U.S. Government Seizes BitTorrent Search Engine Domain and More

Sun Nov 28 13:39:44 CET 2010

Actually this is not very strange (but definitely worrying). Over the past couple of years there has been a silent move towards the protection of IP through the Homeland Security (in the US) or similar agencies outside the US. So, this is the first step. This of course is highly problematic and dangerous: although some forms of IP infringement are directly linked to crime, such determinations are traditionally conducted through courts due to IP's polymorphous nature. without judicial review, one is not in the position to say for instance: this part infringes copyright, this part trademark law or this part falls within criminal activity. It depends on the nature as well as the statute (whether it incorporates criminal sanctions for the infringing activity). But, allowing the Homeland Security and other such agencies to proceed to such actions makes things much easier for IP holders - in the name of security (which keeps on expanding and expanding to cover almost everything) we see such agencies using different statutes (non-related to IP - directly at least) to legitimize their actions. So, this is only the beginning and I think we will see more of such agencies getting involved in domain name takedowns. of course, this will be 'easier' in the US compared to other countries, due to DNS geopolitical reasons.

KK

On 27/11/2010 13:25, "Marc Rotenberg" <rotenberg at EPIC.ORG> wrote:

According to the New York York Times, it was the Dept of
Homeland Security (the same agency that brought us
airport body scanners) that seized the BitTorrent site and others.
This seems odd since it is the US Dept of Justice that would
typically investigate copyright matters.

Note also that this action took place prior to Senate action
on COICA.

Marc Rotenberg
EPIC

-----------------------------

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

U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites in Piracy Crackdown
By BEN SISARIO
Published: November 26, 2010

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."

  * * *

On Nov 27, 2010, at 1:57 AM, Alex Gakuru wrote:

> Does this mean *all* search engines with links will be shut down
> anytime, including 'Big G'?
>
> On 11/27/10, Alex Gakuru <gakuru at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Why complained earlier on expectations that cash strapped ccTLDs especially
>> in Africa/developing cannot afford parallel servers, databases and time
>> costs to enforce third parties IP/copyrights/trademark etc interests. It
>> somehow 'feels' safer NOT to register a .com now?
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 7:34 AM, Robin Gross <robin at ipjustice.org> wrote:
>>
>>> The latest info that I've seen is that Verisign assigned new DNS servers
>>> at the Registry level, and then locked the domain so that even the
>>> Registrar
>>> can't update it.  So now it looks like it may have been VeriSign who
>>> "seized" them.  No word on ICANN's role in this situation, if any.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 26, 2010, at 8:29 PM, Marc Perkel wrote:
>>>
>>> So was it ICANN that actually did the seizing?
>>>
>>> On 11/26/2010 7:25 PM, Michael Haffely wrote:
>>>
>>> The concerning part about the report from today is that the domain owner
>>> never received any complaint or due process before the domains were
>>> seized.
>>> It appears that no Cease and Desist, warrant, suit, or other criminal
>>> complaint was brought up before the domain was taken.  What if (for an
>>> example) this behavior is taken up by the Patent and Copyright "trolls".
>>> What happens to an individual/nonprofit/organization when they have their
>>> domain yanked out from under them?
>>>
>>> If ICANN is to seize domains from their rightful owners by demand of a
>>> law
>>> enforcement agency we need to have a clear, *rapid* appeals process to
>>> prevent abuse by corporations, law enforcement agencies, and governments.
>>>
>>>
>>> -Mike H.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 8:46 PM, Andrew A. Adams <aaa at meiji.ac.jp> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Very similar moves are happening in the UK, with Nominet (UK non-profit
>>>> with
>>>> the .uk (and .gb) country-code delegation) engaging with the UK's SOCA
>>>> (Serious and Organised Crime Agency *) to remove 1200 "sites engaged in
>>>> selling counterfeit goods" recently and now doing a more explicit deal
>>>> with
>>>> the police to take down the DNS registration for sites "alleged to be
>>>> involved in criminal activity".
>>>>
>>>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/25/nominet_crime/
>>>>
>>>> (*) The SOCA is a rather dodgy organisation, IMHO. When it was set up
>>>> the
>>>> then home secrewtary made a big thing of it not being actually police
>>>> and
>>>> therefore not bound by the requirements that the police have to respect
>>>> the
>>>> human rights of citizens. THat's a recipe for a secret police operating
>>>> extra-judicially and here we see exactly that kind of approach.
>>>>
>>>> I am very worried by these kinds of moves. Zittrain's "The Future of the
>>>> Internet" and Mueller's "Networks and States" concerns about censorship
>>>> becoming the norm not the exception online seem to be coming true. While
>>>> I'm
>>>> not in favour of criminals having free reign, the trouble is that all
>>>> the
>>>> hard won freedoms such as due process, balance of rights, etc. seem to
>>>> be
>>>> being thrown out in the digital domain.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Professor Andrew A Adams                      aaa at meiji.ac.jp
>>>> Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration,  and
>>>> Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics
>>>> Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan       http://www.a-cubed.info/
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> IP JUSTICE
>>> Robin Gross, Executive Director
>>> 1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
>>> p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
>>> w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> regards,
>>
>> Alex Gakuru
>> http://www.mwenyeji.com
>> Hosting, surprise yourself!
>>
>
>
> --
> regards,
>
> Alex Gakuru
> http://www.mwenyeji.com
> Hosting, surprise yourself!