Slashdot Mirror
US DOJ Drops Charges Against Two Seized Websites
angry tapir writes "The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its case against two Spanish websites that stream sports events nearly 17 months after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized the sites and shut them down for alleged copyright violations. In a one-page brief to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the district said his office had dropped the case against Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org. ICE seized the two sites on Jan. 31, 2011, and the DOJ asked the court to order that Puerto 80 Projects, the owner of the sites, forfeit the sites to the U.S. government."
It seems that this tactic has some interesting consequences. The DOJ can seize the website, take it offline and make it unavailable to users. Thus removing all revenue streams. In the mean time, they wait. After a significant amount of time passes they go and "unsieze" the websites which now have lost revenue and users.
Seems to me like a use of the courts as a tool that they were not intended. What sort of remediation can the site owners take on the DOJ?
What about the lost money? Time to sue.
And for damaged reputation and lost customers, due to those went to one of the seized sites, freaked out, then never visited again. Definitely damage was done to Puerto80 Projects (their owner), but can the the DOJ escape liability by claiming the seizure was not unlawful?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Better sue them for thousands of dollars for each potential lost customer! I estimate that they owe over 100 trillion dollars.
Or finally kick the US off the Internet. Seems to me it will do a lot better without them holding things back.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
DOJ: We don't want to bother or can't prove they broke any laws but you should just give us everything they have now that we've wrecked their business.
Since many of the problems and complaints people have with the DoJ's behavior have crossed directors and presidents, I do not think race factors in here. These are institutional problems that have been around for quite some time.
Alas, actually they do.
In the USA today, pointing to a black man (or Native American (by which I mean, early immigrant, since there are no "native americans")) and saying "he did bad things" will invariably produce an outcry of "RACIST!!!".
Not that it matters in the end. A white man accusing a favoured minority of misconduct will be assumed to be racist automatically.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Part of me wants to yell "Sue those fuckers for the lost time!"
But i know the money is just going to come out of our pockets while the DOJ members sit happily sipping their overly expensive tea.
Government officials have no consequences, and that really needs to end.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
courts rule that foreign companies do not have standing to sue
Standing seems to get in the way of justice quite often. We need to strongly consider removing these loopholes in our justice system that allow the government to commit crimes with impunity.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Best of luck getting any real opposition into Congress that will do it. Nothing's gonna change while the voters have their heads up their ass and keep reelecting these buttheads
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
It doesn't matter that it's unconstitutional unless you can demonstrate how it directly harms someone protected by the constitution. I, as a citizen, have no standing to object to the lawless practices of my government unless I am a direct victim of those practicse.
What I am suggesting is that a justice system where lawlessness is tolerated directly affects everyone subject to that justice system. Every citizen should have a right to a government that obeys the law. That is not the case in America today.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
It's difficult to blame the voters when every candidate on the ballot is a butthead.
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
Muslim countries think they are the freest in the world. You are completely free to live your life according to Sharia. They actually don't see punishing speech "insulting" to Islam as an infringement on freedom of speech. They don't see putting apostates to death as an infringement on their religous freedom. But copies of copyrighted works are freely available for sale everywhere, with no compensation to the rights holder.
In the US you can say anything you want about any religion and can't be legally prosecuted (although the leftist "hate speech" trend is getting us there). You can flip between religions as you like, no punishment whatsoever. But put some movies up at a web site and the FBI may come down on you worse than if you'd murdered someone.
And, of course, release US secrets to the world, and the US will want to prosecute while its enemies cheer freedom and openness. Release the secrets of those enemies, suddenly they're not so hot on freedom and openness.