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.

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

Nevertheless, ICE and HSI classified the site as a criminal operation and arrested the alleged owner, 32-year old Brian McCarthy from Texas.

The complaint revealed that McCarthy was tracked down through information provided by the domain registrar NameCheap, Gmail, Paypal, Comcast, and the site’s advertisers. The documents also show that he made at least $90,000 from advertisements during the last five years.

Following the arrest the court proceedings were shielded from the public, but after months of sealed filings McCarthy has now been indicted. The ChannelSurfing operator is charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement for his involvement with the site.

McCarthy “did willfully infringe a copyright for purposes of financial gain,” the indictment reads, which further lists one specific infringement.

“On or about December 15, 2010, the defendant provided a link on the Channelsurfing.net website to a live stream of a basketball game that was protected by a copyright held by the National Basketball Association,” it further reads.

In response to the indictment, McCarthy sent a declaration to the New York federal court where he pleads not guilty to the two charges laid out in the indictment.

The ChannelSurfing owner never saw much harm in what he did, and assumed that “linking” to content hosted elsewhere wasn’t much of a problem.

“The thing about my site is we never streamed anything, we always linked from other sites like justin.tv, veetle, vshare.tv, zonein.tv and others,” TorrentFreak was told shortly after the ChannelSurfing domain was seized by the authorities.

In his declaration McCarthy further states that he is physically unable to travel to New York to visit the court, and that he waives his rights to appear in person.

“Mr. McCarthy lives in Texas and suffers from a whole host of emotional and psychological problems for which he is currently receiving medication and is in therapy. To the extent that can be avoided, Mr. McCarthy would like to keep his anxiety attacks (which manifest themselves in dry heaving and heart palpitation) to a minimum,” McCarthy’s attorney explains.

Attorney Sabrina Shroff further notes that she is still in negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s office to resolve the case with a misdemeanor plea.

District Court Judge Thomas Poole Griesa, however, has already scheduled a pre-trial hearing for early 2012. If found guilty to the criminal charges, McCarthy faces a maximum prison sentence of five years on each count.

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

One of the affected domain names was Channelsurfing.net, a website where links to external sports streams were listed. In the days following the seizure, TorrentFreak got in touch with the owner of the site who appeared to be genuinely surprised by the Government’s actions.

“The thing about my site is we never streamed anything, we always linked from other sites like justin.tv, veetle, vshare.tv, zonein.tv and others,” TorrentFreak was told.

The ChannelSurfing owner didn’t see much harm in what he did, and viewed the domain seizure as illegitimate, as did many others. In the days that followed he reviewed his options and considered taking legal action to get his domain back.

In the meantime, he registered the domain Channelsurf.eu where he continued business as usual. Until yesterday.

In a follow up to the domain seizure, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested 32-year old Brian McCarthy from Texas yesterday. The authorities believe that McCarthy is responsible for the ChannelSurfing website and he has been charged with criminal copyright infringement for “reproduction and distribution” of copyrighted material.

“Brian McCarthy allegedly sought to profit by intercepting and then streaming live sporting events, hiding behind the anonymity of the internet to make a quick buck through what is little more than high-tech thievery,” Southern District of New York Attorney Preet Bhara commented.

“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,” Bhara added.

The picture the authorities paint stands in stark contrast with how ChannelSurfing’s owner perceived his site, but it’s now up to the court to decide who’s side the law is on. For other U.S. based operators of streaming and file-sharing sites in general, these developments are worrisome.

The authorities hinted that more arrests may follow in the future. “We will continue to investigate illegal streaming of programming on the Internet in an effort to preserve legitimate and creative business interests and deter others from engaging in online piracy,” Homeland Security agent James Hayes said.

According to unsealed court documents, McCarthy was tracked down through information provided by the domain registrar NameCheap, Google, Paypal, Comcast, and the site’s advertisers. The documents also revealed that he made at least $90,000 from advertisements during the last five years.

If found guilty, McCarthy faces a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Despite the arrest the ChannelSurfing website is still available on the new .eu domain, hosted on the same server as the original .net.

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