US Immigration and Customs Close 9 Websites Due To Online Piracy

[admin]

US ICE officials, with cooperation from the MPAA, has closed down and seized the assets of 9 websites, including Movies-links.TV, nowmovies.com, thepiratecity.org, filespump.com, planetmoviez.com, zml.org, tvshack.net, ninjavideo.net and thisninja.net.

ICE, part of Homeland Security, headed operation "In Our Sites" in closing down the websites, many suspected of offering the latest Hollywood movies for free on their ad-supported streaming website.

More:

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/06/30/mpaa-crackdown-pirate-streaming-movies-sites/

[dr_ml422]

Simply put it's a shame with so much more pressing problems in the USA that this even was put on paper. O'drama's bid for re-election if resting on such nonsense is pitiful.

Wow! From the war against terrorism and drugs to the war against online piracy! I'm not in the Rat Race anymore, but I hope those that are take serious action at the polls.

[admin]

Another even more massive seizure of websites just took place, with 80 domains being seized by Homeland Security (Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20023918-93.html

[Budreaux]

Simply put it's a shame with so much more pressing problems in the USA that this even was put on paper. O'drama's bid for re-election if resting on such nonsense is pitiful.

Wow! From the war against terrorism and drugs to the war against online piracy! I'm not in the Rat Race anymore, but I hope those that are take serious action at the polls.

[admin]

Again, just wanted to make the point that *both* sides of politics support these kind of actions, so the entire US political establishment is to blame, not one single party, President or Congress.

And it's not just in the US, it's here in Australia, in the UK, in France ...

There needs to be a more effective lobbying group that fights for our legal rights on the Internet, in terms of privacy, due process and everything else that's been thrown out the window in order to protect the dying business model of the entertainment industry.

[dr_ml422]

My exact sentiments Bud. While both parties are actively involved in this nonsense, the party in charge should at least have nothing to do with this. Then it would have shown some backbone, and according to what a Democracy stands for, have given all the justice they desrve.

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, and this is just a lil ot here, there never really was a Democratic government that prevailed. It failed and the resulting Republic was the one that for all intensive purposes proved workable floabw.

God Bless America anyway!

[admin]

At least one report suggesting that one of the closed websites, a music blog, probably should have been allowed to stay up. The New York Times covers the story of OnSmash.com, which was seized by ICE during the massive operation on "Cyber Monday".

OnSmash.com presented "leaked" hip-hop music and music videos. While the RIAA considers this piracy, many of the leaked content comes directly from artists like Kayne West, promoters and even music labels, because OnSmash.com was a great way to promote music. So it was a surprise for people in the industry that this was one of the 82 domains seized recently.

The RIAA's opinion of OnSmash.com obviously differs from the industry it is supposed to represent, and because the current system basically means the RIAA has full power to decide which websites are on their good list, and which are on their bad list, and the legal recourse is difficult, if available at all. Lawyers representing other seized domains have already complained about how difficult it is to get the legal process started, with the government providing little if any information, and it could be 30 to 60 days before a seizure order can even be seen.

Meanwhile, OnSmash.com, a place that helped to promote music on the Internet, promotions that ultimately help out the labels represented by the RIAA, remains closed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/media/14music.html?_r=1

[curios]

I read this post and other online and printed write ups on this so called "crack-down" and i end up wondering the same thing all the time. Who is going to be making all the money when "they" get there way. Who is really behind this and why? The so-called independent music/video/movie makers sure don't have the money push this sort of thing along. So WHO then?? NetFlix made a deal and now does this legally with a fairly low fee for their services right? But for how long will this price low be Hmmm?? (yoda attempt) The net really is the last place left for everyone to see/do/say/write/and all the rest of it in a "free" sort of setting. The attempts to control it will never end, nor will the masks ever stay the same on the faces of those foisting such attempts on us. So I say WHO?? is it??

[admin]

Nobody will be making much extra money when "they", that is the entertainment industry, get their way, because it still has not been proven that if piracy is completely stopped, the people pirating stuff today will suddenly start to buy stuff. This would only be true if people are hoarding money and not spending it because piracy offers them a cheaper/free alternative, but in the current economic climate, I just don't think this is true.

And it's not even the entire entertainment industry who believe in this panacea, it's mostly the people who run the RIAA/MPAA and the higher ups at labels/studios who believe that stopping piracy will cure all of the industry's ails. Many others in the industry feel innovation, particularly Internet based innovations, will be the best solution to the "problem".

And it's not even proven that the "problem" is even a problem, because record profits have been recorded recently, and there are other reasons for the slump in DVD and music sales (such as people spending more money on things they feel are better value, for example, on video games. Or the simple fact that people are spending less money because they have less money these days).

[admin]

The operator of another website that was shut down as part of the same operation, dajaz1.com, also claims that the website was doing nothing wrong. dajaz1.com is another hip-hop related blog that's widely read by fans of the music genre, and also received materials from studios and artists, using the website as a way to promote new music - the operator has emails proving that the disputed works comes directly from record label employees. After reading the affidavit for the seizure, the operator of the websites says many of the claimed acts of copyright infringement can be disputed due to this reason, but without due process, there's no way to fight these charges before having his website shut down.

More from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/media/20music.html?_r=1&src=busln

[admin]

Ars technica has examined the affidavit and found that, probably unsurprisingly, how "thin it was", full of technical inaccuracies, and filled with statements like "according to the MPAA…" (it appears the words of the RIAA/MPAA are being treated as gospel by ICE agents, understandable if the agent in question is someone without a real technical understanding of the issues at hand, and so can be easily intimidated by the scary stories being told).

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/busting-bittorrent.ars

[Daimlerush]

I think this is a little bit drastic. I mean any man want to live and make money from somewere...Its not all the time piracy... damn