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Feds Seized Website For a Year Without Piracy Proof

Posted by Soulskill on from the your-tax-dollars-at-work dept.

bonch writes "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized a hip-hop website based on RIAA claims of copyright infringement for prerelease music tracks. They held it for a year before giving it back due to lack of evidence. Unsealed court records (PDF) show that the government was repeatedly given time extensions to build a case against Dajaz1.com, but the RIAA's evidence never came. The RIAA has declined to comment."

11 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. No surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My favorite part is that one of the extensions was granted one week after the previous extension had expired.

    1. Re:No surprise by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Funny

      My favorite part is that one of the extensions was granted one week after the previous extension had expired.

      "My master is always right. If my master is wrong... my master is always right. I must please my master. My master never lies. My master only wants what's best for me...." -- FBI, while handcuffed to RIAA's bed. :(

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    2. Re:No surprise by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Aren't people who make false claims supposed to go to jail?

      Aren't people in government who seize things without cause, or who deny timely prosecution supposed to go to jail?

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    3. Re:No surprise by Genda · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sadly, its become so hard to tell the who the master and the lapdog is these days. Is it a true Fascism and the Corporations are in control, in which case you just have political sock-puppets and the Government and Corporations are one and the same? Or is it still a Republic with one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel going to the highest bidder? Like I said, to close a race to tell at this point, and will probably require better minds than mine to distinguish.

      In either case, any semblance of civil rights, personal freedom, decency, dignity or real due process seem to have been tossed out the window along with anything that might once have resembled true democracy or representation.

  2. Okay. by BootysnapChristAlive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why are we seizing websites for copyright-related matters? This is petty, a waste of manpower, a waste of time, a waste of taxpayer dollars, and despite all of this, there is no gain from doing so.

    1. Re:Okay. by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Insightful

      there is no gain from doing so.

      Except, of course, the tactical gain for the copyright lobbyists, who can use such seizures as examples of why we need even stronger restrictions on the Internet. They can point to these seizures and say, "See, when we try to enforce our copyrights, the awful common folk just step around the ban! Therefore, we must be allowed to turn the Internet into a fancy cable TV system!"

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  3. Same with Megaupload by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well somewhat similar. They seized that website and caused millions of people to lose their files, but now the judge is saying the case cannot proceed, because the FBI never had authority to cease the site's servers.

    Of course they don't have to win the case..... WMG tried to use a takedown notice via youtube, and that failed, so they called their politicians in D.C. and used a full seizure action instead. The FBI/politicians have driven the company out of business, just as their boss WMG desired. Yay?

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  4. Not too bad. by wcrowe · · Score: 5, Informative

    They only violated four amendments in the Bill of Rights. No big deal.

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    Proverbs 21:19
  5. RIAA math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's do RIAA math:

    The site had the bandwidth potential if they weren't down for users to download an average of 10 songs per second at $1.00 per song..

    So $1.00 * 10 songs * 60 seconds * 60 minutes * 24 hours * 365 days = $315,360,000

    oops.. I meant $250,000 per song..

    So $250,000 * 10 * 60 seconds * 60 minutes * 24 hours * 365 days = $78,840,000,000,000

    seems reasonable.. This math came out of the same place as all other RIAA math.

  6. No recourse by Hatta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The real troubling fact is that we have no recourse against this sort of criminal behavior by government thugs.

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  7. Let's Explain This Using FBI Logic by IonOtter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Your Master is angry at a website, and they are telling you to break the law and take that website down.

    2. They pay your salary. They make sure the bosses who give you all your toys and paychecks get elected. They have so much money, they could not spend all of it if they spent 10 million dollars a day, for the next 20 years.

    3. If you do not obey, you will not have a job. And you might even wind up in jail on some trumped up charge, much like the trumped up charges you arranged for others you didn't like very much. Oh, and your Master knows about those trumped up charges against an innocent person, so maybe the charges against YOU won't be so trumped up after all.

    And the final kicker...

    4. You are the US government. YOU get to decide if someone can sue you for something.

    So. You have...

    100% immunity
    100% profit.
    100% job satisfaction.
    100% power.

    See? Math is easy.

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