Federal Officials Take Down 132 Websites In "Cyber Monday" Crackdown

coondoggie writes "A team of world-wide law enforcement agencies took out 132 domain names today that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online. The group, made up of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and law enforcement agencies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania, United Kingdom and the European Police Office, targeted alleged counterfeiters selling everything from professional sports jerseys, DVD sets, and a variety of clothing to jewelry and luxury goods."

Comments

Question

[Mitreya]

Why is Homeland Security dealing with counterfeit product sales?

Are sales of fake professional sports jerseys jeopardizing our national security now?

Re:Question

[hduff]

Why is Homeland Security dealing with counterfeit product sales?

Are sales of fake professional sports jerseys jeopardizing our national security now?

You do not need to ask questions, citizen. Move along. Nothing to see here.

And turn off that camera!

Re:Question

[Thud457]

"when you buy that fake Movada, you're rolling with al Qaeda."

Re:Question

[MrEricSir]

Because Homeland Security is just an umbrella for several pre-existing agencies, one of which is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.)

Re:Question

[Mitreya]

Because Homeland Security is just an umbrella for several pre-existing agencies, one of which is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.)

HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) appears to be at least a separate branch of ICE. The article even implies that these are two organizations working in tandem

From the website:

HSI investigates immigration crime, human rights violations and human smuggling, smuggling of narcotics, weapons and other types of contraband, financial crimes, cybercrime and export enforcement issues. ICE special agents conduct investigations aimed at protecting critical infrastructure industries that are vulnerable to sabotage, attack or exploitation.

One of these things is not like the others (emphasis mine).
Good to know that designer handbag manufacturers are now part of the "critical infrastructure industries".

Re:Question

[CanHasDIY]

Find: Intellectual property rights theft
Replace With: The Drug War

"The Drug War is not a victimless crime. It threatens U.S. businesses and robs hard-working Americans of their jobs, which negatively impacts the economy. It can also pose serious health and safety risks to consumers, and oftentimes, it fuels global organized crime." Here is a link to Homeland Security's rationale: http://www.dhs.gov/topic/intellectual-property-rights

Fun with words.

Re:Question

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Exactly. Don't "You, Mr. America", remember "demanding" all this stuff be brought under one agency in your panic after 9/11? Trillions of extra dollars have been spent on it, money that would have been much better spent on medical technology, saving-lives-wise.

Re:Question

[tnk1]

I think you're making a point about government waste, but you're failing to address the real issue.

There is nothing wrong with taking a dozen or whatever organizations that all had useful information that they would not or could not share and adding them to one umbrella so they actually do their work better. That was what people demanded.

The problem was that instead of just doing that, they managed to somehow spend a crapton of money doing it and also adding a lot of crap no one wanted.

As far as spending money on medical technology, what makes you think they would have spent it any more efficiently on medical technology than they would have on Homeland Security?

Re:Question

[dimeglio]

Why is Homeland Security dealing with counterfeit product sales?

Are sales of fake professional sports jerseys jeopardizing our national security now?

You do not need to ask questions, citizen. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Perhaps profits from counterfeit merchandise finances terrorism?

Re:Question

[nhat11]

Because that money support some pretty strong criminal organization or support for drugs, etc.

Re:Question

[poofmeisterp]

"when you buy that fake Movada, you're rolling with al Qaeda."

''Consequently, terrorist groups turned to a variety of activities, including charitable contributions, narcotics trafficking, cigarette smuggling and I believe selling counterfeit products,'' Mr. Johnson said.

Right from the article. Note the BOLD.

Give me a break.

So what you're saying is...

[AioKits]

I in fact DID NOT get a good deal on my new Sorny 52" plasma flat screen or my Magnetbox bluray player?

Re:So what you're saying is...

[timeOday]

Heh. Although, "counterfeit" does not necessarily imply inferior quality. Sometimes it is nothing but an unlicensed extra production run on the same assembly line that makes the "real" thing. Or, sometimes it is simple arbitrage; "grey imports" of brand-name goods that were supposed to be sold for less profit in poorer markets.

Repercussions

[Enderandrew]

I'm not endorsing crime, nor advocating that criminals and suddenly the victims, but is the US federal government in the right to seize domains?

If the websites are breaking laws, aren't there other due processes to follow? Shouldn't we be working with foreign law enforcement agencies to go after those people rather than simply taking their domains?

A domain is property. Simply taking the property of others without due process (especially of people not in your jurisdiction) isn't exactly fair or Constitutional. I fear this behavior will add credence to the argument of the US relinquishment of key TLDs and possibly splintering the internet in the future.

Re:Repercussions

[Nostromo21]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp (& dozens others like it).

I think 'due process' in the US got a major rewrite during the Clinton era. Justice is for the just and the poor only it would seem. If they can seize human beings & detain them without any substantive evidence required, then I don't think web domains are high on the list of human rights violations you should be concerned with. Just sayin...

Amazing

[JustNiz]

So the world governments do nothing to cut off spammers, scammers, child pornographers or anything that actually burns members of the public, but the moment some big corporations profits from monopolistic practices look like they are being challenged they spring into action and kill it dead in seconds.

Re:Amazing

[cmseagle]

Or, you know, people selling counterfeit merchandise have to be relatively easy for customers to consistently find, while the other criminals you mention are actively avoiding detection, and have no reason to stay on the same domains/servers for very long, making them much harder to shut down.

Next

[Richy_T]

I wish they'd bust the thieves in Washington who are counterfeiting dollars...

(Ooh, a little bit political)

Re:How many of these

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm for one am looking forward to the obligatory article in coming days:Cyber Monday Crackdown Takes Down 131 Websites by Mistake

Not exactly right

[alostpacket]

I believe HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) is a directive or division within ICE but ICE is also and agency under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

http://www.ice.gov/about/offices/homeland-security-investigations/

(Note the link to DHS.gov at the bottom of the page)

Granted, it's a clusterfsck of terminology that makes you wonder about priorities, but I think the parent was correct.

Due Process

[Tokolosh]

Due process, what an archaic concept!

This kind of law enforcement behavior eradicates any lingering sympathy I might have had for the "copyright holders."