Slashdot Mirror
DHS Seizes 75+ Domain Names
Many readers have sent in an update to yesterday's story about the Department of Homeland Security's seizure of torrent-finder.com, a domain they believe to be involved in online piracy. As it turns out, this was just one of dozens of websites that were targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"In announcing that operation, John T. Morton, the assistant secretary of ICE, and representatives of the Motion Picture Association of America called it a long-term effort against online piracy, and said that suspected criminals would be pursued anywhere in the world. 'American business is under assault from counterfeiters and pirates every day, seven days a week,' Mr. Morton said. 'Criminals are stealing American ideas and products and distributing them over the Internet.'"
The TorrentFreak article we discussed yesterday has been updated with a list of the blocked sites.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
"Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty."
“the few practice lawful plunder upon the many, a common practice where the right to participate in the making of law is limited to a few persons.”
Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk. We are seeing are the final nails in the Constitution's coffin. Their is no Constitutional justification for the seizing of these sites. It violates the core of the agreements made between the people and the Government. I really wish we could return to being a republic, where each state minds its own business but keep the Federal Government operating within the bounds of the Constitution. The people in Texas can have anarchy or whatever and the people in Massachussetes can have their pristine Government institutions. Those unhappy with their state are Constitutionally guaranteed the right to move.
I bet dollars to doughnuts that when net neutrality passes, buried deep in the legislation's text will be stronger measures than what we're seeing today.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
and GIVING them to china
This is a historic moment.
suspected criminals would be pursued anywhere in the world
Welcome to "guilty before proven innocent"
Seriously, kids downloading music poses what threat, exactly, to national security?
One more piece of evidence that our government is just a puppet of deep-pocketed corporations and special interest groups.
I'm starting to think N. Korea is spot on...
Idiot. It doesn't matter which party runs the White House. This is about money. Money always rules.
Copyright Infringement.
It's like Communism, only newer.
The 5th Amendment says that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". Due process means that one must be found guilty in a court of law by a jury of their peers.
And since when did the mission of DHS become copyright enforcement? And where did they get the unilateral authority to act as judge, jury, and executioner?
Last time I checked, "copyprivilege" infringement required a civil suit by the person who held the privilege to begin with? Were these domain holders sued? Were they found guilty (liable) by a court of law?
Is the US government out of control and operating outside the bounds of the Constitution?
Libertas in infinitum
Now do you people understand the opposition to net neutrality? The government would "regulate" torrent traffic and other things that high-paying lobbyists didn't like.
Looks like they're sampling the mood. Trying to ice to see how much they get away with.
At least we can put to bed the suggestion that yeseterday's story was a hoax.
Next can we please retrieve ICANN from US control and cut off the US DNS masters? I think it's pretty clear they can't be trusted to run the internet :(
Not to defend what they are doing as I don't like it either... but from TFA it seems they did have a court order to seize these domains. The question is, how those court orders were arrived at.
The torrent site seemed the most troubling as you can't really see how an order can be issued against what they were doing. The majority of the sites seemed to be selling counterfeit material like clothes and handbags; still iffy but you could see where possibly customs could have a hand in shutting down transfer of illegal goods.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Trickle down economics... the rich just move to another country.
Whatever you think of copyright, and of torrent-assistance sites, it seems that much of what was caught in this sting are sites that sell knockoffs - dealing with that and other clear trademark issues I don't have quite as much of a problem with.
Were the seizure warrants mentioned in TFA's image actually issued and reasonably sensical? Could have a "bureaucrats who don't understand technology" issue w/r/t the technicalities.
And let's face it, such sites seem to be aiding and abetting distribution even if they're not doing the actual distribution.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Is the US government out of control and operating outside the bounds of the Constitution?
No. This is done under Customs and Immigration, which is one of the legitimate jobs of the government, except in this case the products being illegally exported are digital.
Due process means that one must be found guilty in a court of law by a jury of their peers.
Cops do not need a jury trial before they can seize stolen goods. They seized the illegal goods just like they might seize illegal physical goods and shut down the shop selling them with only a warrant while a trial is pending. If you bothered to read any of the linked articles you would find that they had a warrant from a District Court judge.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
John Gilmore's quote was always an oversimplification. The net itself doesn't do anything but move packets. The people that use the net are the ones that find ways over, under, and around censorship. And this is censorship. We can argue about whether or not it's justified (and in the case of websites selling Chanel knockoffs as the real thing, it might be) but the fact the ICE and DHS have exerted control over ICANN is not good.
I'm a US citizen, born and raised here. The prospect of my government having the power to control the web scares me shitless. It's time to start working on a decentralized, cryptographically sound successor to DNS. It's also time to get serious about IPv6 and IPSec (encryption at the network layer) as a way to foil deep packet inspection.
What does this button d$#%* NO CARRIER
Proof that our government's priorities are screwed. They'll do this but ignore H1-B visa corruption and the fact that US businesses will fire US workers because they can hire Chinese workers at a 3-1 rate and not have to deal with taxes and benefits.
Seriously, I give up.
Exactly. We in the other half spent 8 years saying the same about Bush. It's like the whole thing is rigged to flip-flop every 8-12 years, just enough to keep each side in fighting spirits and everyone distracted away from that top 1-2%.
Wasting tax payers money protecting music and movie industry instead of all the middle class workers who want file sharing who make up majority of voters! People will fight back on this one, can't arrest every person in north america, and in the process they'll further worsen the american dollar, especially when they are forcing file sharers to secure domains and servers out of country. In grand scheme of things, movie and music industry will have to learn how to make money off banners and online marketing like rest of us, best thing we can do is run them out of money, and cut their abuse of government funding, with no money for lawyers , and hitting them where it counts, we can aspire to true freedom.
What I want to know is if the applicable websites are of AMERICAN registrars and/or AMERICAN servers. As if they hijacked non-american DNS. Then the USA must be removed from all authority in DNS. We have allowed them this position because they were of the position they wouldnt enforce their morality on the world.
I find it hard to say that a one sided argument to a judge of DHS's choosing is due process.
knock down 1, 10 sprout up, knock down 10, 100 sprout up
intellectual property+internet=no more intellectual property. some people just need to learn the hard way. keep whacking the moles, government friends!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It didn't matter, but it might in the future. The Tea Party is the last hope for a government that actually stays in its Constitutional box. I don't care what you think about particular people involved with it, just get out there and support less government.
Bullshit. I know quite a few Tea Partiers and they will take away every last right I have as soon as they get the chance. These are people who only make a stink when the party they don't like is in power, doing the EXACT SAME THINGS that the party they do like was doing before. How many Tea Partiers do you know who said anything at all about the Bush admin's declaration that Americans only have freedom of speech within "Free Speech Zones"? It's not about liking or disliking the people involved in it, it's about recognizing that the Tea Party Movement ITSELF is a movement of hypocrisy and cynicism that claims to be about less government but really works towards more government by the proper group of mostly old white men (with the occasional token minority or female) who put large corporations first and everyday citizens second. If you participate in the Tea Party believing otherwise, you're a sucker and a patsy.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Ah... but Bamster often talked about the Constitution's fundamental flaws (stuff he'd like to change), being that it only talked about what the government couldn't do to you... and not what it should do on your behalf.....
I guess protecting you from yourself is one of those things.
Be a good worker and go back and pay your taxes.
The 5th Amendment says that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". Due process means that one must be found guilty in a court of law by a jury of their peers.
When there's a criminal proceeding, items which are evidence in the proceeding have always been subject to seizure prior to trial. The 5th Amendment has never affected that. Also, items being used in an ongoing criminal act are subject to seizure. It's no different from the cops finding a robber in the act and seizing his gun, or catching a drug-runner and seizing the car with a secret compartment hollowed out in the seat that he was using to hide his cargo.
Last time I checked, "copyprivilege" infringement required a civil suit by the person who held the privilege to begin with? Were these domain holders sued? Were they found guilty (liable) by a court of law?
There are both civil and criminal statutes for copyright infringement. Criminal sanctions basically apply to large-scale commercial infringement operations. I'm guessing if DHS is involved then the operators of the sites are now awaiting criminal prosecution.
Is the US government out of control and operating outside the bounds of the Constitution?
Out of control? Maybe. Operating outside the bounds of the Constitution? Definitely not. As I said before, the 5th Amendment doesn't protect property directly used in the commission of a crime, and large-scale commercial infringement is a criminal matter. Also, the Copyright Clause of the US Constitution doesn't say anywhere that enforcement has to be through civil suit brought by the copyright owner. It merely says that Congress can award the exclusive rights in order to advance "Progress in Science and Useful Arts" and that these rights can only be given "for limited Times". Come to think of it, they are outside the bounds of the Constitution on that point: copyright duration has now become basically unlimited. But that's a different story for a different thread.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Le silence est d'accord...
John T. Morton:
'Criminals are stealing American ideas
Thomas Jefferson:
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea
How disgusting. How far the USA has fallen.
Changing a DNS entry does not deprive anyone of "life, liberty or property".
You're mistaken on the purpose of the Constitution. It isn't there to provide life liberty and prosperity. It is there to limit the federal government to a specific set of powers. This is the federal government overstepping by a pretty broad margin the scope of powers defined in the constitution by exploiting either of the two loopholes: the general welfare clause or the interstate commerce clause.
Trying to argue that this falls under national defence wouldn't hold water either.
Mind the frickin' laser...
The part I don't get is "Homeland Security".
WTH are they doing messing with copyright issues? This has nothing to do with "Immigration and Customs" either.
Homeland Security should be protecting us from all these supposed "DANGER DANGER DANGER!" things that are out there that we are so scared of we are supposed to be letting the pervs at the TSA play with our junk and feel up our kids for.
Homeless and starving families right here on our own soil, health care is a mess, bridges are falling apart, all of our "national defense" is half-way across the world, we are borrowing all our operating money from Asia...but hey, who cares, someone is downloading last week's episode of "Bones" they missed - send out Homeland Security!
What a joke.