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

Marc Rotenberg rotenberg at EPIC.ORG
Sun Nov 28 17:09:11 CET 2010 

As a US lawyer, it seems odd to me that the DHS would have
this role. International law enforcement matters are routinely
coordinated by the Dept. of Justice. ICE is a relatively
recent creation, gathering powers that traditionally resided
with Customs and the INS.

Marc.

On Nov 28, 2010, at 10:56 AM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

> Not so odd, Marc, because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is part of DHS. 
> Customs would be the primary agency involved in transnational counterfeiting enforcement actions. 
> Recall ACTA and related negotiations. Interesting that this can go on without COICA. 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: NCSG-NCUC [mailto:NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of
>> Marc Rotenberg
>> Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2010 8:26 AM
>> To: NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS] U.S. Government Seizes BitTorrent
>> Search Engine Domain and More
>> 
>> 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!

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