation, there are no additional details available at this time.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/technology/27torrent.html

[Incitatus]

1. I thought Homeland Security was supposed to protect us from terrorist attacks.

I guess protecting the RIAA is also their job.

[Skip Intro]

2. Sometimes I wonder if the tea party might have a point or two about a growing federal government.

I'm sure someone will reply that I'm racist...

[Catherina]

4. Anything that weakens capitalism is considered terrorism n/t

[Poll_Blind]

9. Bing! Bing! Bing! You nailed it. This is exaclty the definition of "economic terrorism" as...

...defined in the Patriot Act. A "sit-in" is also, equally-defined as a form of economic terrorism.

I had actually wondered recently if those definitions had fallen by the wayside. Apparently not.

PB

[DeSwiss]

15. Particularly the propaganda arm n/t

[ArcticFox]

18. You got it!

[marybourg]

12. Immigration and *Customs* Enforcement - ICE. nt.

[Greyhound]

17. You didn't really think that, did you? n/t

[Incitatus]

42. No. nt

[glen123098]

3. Every cent fighting piracy is money wasted.

You shut down a website, 10 follow in its tracks. The Riaa, MPAA, and the federal government will never stop piracy. You can make examples out of certain people, but the average pirate has to know they have far less than a 1 percent chance of getting caught. I feel ashamed that my tax money is going to protect the RIAA's bottom line. Instead, the government could better spend that money investigating RIAA price fixing.

[Amonester]

5. Maybe that's only an 'experiment'...

... because the next domain on their list is wikileaks? :shrug:

Surprised, I would not be. (Hope not, however.)

[Pavulon]

7. Well beyond that. wiki is set up to tolerate a basic attack

probably not set up for more sophisticated (or less sophisticated russian) attacks. Some bean counter determined what he has is not worth killing them all for at some point in time.

the US is the least of his concerns.

[high density]

6. Homeland Security now includes protecting intellectual property?

That is a new one. Can we invade China now and shut down all their illegal copies of Windows XP?

[jberryhill]

41. US Customs has always been doing this

They were folded into DHS when it was formed.

It's not some "new" thing.

[Poll_Blind]

8. Apparently Homeland Security is protecting us by defending Disney's copyrights? WHAT THE FUCK!?!?

Seriously, what the fuck is Homeland Security doing in the copyright infringement business?!??!

PB

[Amonester]

13. Maybe because Disney's crap is one of the only stuff that still sells...

abroad (a LOT)? :evilgrin:

[thanks_imjustlurking]

33. Add to that the offensive fact that Disney still holds copyright

on characters that are over 80 years old. Perpetuating a commercial empire is not the purpose of copyright.

"The primary purpose of copyright law is not so much to protect the interests of the authors/creators, but rather to promote the progress of science and the useful arts—that is—knowledge."

http://www.lib.byu.edu/departs/copyright/tutorial/module1/page3.htm

[somone]

10. So how much is RIAA paying Homeland Security for services rendered?

What a waste of taxpayer dollars.

[BuelahWitch]

37. They don't pay Homeland Security

They pay the politicians.

[JackRiddler]

38. Zero.

[Poll_Blind]

11. Hey, so when the TSA agent checks your laptop for a bomb, will they also be checking for MP3's?

It's like a one-stop Totalitarian Capitalist Nightmare!

PB

[RandomThoughts]

14. Some believe controling society is by controling thought.

And thoughts come from many forms of expression of people, and some want to limit that expression, or only give it to those with money.

It is part of scorching the sky concept. Trying to limit what people can see.


I do understand the concept of copyright, but they have been changed to ways to control what people see, and to make money for corporations, not the artist. And they are too long since tech has increased ability to profit off of a story or song, a 5 year copyright could bring enough profit to any artist or movie maker or writer with current distribution system.

On a side note if it was about copyright, then all items past copyright should be able to be found on Internet, and many of those ideas don't show up on search results.


The copyright length of films is 20 years, so why isn't every film from the 80s available on the Internet? Why not every music clip? Why not ever TV show?

Why can I think of an 80s movie and yet have to look around to find clips from it, and shouldn't the original version without editing be available to all?

If it was about copyright , all those things would be viewable on Internet. It is about trying to control information.

[Tunkamerica]

16. you're wrong about the 20 years part and all the arguments based on the misperception

The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Since the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. The Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier.<1> Copyright protection for works published prior to January 1, 1978, was increased by 20 years to a total of 95 years from their publication date.

[RandomThoughts]

20. It was 20 years last time I looked, and why Georgy Lucus re released Star Wars after 20 years.

To get copyrights on newer version, and you will notice the older version was no longer sold in stores that much after that.

If it is extended past 20 years now, that is a change, and it does not do for reason the copyright laws were created.

The copyrights on books were different then films. From memory they use to be around 100 years, again beyond the reason for the laws, but to protect corporate profit, and out of balance with advances in distribution availability of systems.

[progressoid]

19. Well, I for one certainly feel a lot safer now.

:eyes:

[Bo]

21. Homeland Security seizes domain names

Source: THE HILL

The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak.

ICE appears to be targeting sites that help Internet users download copyrighted music, as well as sites that sell bootleg goods, such as fake designer handbags.

The sites are replaced with a note from the government: "This domain named has been seized by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations."

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/130763-homeland-security-dept-seizes-domain-names-

---

......they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
— Frank Zappa

[WingDinger]

22. This is our gov working for Apple. They just bought Beatles catalog.

[onehandle]

24. You mean EMI, The Band, and Sony. Apple doesn't 'own' the Beatles catalog. The owners do.

Apple has online distribution rights which may end as soon as January 1st.

[Lindsay]

23. It's logical that this is a Homeland Security matter,

because these things threaten our corporate capitalist form of government.

:sarcasm:

[2QT2BSTR8]

26. If you do a WHOIS on those domains, it is interesting which country pops up.

BEIJING INNOVATIVE LINKAGE TECHNOLOGY LTD.

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/51607.com

And a simple Google search of them brings up....

http://spamtrackers.eu/wiki/index.php/Beijing_Innovative

[sarcasmo]

27. Homeland Security needs to be dismantled ASAP.

[704wipes]

40. oh well

mp3.com is still buzzing along

[Countdown_3_2_1]

25. Because Downloading Music is Soooo Dangerous!

Really. Resources being diverted from terror to protect corporate interests?

If I was a rethug, I would hang this and TSA around the necks of any progressive candidate I ran against.
This.Is.STUPID!

[Xenotime]

28. Good! I'm happy to see websites that cheat and are unfair be taken down.

[totodeinhere]

29. If we follow your logic Homeland Security will take down DU next and claim it did it

because DU cheats and is unfair. Can't you see the slippery slope that we are on with this? The government has better things to do than to chase after teenagers downloading songs and movies.

[Robb]

30. This is ICE's job. The "C" in Customs, and the "E" in Enforcement.

Should ICE be under Homeland Security? Probably not.

But ICE doing this kind of stuff? Just what they're tasked to. :shrug:

[totodeinhere]

35. I know that is what they are tasked to do. But my point is that they should NOT be tasked to do that

and instead they should concern themselves with more important matters.

[Union Scribe]

47. Next up: libraries

Can you believe there are places where people can just read any book they want without having to buy them individually? Freeloading terrorists, thank God the Department of Homeland Security is keeping us safe from them.

:sarcasm:

[Turborama]

31. My ISP has blocked to*rrents and any related sites to all subscribers

I can't even type the word and post, hence adding the *, I kid you not. They've even blocked the UK version of Google, too. All because someone apparently downloaded something from the UK.

I used to love being able to download TV shows I can't watch here.

I'm changing ISP as soon as my subscription runs out.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

34. Crazy. Even Comcast is not that bad, at least here.

(I hate having to deal with Comcast, but they are the only game in town.)

[bananas]

36. Wow - what's your ISP? nt

[jamiefoxer]

32. time for these websites

to buy the hosting space in Scandinavia or other countries where the U.S. can't do jack squat.

[cbdo2007]

43. Many of them already do - thepiratebay appears to be still online and running.

[JackRiddler]

39. Obviously this shows the Internet censorship bill, COICA, is superfluous.

The government doesn't need more powers to shut down web sites for suspected copyright violations. Quite enough already.

See:

The 19 Senators Who Voted to Censor the Internet (S.3804/COICA)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9589905&mesg_id=9589905

[krabigirl]

44. The sites aren't shut down, just the domain names. However, why the heck does DHS do this?

And what about due process? I guess there is none.

[Greyhound]

45. Information control is essential to maintaining the illusion for the sheeple.

When/if the flock ever figures out that the shepherd is a wolf and keeps them only to serve its purposes to their detriment, they might find it within themselves to leave. And in the leaving, reduce the shepherd to nothing.

[DainBramaged]

46. Maybe they are trying to thwart the Wikileaks dump?

:shrug:


Or maybe it's just another step towards fascism.