Since then Operation in Our Sites has resulted in thousands of domain name seizures and several arrests. While most of the sites are linked to counterfeit goods, dozens of “pirate” sites have also been targeted.

After a period of relative calm the authorities appear to have restarted their efforts with the takedown of two large music sites. RockDizFile.com and RockDizMusic.com, which are connected, now display familiar banners in which ICE takes credit for their demise.

“This domain has been seized by ICE- Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of 18 U.S.C. §§ 981 and 2323,” the banner reads.

TorrentFreak contacted ICE yesterday for a comment on the recent activity but we have yet to receive a response.

The domain names are now pointing to the same IP-address where many of the previously seized websites, such as torrent-finder.com and channelsurfing.net, are directed. Both domain names previously used Cloudflare and had their NS entries updated earlier this week.

Despite the apparent trouble, RockDizFile.com and RockDizMusic.com’s Twitter and Facebook pages have remained silent for days.

RockDizMusic presented itself as an index of popular new music. Artists were encouraged to use the site to promote their work, but the site also featured music being shared without permission, including pre-release tracks.

RockDizFile used a more classic file-hosting look, but with a 50MB limit it was mostly used for music. The site offered premium accounts to add storage space and remove filesize and bandwidth limitations.

Both websites appear to have a strong focus on rap and hip-hop music. This is in line with previous ICE seizures which targeted RapGodFathers.com, RMX4U.com, OnSmash.com and Dajaz1.com.

The latter was seized by mistake. The record labels failed to deliver proof of alleged infringements to the authorities and after a long appeal the domain was eventually returned to its owners.

This incident and the general lack of due process of ICE’s domain seizures has led to critique from lawmakers and legal scholars. The authorities are nevertheless determined to keep Operation in Our Sites going.

“Operation In Our Sites’ enforcement actions involve federal law enforcement investigating and developing evidence to obtain seizure warrants from federal judges,” ICE states on its website.

Once a credible lead comes in ICE says it “will work with the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute, convict, and punish individuals as well as seize website domain names, profits, and other property from IP thieves.”

At this point it’s unclear whether ICE has targeted any of the individuals connected to RockDizFile.com and RockDizMusic.com or whether the unit has taken down any other sites in a similar fashion.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

In 2005 the FBI shuttered EliteTorrents, a popular ‘private’ BitTorrent community that came to a sticky end after making available a pre-release ‘workprint’ copy of Star Wars Episode III. By 2010 the agency was focusing its resources on Operation in Our Sites, an initiative which closed down several domains including the notorious NinjaVideo. Then two years ago the FBI played a key role in the closure of Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload.

While few would doubt the gravity of the cases highlighted above, it may come as a surprise that in addition to commercial scale infringement, the FBI also views unauthorized personal copying as a serious offense. While it may not actively pursue individual pirates, it doesn’t want them in-house.

Monday this week Sacramento State‘s Career Center welcomed the FBI for a visit concerning recruitment of students for its paid internship program. One of the topics discussed were historical actions that could exclude applicants from the program.

In addition to drug use, criminal activity and even defaulting on a student loan, students were informed that if they had illegally downloaded content in the past, that could rule them out of a position at the FBI. It appears that to the agency, downloading is tantamount to stealing.

While some students might be tempted to tell a white lie or two about their piracy experiences during their initial interviews, that appears to be a dangerous course of action. All responses are recorded and sent to a polygraph technician and if the student fails the lie detector test they are excluded from the FBI forever, even if they tried to cover up the smallest thing.

But what if applicants have a bit of personal piracy to hide, but choose to tell the truth? Information is limited, but a 2012 posting on 911JobForums by a rejected applicant reveals that while honesty might be the best policy, it can be enough to rule someone out of a job.

“My reason for posting this is to help give fair warning to those who don’t think pirating copyrighted information from the internet will trip them up later on. While I sometimes ask myself what might have been, I can honestly say I gave it my best shot,” the poster explains.

“I had downloaded songs while at college 10 years prior (300+) and a few recently (<20). I had an illegal copy of Windows XP in my possession and 10 years ago had watched fewer than 8 pirated full-length movies which I had downloaded then promptly deleted. I had copied a Redbox DVD to my iPod I wasn't able to watch before returning but then promptly deleted the movie after watching once."

According to the student-run newspaper The State Hornet, the FBI are interested in the amount of illegal content applicants have downloaded, so it’s possible that people downloading very small amounts might be shown leniency.

Those interested in how the polygraph procedure itself works can find details of the equivalent CIA test here. Interestingly the writer has a tip for former pirate students.

“[The CIA] were concerned mostly about crime, drugs, and misuse of technology systems. Downloading music, though it is illegal, does not disqualify you. Most people especially college students did this, just pretend you didn’t know that it was illegal,” he notes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

PIPCU, as its more commonly known, has been involved in the closure of dozens of domains, the closure of several sites, and the arrests of individuals up and down the country.

Until now PIPCU’s most visible partners, at least in terms of enforcement in the Internet space, have been the Federation Against Copyright Theft (movies and TV) and the BPI (music). However, there are now signs that sites offering pirated ebooks are part of PIPCU’s strategy.

Like many movie, music, sports and proxy fans have in recent months, this week visitors to the ebook site OnRead.com were confronted with the ominous PIPCU “seized” notice.

“You have tried to access a website that is under criminal investigation by the UK Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). This site is being investigated for online copyright infringement,” the page reads.

The signs suggest that OnRead knew something was coming. After regular and often daily tweets of new literature appearing on the site, on September 2 the account fell silent.

TorrentFreak asked City of London Police for specifics on the site’s closure, including whether the domain seizure and shutdown had been carried out together with The Publishers Association, a known PIPCU partner.

“As part of Operation Creative PIPCU is working closely with the Publishers Association, as well as FACT, IFPI and BPI to disrupt copyright infringing websites. Since the launch of the operation several illegal film, music and publishing sites have been suspended,” a PIPCU spokesperson said.

While it seems more than likely that OnRead was operating without licenses recognized by UK publishers, an archive of the domain reveals that the site’s operators tried to claim that in at least one jurisdiction the site had operated legally.

“All materials presented on this site are available for the distribution over the Internet in accordance with the license of the Russian Organization for multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS) and intended for personal use only. Further distribution, resale or broadcasting is strictly prohibited,” the recent archive reads.

ROMS was a Russian collective rights management organization that attracted public attention in 2006 when notorious music download site, AllofMP3, insisted it operated legally under ROMS’ remit to collect and distribute statutory royalty payments as allowed under Russian law. In 2007, AllofMP3 closed down for good.

While the legal claims made by OnRead are fuzzy and by now years out of date, additional notes do warn users that they have “no right to download any files from the site if this violates the law of his country.”

It’s clear that PIPCU and quite probably The Publishers Association felt that OnRead was not in compliance with UK law. As a result the site’s domain, registered with InternetBS, is now in police hands.

In 2007, ZML.com, a site that offered movies to US customers, also tried to claim ROMS protection. That domain is now under the control of ICE and Homeland Security after being seized in the very first wave of Operation in Our Sites.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The unit’s most recent and high-profile action was taken against Torrentz.eu, the world’s largest torrent meta-search engine. Despite the site complying with takedowns (clear evidence of which can be seen on the site where dozens of results are marked as deleted by rightsholders), PIPCU approached Torrentz’s registrar requesting a domain suspension.

The company complied, but the effect was only temporary. Confronted with legal argument that the suspension was unlawful, the Torrentz domain was soon operational again.

While it’s easy to see how this kind of result undermines the credibility of the police, there are other considerations too. According to the registry responsible for Iceland’s top-level .IS domain, suspensions of this kind target the wrong area.

“Domains can hardly be considered illegal any more than a street address. A street address is not illegal even if there is illegal activity in one apartment at the address,” ISNIC says.

“When a domain is suspended the website or the content itself is not, as became apparent when torrentz.eu was suspended. A suspension of a domain does not lead to a total blocking of the website it points to.”

However, while content may indeed remain available (or in the case of Torrentz, links to other sites, that carry links, that link to content), suspensions still have the ability to disrupt other services associated with a website that are outside the realms of the initial dispute.

“Disruption of email communication and service, unrelated to the website that is meant to be closed, is utterly unnecessary and unacceptable in these instances,” ISNIC explains.

“A suspension of a domain is in a way comparable to banning the use of an address of an apartment building depriving everyone at that particular address of their postal service. Additionally, the suspension of individual domains can affect other domains, specially in the situation when domain service is a registered subdomain.”

Furthermore, according to the registry the counter-productive effects of domain seizures aren’t limited simply to the technical realm. Perceptions that seizures are unjust persist not only among visitors to the affected domains but also the wider Internet, damaging the reputations of targeted TLDs in the process.

“It should be noted that when registries and registrars are made to suspend domains it can create negative publicity within the internet community, harming the top-level domain and reducing its credibility,” ISNIC says.

“It is difficult to rectify that sort of damage that easily could be avoided with increased awareness and proficiency of the technical workings of the internet.”

It’s worth noting that to date, all attempts at seizing or suspending .IS domains have failed.

“ISNIC has never shut down a domain in response to external requests,” ISNIC’s Björn Róbertsson informs TorrentFreak. “ISNIC however does place domains on hold and automatically re-delegates to parking in case of technical issues – but ISNIC has strict technical requirements for DNS server setup.”

Perhaps finding comfort in this kind security, earlier this month Putlocker.bz moved to an Icelandic domain following pressure from City of London Police. While a court order could potentially force ISNIC to take action against a domain such as this, to date the registry hasn’t been included in any disputes.

“In case of a court order, the court order would have to be addressed directly to Internet á Íslandi hf. [ISNIC] not to the Registrant. That has never happened,” Róbertsson says.

“Icelandic court orders [regarding domain disputes] have always been addressed to the registrant, and ordered him to stop using or/and to delete the domain.”

In addition to its stance on seizures, Iceland also has a great reputation in respect of privacy, something which prompted Kim Dotcom to announce that the Mega file-storing service could relocate there if local legislation compromises the company’s users.

Whether there will be mass Icelandic domain migrations in the future remains to be seen, but the signs are that the ISNIC registry will put up a fight at the very least, something registrars elsewhere have failed to do.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

To oversee this challenge the President appointed Victoria Espinel as Copyright Czar and today she released the 2013 strategic plan on intellectual property enforcement.

The report begins with a summary of all advances made since the first plan was issued three years ago. Among other things it mentions the Megaupload raid and the ‘Operation in Our Sites’ domain name seizures as recent accomplishments.

However, the Copyright Czar also stresses that progress can be made without ongoing government intervention. The administration therefore actively encourages voluntary initiatives by the private sector, and the six-strikes anti-piracy scheme is held up as a prime example.

The initiative is a collaboration between the MPAA, RIAA and five major Internet providers, who founded the Center for Copyright Information (CCI). The alert system launched in February and since then thousands of subscribers have received warnings that their Internet connections have been used to share copyrighted material.

“At the Center for Copyright Information we are pleased that the Copyright Alert System was highlighted as an important example of voluntary efforts in the private sector to protect intellectual property,” commented CCI’s executive director Jill Lesser. “We look forward to working with the Administration on this important issue.”

In addition to the six-strikes system the report also mentions other voluntary anti-piracy agreements in other sectors, including advertisers, credit card companies and domain registrars. All these collaborations are aimed at reducing online piracy and counterfeiting.

Looking ahead, the Copyright Czar also highlights new technologies that will warrant attention in the future.

“As we move forward, we are aware that new technologies, evolving social norms, new business models, and novel global distribution mechanisms will present new challenges and opportunities to combat infringement of American intellectual property rights.

“Among these trends and innovations are increases in the power and prevalence of cloud computing, mobile computing, data storage, database management, information security, increased interoperability, and 3D printing.”

Espinel mentions the increase in use of mobile devices, which has its positive sides, but also introduces the problem of infringing apps. She notes that every new innovation has both up and downsides, and as expected 3D printing is no exception.

“Whether it is the hobbyist in the garage coming up with a prototype for a new gadget to make our lives easier or the scientist producing life-saving medical devices, 3D printing brings with it a new set of opportunities for rapid and efficient trade, innovation, and creativity,” the report reads.

“And, just as 3D printing offers the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to our society, there also exists the opportunity for individuals who look to exploit others’ hard work to abuse this technology by trading in counterfeit and pirated goods, of which we must be cognizant and diligent in our efforts to prevent.”

While the Obama administration is aware of the enforcement challenges 3D printing presents, there is no mention of any specific intervention to target this threat. We can, however, expect it to become a more prominent issue in the years to come.

In the near future the U.S. will mostly continue down the same path. This means protecting rightsholders both offline and on, through domestic action, international partnerships and voluntary agreements in the private sector.

“Moving forward, the Administration will continue to improve upon these efforts. We will focus on infringement that has a significant impact on the economy, the global economic competitiveness of the United States, the security of our Nation, and the health and safety of the American public,” Espinel concludes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations is the driving force behind Operation in Our Sites, an initiative that has seen dozens of domain names seized by the U.S. Government since 2010.

While file-sharing related domains have been seized on a number of occasions, more recently the emphasis has switched to sites connected to the sale of physical counterfeit products.

Last Friday, HSI special agents moved to seize 10 domains said to be involved in the distribution of counterfeit cycling products.

“The seizure of these domain names is an important tool in HSI’s continuing efforts to protect the consumer from sub-par and dangerous goods,” said Brian M. Moskowitz, the special agent in charge of HSI Houston.

“HSI special agents are also committed to protecting the rights of businesses that play by the rules so that they can remain competitive and support our economy.”

In addition to the domain name seizures, HSI targeted the site’s PayPal accounts said to contain more than $90,000.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

As part of Operation in Our Sites the U.S. Government were watching NinjaVideo and had approached Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload to retain evidence that Ninja staff had uploaded copyrighted videos to his now-defunct file-hosting service. Megaupload cooperated with the investigation, something which would later come back to bite them.

At the end of June 2010 the authorities carried out a raid on Ninja and eight other domains. Five people connected to NinjaVideo were arrested and in September 2011 they were indicted by a federal grand jury.

One of those indicted was site co-founder Hana Beshara. Known online by her pseudonym Phara and referred to by NinjaVideo members as their “Queen”, Beshara pleaded guilty and was subsequently sentenced to 22 months in prison.

This week TorrentFreak received a message from Candeelion, one of Phara’s closest friends. Phara is free once again and for those familiar with her previously outspoken and extroverted character, be assured that very little has changed. Being crammed into a prison with 250 other women “overflowing with estrogen” hasn’t calmed her in the slightest.

“WORD, I AM OUT OF PRISON! Oh man, I’m smiling like a fool here on this computer,” Phara begins. “You cannot possibly imagine how good it feels to be online again.”

Phara has also revealed a few details about her life in prison. Her new life was understandably not as stimulating as running NinjaVideo and her early days in confinement were marked by depression. However, Phara eventually got a job. For the first few months she peeled potatoes but at 12 cents an hour was never going to get rich.

Looking to do something more positive and avoid the manual labor, Phara successfully applied to do college classes. She appears to have found it amusing that the “small business” classes were a step down from running the Ninja operation she was used to.

A subsequent suggestion to other inmates that they begin studying current affairs apparently didn’t go down particularly well but she did end up leading a couple of jewelery-making classes. She also picked up a few skills herself, such as learning to knit and crochet. She can now also make cheesecake.

Phara is currently at a halfway house in Newark where she’ll remain until mid-June when she reports to house arrest.

“The house arrest will continue until the 22 months of the sentence are completed which I believe is in September. Then she must start her two years of supervised release,” Candee told TorrentFreak.

“This puts her fate into the hands of the Parole officer that she’s assigned to because if she
does not do the court mandated counseling and community service she could go back to prison for an undetermined amount of time.”

Phara must also get clearance to speak with the other defendants in the NinjaVideo case, although has made it clear that she’s only interested in speaking with two of them. She says that herself aside, Joshua Evans (known online as Wadswerth) and Jeremy Andrew (known online as htrdfrk) were the only defendants who refused to cooperate with the authorities.

As she gets her life in order, Phara also has to find a way to clear a huge debt. The Ninja founder owes the MPAA almost $210,000 in damages, but doesn’t want to pay them directly.

“Phara plans on petitioning the courts to allow her to pay back the film creators instead of the MPAA but is still waiting to speak with counsel on that move,” Candee explains.

But of course, Phara still needs to raise the money. Candee says that numerous options are being mulled, including appearing on the reality show The Amazing Race. MTV’s True Life have already approached Phara and she’s currently waiting to hear if they are interested in doing a “halfway house” edition of the show.

Finally, Phara is grateful to everyone who took the time to support her during her ordeal.

“Thank you to everyone that wrote and emailed and even put money on my books while I was locked up. You guys are wonderful,” she says. “I’m on home detention as of late June and out of Bureau of Prison custody in early September. Then two years of Supervised Release, which seems like some new-fangled way of saying Parole. Gotta stay out of trouble.”

Is this the last we’ll hear of Phara? Somehow we doubt it.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

One of the affected domains was Channelsurfing.net, a website where links to external sports streams were listed. The site itself did not host any streams, but linked to those offered by third-party sites.

In addition to seizing its domain name, ICE and HSI classified the site as a criminal operation and a month later they arrested the alleged owner, the then 32-year old Brian McCarthy from Texas.

The ChannelSurfing operator was charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement for his involvement with the site. The indictment stated that McCarthy “did willfully infringe a copyright for purposes of financial gain.”

In the two years that followed there wasn’t much progress in the case. As it turns out now, the U.S. Government and McCarthy were working on an agreement not to prosecute, which was finalized earlier this month.

The agreement, obtained by TorrentFreak, gives little detail on why prosecution is deferred, but it states that this is in the best interest of both parties.

“…after a thorough investigation, it has been determined that the interest of the United States and your own interest will best be served by deferring prosecution in this District. Prosecution will be deferred during the term of your good behavior and satisfactory compliance with the terms of this agreement…”

The deal means that McCarthy will receive amnesty. During the months to come he will have to demonstrate good behavior by not violating any laws, seeking a job, and complying with several other conditions.

While the former Channelsurfing.net owner avoids prison, he is required to pay back the $351,033.54 he earned through the website.

The decision to grant amnesty in this case is remarkable, considering the strong language the Justice Department used after the arrest and in the indictment.

“This arrest sends a clear message that this office, working with its partners at HSI, will vigorously protect valuable intellectual property rights through arrests and domain name seizures,” U.S. attorney Preet Bhara said at the time.

The deal McCarthy struck is, however, similar to that of Richard O’Dwyer, the UK student who operated the streaming site TV-shack. O’Dwyer was facing extradition to the United States but also signed a deferred prosecution agreement last November.

Both sites merely linked to streams and neither operator was actively involved in the infringing broadcasts.

Whether this was one of the reasons why the U.S. decided not to prosecute these cases is unknown. However, this is one of the main distinctions with the operators of the seized video streaming site NinjaVideo who were all convicted last year, some to hefty jail time.

All in all it’s safe to say that the U.S. Government campaign against streaming piracy has mixed results. Aside from the above, the U.S. also had to return domain names to the operators of two other sites.

Over the past year the authorities continued to seize domain names under the flag of Operation in Our sites. Perhaps tellingly, none of these domains were involved in video streaming.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

With help from French and Dutch police, the FBI took over applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com. In their place visitors to the sites now see the familiar FBI seizure banner.

The domain seizures are the first of their kind against “rogue” mobile app marketplaces. The authorities have not announced whether any of the websites’ operators were arrested.

Leading up to today’s actions FBI agents downloaded thousands of popular Android apps from the websites without charge. FBI Special Agent Brian Lamkin who led the operation described this type of online piracy as a growing problem that can’t be ignored.

“These thefts cost companies millions of dollars and can even inhibit the development and implementation of new ideas and applications. The FBI, in working with its various corporate and government partners, is not only committed to combating such thefts but is well poised to coordinate with the many jurisdictions that are impacted by such activities.”

Commenting on the domain name seizures, Assistant Attorney General Breuer says that online piracy is still high on the agenda.

“Cracking down on piracy of copyrighted works – including popular apps – is a top priority of the Criminal Division,” Breuer said.

“Software apps have become an increasingly essential part of our nation’s economy and creative culture, and the Criminal Division is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to protect the creators of these apps and other forms of intellectual property from those who seek to steal it.”

Since 2010 hundreds of domain names have been seized by U.S. authorities as part of “Operation In Our Sites”. The majority of these domains offered counterfeit goods and around three dozen were linked to copyright infringements.

One domain name has since been returned because it was seized by mistake, and the owner of another domains is demanding its return through the courts.

During previous seizures several sites operators were arrested, including five people connected to the movie streaming site NinjaVideo, four of which received jail sentences. Two alleged operators of other streaming sites that were seized previously are yet to be sentenced.

Responding to this wave of seizures, last year many BitTorrent sites changed their domain names. The Pirate Bay for example switched to the .se extension, one less prone to a seizure by U.S. authorities.

Whether a similar trend will emerge among sites offering pirated mobile apps remains to be seen.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) saw The Pirate Bay as one of the major threats and sent a letter to Swedish Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask.

The IOC requested “assistance” in getting rid of the Olympic torrents that were posted on the site, but Minister Ask couldn’t do much.

The Olympic videos remained online and The Pirate Bay poked the IOC in the eye by renaming their website to The Beijing Bay.

Fast forward to 2012 and the Beijing torrents are still online. Soon these will be joined by torrents of London’s Opening Ceremony, which will also be downloaded by millions of people. Some will download it because they couldn’t watch a live broadcast and others will just want a copy of the historic event for the archives.

However, BitTorrent is just a small part of the piracy challenges that NBC and the IOC face. Video streaming sites are perhaps a much bigger threat. In the coming weeks tens of thousands of unauthorized clips will appear on YouTube, and live streaming sites such as Justin.tv will be flooded with pirated streams.

Since NBC has paid more than a billion dollars for the Olympic broadcast rights, they will do whatever is in their power to stop these unauthorized streams. Luckily, YouTube and Justin.tv are helping out by automatically detecting pirated content, but there are hundreds of other streaming sources that are much harder to police.

Sites such as Rojadirecta.me and Wiziwig.tv, for example, will soon be flooded with dozens of external links through which the Olympic events can be streamed online.

But perhaps the U.S. Government is willing to help out?

Considering the money that’s involved it would come as no surprise if several of these streaming(-link) sites have their domains seized by the U.S. authorities in the days to come. We’ve seen this happening during the Super Bowl this year as well as the year before, and the Olympics appear to be a good opportunity to revive Operation in Our Sites.

Interestingly enough, free and legal online streams are available in pretty much all parts of the world except the United States. YouTube, for example, is streaming all events in 64 countries across Asia and Africa including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Zambia.

In the UK the BBC is offering a free online stream, and many other countries have their own alternatives.

The lack of free live streams in the U.S. is going to be one of the main reasons why people will pirate the 2012 Olympics. However, NBC also deserves some credit for taking a few steps forward. Just two years ago NBC said that they would only broadcast the highlights because people “are not dying to watch lots of long-form content on a 13-inch screen.” But this has changed.

While paid, all 2012 events will now be streamed online. In addition, people without a subscription will be able to buy a temporary pass which will provide access to a four-hour streaming block.

Whether this will be good enough to prevent people from accessing unauthorized streams will become clear in the days to come.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.