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Firefox users may be familiar with a little add-on called MafiaaFire Redirector. The add-on was designed especially to deal with the recent seizure of of domain names by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), allowing Firefox users to always get access to websites with seized domain names, and automatically redirects you to alternate sites, thus making ICE's efforts completely useless.
And that's when ICE decided to act.
ICE contacted Mozilla to demand the removal of MafiaaFire, but it seems Mozilla is standing firm and refusing the act on the request. Harvey Anderson, who works at Mozilla on legal and business affairs, explains the whole situation on his blog.
Anderson explains that, for Mozilla to act, a court order must be present. And if not present, several questions are asked to determine whether Mozilla needs to act at all. These includes evidence of any court procedures which points to the unlawful nature of MafiaaFire, what are Mozilla's legal obligations to remove the add-on, and any and all legal documents related to the seizure/takedown of said plug-in.
Mozilla sent these question to ICE, and have not heard back since.
Anderson then goes on to explain the dangers of acting without having the required amount of evidence, and feels that it's a form of censorship that's increasingly common these days. Anderson says that government powers are now being used to service private content holders, and that's when "unintended and harmful consequences" occur, when things like "due process" and "transparency" take a back seat to the paranoia of content holders.
And that's when ICE decided to act.
ICE contacted Mozilla to demand the removal of MafiaaFire, but it seems Mozilla is standing firm and refusing the act on the request. Harvey Anderson, who works at Mozilla on legal and business affairs, explains the whole situation on his blog.
Anderson explains that, for Mozilla to act, a court order must be present. And if not present, several questions are asked to determine whether Mozilla needs to act at all. These includes evidence of any court procedures which points to the unlawful nature of MafiaaFire, what are Mozilla's legal obligations to remove the add-on, and any and all legal documents related to the seizure/takedown of said plug-in.
Mozilla sent these question to ICE, and have not heard back since.
Anderson then goes on to explain the dangers of acting without having the required amount of evidence, and feels that it's a form of censorship that's increasingly common these days. Anderson says that government powers are now being used to service private content holders, and that's when "unintended and harmful consequences" occur, when things like "due process" and "transparency" take a back seat to the paranoia of content holders.