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Super Bowl Bust: Feds Grab 307 NFL Websites; $4.8M
coondoggie writes "Speaking at a National Football League press conference ahead of this weekend's Super Bowl, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said special agents this week seized a total of 307 websites and snatched up 42,692 items of phony Super Bowl-related memorabilia along with other counterfeit items for a total take of more than $4.8 million – up from $3.72 million last year."
Because we can only transfer money through "legitimate" channels to China. Waste of my tax dollars if ever there was one...
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
It's unclear what, if any, effect these seizures have on the economy.
If they seize 43k items of merchandise, that means the average value for the caps, shirts and stuff on the photo is more than 100$ each... WTF???
...that the curren laws are enough to fight counterfeits?
I mean, because counterfeit NFL gear is incredibly detrimental to society. Unlike drugs, murder, and other violence. And why spend money on education when money can be thrown towards law enforcement to satisfy the corporate overlords. Another way of looking at it... thousands of jobs have been destroyed so that the uber-rich NFL owners can snatch even more money from the commoners.
Reading Slashdot every day is starting to make me wonder if I'm allowed to do anything besides spend all my money and work (for less) without getting sued or arrested for copyright, patent, counterfeiting, or violating some all encompassing do-what-I-say law.
Dreams of anyone who wanted a souvenir on the cheap, that is. Official stuff is $$$.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
While everyone was fretting over SOPA/PIPA, Obama secretly signed the ACTA treaty back in October, 2011. Both Obama And Bush declared during their respective presidencies that the text of ACTA was classified due to national security. Both denied FOI petitions. So how does a citizen have any hope of not breaking the law when the laws themselves are kept secret from citizens?
If we took all the money, time, energy, and resources wasted on football in the usa... We could solve our debt crisis in 5 years.
TRILLIONS wasted on men playing 'ball'. that's just funny right there.
Of course that would never happen. And i expect to be modded down to oblivion. Because there's nothing more rabid than sports fans.
ICE doing things that aren't in their job description. Again.
Shouldn't they be, I dunno, doing Immigration and Customs Enforcement?
The new war on drugs. Wait till they take you down to see if that label on the back of your clothing is legit.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
4.8 million in goods. I'm sure they will find the other billion they say counterfeit goods cost companies very soon.
Remember.. it is just your property that has been taken. It wasnt murder, drugs or anything violent.
nagios detected the 'seized' logo on 307 of my sites, and kicked off the rsync job for 307 new sites. lets hope this doesnt happen again, i only have 14,205 registered domains left from which to sell my yet-to-be-created JIT manufactured merchandise from china.
Also, does anyone know if they still put the holographic sticker on the "authentic" merchandise? Ive got a trading partner from alibaba.com that can crank them out in rolls of 5000, but he needs some notice.
heres hoping the superbowl is a huge success this year! I know the money really helped me last year when i had to pay off my foreclosure. this year my daughter needs braces, and my wifes blood pressure medication isnt covered by costco insurance.
Good people go to bed earlier.
the olympics committee that go postal over anyone trying to edge in on their merchandising turf. But I suppose these are two of the biggest commercial events in the world. What are a few of the other lesser knowns that go to these lengths to protect their merchandising of the event? (I can kinda understand with the NFL, it's not about football as much is is about making money over football, but the olympics I feel should have a bit less greed in their heads)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
What counts as counterfeit goods? They always offer up fairly big numbers to justify these raids, but they rarely offer up enough details for the public to judge the real value of what they're doing.
I'm bringing this up because I saw a news story that showed some counterfeit goods a few years ago. While some of them were pretty convincing, a lot of the stuff involved questionable cases of trademark infringement. One such example were batteries that used the colour scheme from a popular brand of batteries, yet everything else was distinguishable from the "genuine" goods (e.g. it went under a completely different product name). Claiming that they were counterfeit would be like claiming that Monopoly money was counterfeit.
Since when did Federal law enforcement begin enforcing tort laws, and more importantly, how do I get the Feds to raid the guy down the street who's using my GPL code in violation of the license?
Didn't read the article but out of curiosity, did they need warrants/due process/proof or did they just seize a 307 websites because they could?
Did they bother to calculate how much it cost the federal government to do all of this?
The feds spent $X to seize $Y of counterfeit goods that, if they entered the market, might have reduced NFL revenues by $Z.
Y >> Z is definitely true (the guy willing to pay $10 for the counterfeit, might not pay $50 for the authentic).
I seriously doubt X < Z.
Taking down domains without a trial, secretly negotiating international IP treaties (ACTA), threatening American ISPs into adopting a "six strikes" policy...
Judging by its actions, IP enforcement is clearly the Obama Administration's top priority. Is it corruption, or is it just plain disregard for justice and the due process of law?
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
I recommend going to the ICE Facebook page (WTF?) and let them know how much we appreciate their hard work protecting us from fake jerseys and other insidious chotchkies.
You know, add yourself to the list of people to monitor. Fuckfaces all around.
Too bad we have to use our real names...
Why won't the government realize that it is wasting its time and our money? Many of the sites are probably not even located in the US and will continue to operate even after their domains are seized. (You gotta the word "seized") And tools like Mafiaafire http://mafiaafire.com/ render their efforts increasingly pointless. The whole ordeal reminds of the Princess Leia quote from Star Wars "The tighter you clinch your fist, the more systems will slip through your fingers." When will they ever learn?
I feel so much safer now.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I already watched the Supery Bowls! Now I'm thinking... maybe that was fake too. Well, they were using a football and they were playing with it and I think they were real people. Wait, is "football" trademarked? Maybe it wasn't even a real football.
Anyway, thank god I didn't purchase any of the fake merch! I'd hate to get home and find the stuff disappear in my hands for lack of having the properties of real items.
Or worse... if the NFL people didn't get a cut of the money I spent.
"Visitors to these websites will then find a seizure banner that notifies them that the domain name has been seized by federal authorities and educates them that willful copyright infringement is a federal crime."
Correction: Willful copyright infringement in the form of selling counterfeit merchandise is a Federal crime. If you are infringing copyright solely for personal use, the vast majority of the time there is no "crime" at all. It is a civil infraction.
NFL revenue is about 4 billion. Clearly this is not a threat to their business.
The FBI needs to have it's budget cut if this is the best thing they can do. I mean 4 million is one SUV full of cocaine.
It's a good thing SOPA and PIPA passed, or else the government would be powerless to stop this kind of criminal activity.
This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
But what's more shocking is that this is done in the name of football.
It's just a game. No more dignified then tiddlywinks, starcraft, or mumbley-peg. The NFL got the FEDS to bust up counterfeiters? For $4.8 million in loot? Really?
Come on guys, get a grip. I'd like to say that nobody cares how "your team" did, but sadly I can't. All I can say is nobody should really care. It's an activity that does not warrant caring.
WTF does INS or ICE have to do with NFL.
I will never buy NFL licensed anything.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/02/super-bowl-giants-patriots-owners-campaign-donations-/1
Disney has the rights to breathing which it earned with the movie Warhorse, stop breathing right now or pay through the nose!
Well, they have to have something to keep them busy... seeing as they have worked diligently and put a stop to murder, illegal drugs, counterfeit money, break ins, robberies and all that stuff.
The next question to ask is how much of that seized merchandise is going to turn out to be real and how are the rightful owner going to retrieve it from the FBI agents' basements and such.
They didn't bust the fat cats at AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and so on... After all it is not like they scammed their own clients and stole hundreds of millions and colapsed the economy.
Waste of my tax dollars if ever there was one...
My imaginary conservative friend, who always displays perfect consistency in all of his opinions, is outraged that his tax dollars are being spent to defend private trademarks and IP. Trademarks belonging, moreover, to corporations that pay very little in taxes themselves. "What has happened to individual responsibility in this country?" he might be heard to exclaim. "Surely these firms could defend their IP monopolies themselves, without public assistance. I mean, this is the NFL! You mean to tell me they can't find a few hired thugs to show these pirates how not to do business?"
Thank Goodness that the Federal Government is protecting the profits of the National Felons League rather than protecting our boarders from the drug cartels, going after Chris Dodd for his acknowledged bribery issues, or anything else they could be doing.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
(#38909999)
Congrats on quads.
What would you do with three testicles?
Perhaps someone is trying to gain or lose enough testicles to get an Expert S-ex Change done. Or maybe someone took one of the "is it low T?" commercials the wrong way.
There's a fair chance of it being the very same items made in the very same factories, just after hours and off the books.
If you've worked the supply chain you'd know that it's the norm everywhere you look
Vendor A put an order of 2 million jerseys, and somehow somewhere that order self-multiplied throughout the length of the supply chain
And in this worldwide distributed supply chain that we are having right now, it's uncommon that an order placed in HongKong will be sub-contracted to factories in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Vietnam ...
At the end, 2.5 to 4 million jerseys would be made and Vendor A will get the 2 million jerseys he ordered.
As for the remainder ? Most of them would be stored in some warehouse somewhere, and part of those merchandises will find their way to the grey market
These "extra merchandises" are of top quality - in fact, they are of the same quality as the jerseys the Vendor A is selling in its authorized franchises.
From watches to jerseys to sport shoes to ... just look around your house/office, any of them could be from the 'extra merchandises" category
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
are these "counterfeit" goods even hurting anyone. nfl makes money, merch seller makes money, more people have jobs. why are we cracking down on this.
If you're wondering how many seized site banners there are out there, it's 11. Here they all are: DOJ Seized Domain Notices - Paul Nickerson - Picasa Web Albums
My script found only 389 seized domains in total, and that should be over 465, so I'll try again in a few days and update the album.
If your house is robbed and the police show up to investigate should you get a bill? How about a fire? What is the point of taxes to pay for any government services if we have to pay to use them?
That's a fair point. But then I feel compelled to point out that corporations pay far less in taxes than real people do, sometimes no taxes at all. What then?
If a real person is so poor that they don't pay taxes, I consider it fair that they still get to use public services -- that's part of the whole social contract thing. If disaster befalls me and I wind up so poor myself some day, I don't want to be stuck up a certain creek with no access to public services.
If a corporation is so rich that they don't pay taxes, I consider it fair that they be denied use of public services -- this is a basic violation of the whole social contract thing. If the corporation is capable of paying any of its bills at all, its tax bill should be near the top of the list -- certainly above executive bonuses, at any rate.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
"Remind the DOJ and DHS of the importance of due process and the presumption of innocence when dealing with the Internet."