The Sites That Got Away: Feds Had Also Planned to Seize Pirate Bay and MegaUpload

The Sites That Got Away: Feds Had Also Planned to Seize Pirate Bay and MegaUpload
by Michael Suen | 5:28 pm, July 9th, 2010

Over a week ago, Geekosystem reported on how nine domains, including the much adored Ninjavideo and TVShack, were controversially taken down by U.S. authorities at the behest of Disney in the cleverly named “Operation In Our Sites,” citing intellectual property theft. Now we’ve learned that an apparently reliable source told TorrentFreak that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)–the non-profit, private corporation responsible for managing the web’s domain name system–had in fact handed over the movie streaming domains to the government, as the domain owners were violating their terms and conditions, in part by blocking their WHOIS information.

What’s more, TorrentFreak is reporting that two more sites had been targeted by Homeland Security officials: download giants Pirate Bay and MegaUpload were on the suggested list for domain seizure. P2P technology expert Johan Pouwelse from the Delft University of Technology remarked: “Hollywood lawyers have discovered the soft underbelly of piracy.”

In the case of Pirate Bay, U.S. authorities perhaps decided timing wasn’t convenient, due to the pending criminal process against the site in Swedish court. Additionally, whereas various other sites targeted had made their Whois data anonymous, TPB’s information is valid. In any case, Pirate Bay is dealing with its own worries at the moment, patching gaps following a massive security breach yesterday.

Whether the Hong Kong-based MegaUpload is under any threat of seizure is uncertain. To MU’s credit, they are normally adept at identifying and taking down pirated files that have been uploaded.

Internet users have questioned the diplomatic and legal issues of targeting private websites with servers located off American shores. One poster, wtfgov?, writes: “whether or not these websites follow american copyright laws, the constitution does not grant mr. obama the privillege to seize private property from other countries…”

When pressed for comment, ICANN did not offer TorrentFreak a reply.

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[Predator24]

This pisses me off to no fucking end :
God Damm governments stepping in everywhere to take away anything that is out of their reach of their control.
: : :

[Moose_Thompson]

We are headed for North Korea like internet access. Soon we'll be able to see what the government says it's OK for us to see. This is fucking bullshit.

[Predator24]

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Right on, Right on, Right on!

I could make some comment regarding the present situation in the United Socialist States of America but I don't want to get all worked up before nightie night times.

[drunkbear]

i do not think they will go after megaupload due to the fact they based in china and we owe them billions of dollars

[Expletive]

So instead of bitching, find the ones among us who has hacking skillz and cluster the fuck the lot of em---are we fucking five year olds or mutha fucking cluster fuckerz?

Fuck any government that gets in our way, fuck, i'd do it if I knew what to do, I don't live in the U.S. and would gladly go the distance to cluster fuck a few idiots.

[nzdawghaus]

from TorrentFreak:

U.S. Authorities Shut Down WordPress Host With 73,000 Blogs

After the U.S. Government took action against several sites connected to movie streaming recently, nerves are jangling over the possibility that this is just the beginning of a wider crackdown. Now it appears that a free blogging platform has been taken down by its hosting provider on orders from the U.S. authorities on grounds of "a history of abuse". More than 73,000 blogs are out of action as a result.

Hot on the heels of recent threats from Vice President Joe Biden and Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel directed at sites offering unauthorized movies and music, last month U.S. authorities targeted several sites they claimed were connected to the streaming of infringing video material.

"Operation In Our Sites" targeted several sites including TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. In almost unprecedented action, the domain names of 7 sites were seized and indications are that others - The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload - narrowly avoided the same fate.

Fears remain, however, that this action is only the beginning, and that more sites will be targeted as the months roll on. Indeed, TorrentFreak has already received information that other sites, so far unnamed in the media, are being monitored by the authorities on copyright grounds.

Now, according to the owner of a free WordPress platform which hosts more than 73,000 blogs, his network of sites has been completely shut down on the orders of the authorities.

Blogetery.com has been with host BurstNet for 7 months but on Friday July 9th the site disappeared. The following Monday the owner received an email from BurstNet:

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Further correspondence received the following response:

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...and a later clarification:

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"We notified him [the Blogetery owner] when we terminated it [the server], and we refunded him his money to his account, because he has other servers with us If he wants the refund to his card, we can easily do that. However, it should be the least of his concerns," A BurstNet representative later confirmed.

"Simply put: We cannot give him his data nor can we provide any other details. By stating this, most would recognize that something serious is afoot."

Due to the fact that the authorities aren't sharing information and BurstNet are sworn to secrecy, it is proving almost impossible to confirm the exact reason why Blogetery has been completely taken down. The owner does, however, admit to handling many copyright-related cease and desists in the past, albeit in a timely manner as the DMCA requires.

Nevertheless, a couple of quick Google searches which are likely to turn up blogs which link to copyright material appear to do just that. That said, on any network this large this type of activity is bound to happen. Many thousands of blogs on the same platform would have been perfectly legal.

"All of the users are without service just like when the Pirate Bay raids happened and all the people who were on the host sites were also taken down," pointed out an annoyed Blogetery user who contacted TorrentFreak. "I have lost my personal site also and I don't have any way to contact the owner since his contact info was on the blogetery.com site & that was the only way to contact him."

Indeed, 73,000 blogs is a significant number to take down in one swoop, regardless of what some users of the site may or may not have been doing. Time will tell if it was indeed a copyright complaint that took down the service but the signs are certainly there. Not so long ago the conclusion that this type of action could be taken on copyright grounds would have been dismissed out of hand, but the current atmosphere seems to be changing.

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