The US Government took the fight against online piracy to a whole new level after seizing 130 domains that are thought to promote counterfeiting and copyright infringement.
A list containing more than 130 domains seized by the U.S. Government has been published a couple of days ago on the TorrentFreak blog. This is the largest such action taken by the US Government, and as it occurred exactly one year after the seizure of 80 similar domains, it certainly makes people wonder if the authorities have some kind of an anti-piracy schedule. Last year’s series of actions were dubbed “Cyber Monday crackdown” by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as they took place before the Monday that succeeds Thanksgiving, when people are actually encouraged to do more online shopping.
This time, the actions taken by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are collectively known as “Operation in Our Sites.” As seen in the above picture, the targets were represented by domains on which websites related in any way to copyright infringement and counterfeiting are hosted. For example, the following domains hint at counterfeit clothing:
- cheap-louisvuitton-replica.com
- nfljerseyswhole.com
- uggbootsclearanceoutletstores.com
On the other hand, an example of a domain that has been taken down for piracy is dvdsetonline.com. According to the blog that revealed the list, all the seized domains charged certain fees for allowing people to use their services. Even though the above picture is seen on all the seized domains, the authorities have yet to come up with an official statement for their measures, but most probably, they will reiterate last year’s excuse.
In November 2010, torrent tracker owners started looking for backup plans for their domains, as the Cyber Monday crackdown had been heavily publicized. Many of them started registering backup domains that would be used in case the main domain gets seized by the authorities. Considering that the actual seizure round is much larger, it will be interesting to see what measures the pirates are going to take now.
If you liked this post, please check the best music download option and the “Six Strikes” rule for online pirates.
