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 recent weeks PIPCU sent letters to various domain name registrars of alleged pirate sites, requesting a suspension of domain names that had been classified as “infringing” by copyright holder groups.

This resulted in a temporary suspension for the popular torrent search engine Torrentz.eu, while FileCrop, Cricfree, Delishows and others lost permanent control over their domains.

This week another popular site ran into domain trouble. Putlocker.BZ, a popular movie streaming site with millions of active users per week, had its domain name suspended yesterday.

“We are having an issue with .BZ Registry, so we had to move from putlocker.bz to http://putlocker.is/. IS is the domain name of Iceland – a safe haven for freedom of speech,” the site’s operator announced.

At this point it’s unclear whether Putlocker’s issues are related to the actions of UK Police. TorrentFreak contacted the site for more details but we have yet to hear back.

For now the site continues to operate via the new .IS TLD. Iceland is indeed a relatively safe haven. The domain registry ISNIC previously informed us that it would not proactively suspend a domain, and that it would only take action when an Icelandic Court asks them to.

“Such an action would require a formal order from an Icelandic court. ISNIC is not responsible for a registrant’s usage of their domains,” ISNIC’s Marius Olafsson told TorrentFreak.

The above means that a letter from PIPCU would not be enough to suspend the new Putlocker.is domain name.

While PIPCU’s efforts under the “Operation Creative” flag may not eradicate piracy altogether, they may make some domain names and registrars a no-go area for these types of websites. Whether that will have any effect has yet to be seen, but copyright holders must be pleased with the close collaboration.

Update: The Putlocker.BZ team told TorrentFreak that they received a letter from PIPCU last month, which makes it likely that the UK police is behind the suspension. Putlocker.BZ’s has reached out to NIC.BZ to see if the issues can be resolved.

Update: The Putlocker.BZ team told us that they have the .BZ back, but they will continue to operate from the .IS domain name. The old domain name is currently redirecting to the new one.

Note: Putlocker.BZ is not in any way connected to Putlocker.com, the cloud hosting service that’s now known as Firedrive.

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

In the most prominent action AACS sued the makers of popular DVD ripping software DVDFab. Last month it won a preliminary injunction based on the argument that the “DVDFab Group” violates the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause, since their software that can bypass DVD encryption.

The injunction barred the Chinese-based DVDFab from distributing its software in public, by allowing AACS to order the seizure of its domain names. In addition, the company’s social media accounts were blocked and bank funds frozen.

DVDFab initially did not respond to the court, so the order was entered by default. However, after the injunction was issued the company responded in the name of Feng Tao, with a request for the court to revise its earlier judgment.

The company informed the court that the injunction is too broad, as it basically shuts down the entire operation based on U.S. law. The anti-circumvention provisions the injunction is based on don’t apply worldwide, they argue.

“It is well-established that the Copyright Act doesn’t apply extra-territorially,” the company notes.

Since DVDFab’s domain names and bank accounts were seized the injunction also blocks DVDFab’s business in other countries, which goes too far according to the lawyers.

“For example, shutting down the DVDFab domain names and enjoining the payment processors prevents defendant Feng Tao from using such domain names and payment processors for sales of unrelated products, and for sales of DVDFab products outside the United States,” they note.

For this reason DVDFab asks the court to amend the injunction so it only applies to the United States. This would require the return of seized domain names and social media accounts, plus the lifting of payment processing restrictions.

In a response, AACS points out that DVDFab has violated the preliminary injunction from the start. The company immediately registered several new domain names that are not under U.S. control, and continued business as usual. DVDFab also allegedly launched a new “BluFab” brand under which it sells copies of its DVD ripping software.

Even more controversially, AACS claims that a DVDFab representative threatened them in an attempt to settle the issue. A person named “Frank” contacted an AACS lawyer and offered an “exclusivity delay” with all major circumvention software makers, if AACS agreed to lift the domain name seizures. If AACS declined this offer, DVDFab would give away its software for free, the company allegedly said.

“Frank said that DVDFab was the largest circumvention software maker and it could align all other major circumvention software makers to allow AACS LA a one to three weeks exclusivity delay on introducing circumvention software in exchange for AACS LA restoring the DVDFab Websites and business.”

“Frank stated that if AACS LA refused the deal, DVDFab Defendants would distribute the software for free, thereby rendering AACS LA irrelevant,” AACS lawyers adds.

AACS further points out that the scope of the injunction isn’t too broad at all. According to the company, the Copyright Act allows for such measures in cases where the actions of a foreign business are “felt within the United States.”

It’s now up to the court to decide who’s right in this case.

For the time being, all U.S.-controlled DVDFab domain names, social media accounts and payment processing services remain unavailable. However, the software maker is still operational through several new domains, which can be easily found through Google and other search engines.

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

In an effort to limit the availability of so-called DVD ripping software, AACS has sued the company behind the popular DVD ripping software DVDFab.

Under U.S. law it’s forbidden to distribute software with the primary intention of circumventing copyright protection. In its complaint, AACS accuses the “DVDFab Group” of violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause by selling tools that can bypass their DVD encryption.

“The DVDFab Group openly touts these illegal circumvention attributes of the DVDFab Software on the DVDFab Websites, advertising that, among other things, its software products ‘remove all Blu-ray copy protections,’ and ‘can remove … all known AACS copy protections’,” AACS writes in its complaint.

To stop the Chinese-based DVDFab from distributing its software in public, AACS moved for a preliminary injunction. After DVDFab failed to respond in court the request was granted by New York Federal Judge Vernon Broderick. TF has obtained a copy of the order.

The broad injunction is unique in its scope, ordering several domain registrars to disable all domains associated with the DVDFab group. This includes DVDFab.com, DVDFab.net, DVDidle.com, 3d-videoconverters.com, 3dBluRay-ripper.com, Blu-Ray-ripper.us, Blu-Ray-Software.us, BluRayripper.jp, BluRaysbs3d.com, BluRaysoft.jp, CopyBiuRay.us, DVDFab.jp, DVDFab9.com and DVDvideosoft.jp.

At the time of writing none of the above domains can be reached.

Besides the domain names, DVDFab’s hosting providers are also ordered to stop servicing the company, as are other online services including Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Whether AACS has asked for the closure of DVDFab’s social media accounts is unclear, as they remain active for now.

Adding to DVDFab’s troubles, Judge Broderick also ordered several banks and payment providers to freeze or stop processing the company’s funds. This includes PayPal, Amazon Payments, Visa and MasterCard.

In summary, the order grants AACS the power to completely wipe all traces of DVDFab from the Internet, and make it hard for the company to resurface elsewhere. At least, that was the plan.

The Chinese software vendor is not giving up easily, and is already making a comeback.

“Existing bookmarks for either site may not work from some locations, so temporary sites for both are being prepared and will be online shortly,” a company spokesman says, pointing users to dvdfab.jp.

Quite how long this domain and associated payment services can remain functional remains to be seen.

In any case, AACS and the movie industry will be encouraged by this broad injunction, and it wouldn’t be a big surprise if we see this strategy being repeated against other piracy-related targets in the near future.

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

In addition to pulling these sites offline the feds also arrested 28-year-old Yonjo Quiroa of Comstock Park, Michigan. Quiroa was apprehended for allegedly operating nine of the seized domains and was jailed pending trial.

The sites in question, including hq-streams.tv, sportswwe.com and sports95.com, did not host any infringing files but listed hyperlinks to streams offered by popular third-party services such as Justin.tv.

In the criminal complaint an ICE officer states that through these links he was able to access unauthorized streams of NBA, NHL and WWE events. The complaint further noted that during 2010 and 2011 Quiroa grossed $13,000 by running advertisements on his sites.

In the months following his arrest Quiroa was held in custody without bail. In August he avoided trial by entering a guilty plea for a copyright misdemeanor on the understanding that he would receive a sentence of between 6 and 12 months.

After nine months in custody Quiroa was sentenced late last week.

District Court Judge Robert Ellis sentenced the former site admin to time served for one count of criminal copyright infringement. In addition, it was ordered that Quiroa should be deported to his home country after paying $25 in criminal penalties.

The largest monetary penalty, however, comes from the restitution he has to pay to several sports leagues. The $13,000 Quiroa earned in revenue was counted as losses to the sports majors so the NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE and TNA will each get $2,600.

The verdict is the first against the operator of a sports streaming link site in the United States and sets the bar for similar cases in the future.

This includes the pending case of Brian McCarthy, the owner of Texas-based sports streaming site Channelsurfing.net, who was arrested Match 2011.

The sentencing for a lesser misdemeanor crime also raises questions about the looming extradition of UK student Richard O’Dwyer. The U.S. wants to extradite O’Dwyer for his involvement in TVShack, a site linking to TV steams.

The Department of Justice has yet to comment on the outcome of the current case. Interestingly no press release was sent out, unlike in February when the arrest of Quiroa was widely distributed over the news wire.

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

This round of seizures, the tenth carried out by the Department of Justice and Homeland Security’s ICE unit, also targeted several sites that offered links to sporting events.

In total 16 domains were seized: firstrow.tv, xonesports.tv, firstrowsports.tv, firstrowsports.net, firstrowsports.com, hq-streams.tv, robplay.tv, soccertvlive.net, sports95.net, sports95.com, sports95.org, sportswwe.net, sportswwe.tv, sportswwe.com, youwwe.net and youwwe.com.

All of the sites were diverted to the familiar ICE ‘seized sites’ banner.

Not on all site admins the seizures had the desired affect. Within a day the FirstRowSports sites had switched to a new domain and were back in business. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the co-owner of FirstRow said that the sites would continue until a court – not the entertainment industries – deemed them illegal.

Interestingly, as reported this morning, the Rojadirecta domains seized by the U.S. authorities in an earlier copyright infringement sweep will now be returned after the U.S. decided they didn’t have the stomach for the kind of court battle described by FirstRow.

But for an admin behind some of the other seized domains listed above including hq-streams.tv and sports95.com, it is all too little too late.

Yonjo Quiroa of Comstock Park is the 28-year-old now-former owner of nine of the domains (not the Firstrow ones) seized in Operation Fake Sweep . ICE say that during January 2012 they were able to access unauthorized NBA, NHL and WWE streams via links on his websites.

Quiroa left a number of trails to his door, not least when he offered to sell some WWE-related domains to an undercover ICE agent posing as an employee of the WWE. On February 2 he was arrested by police in Michigan.

Known online as Ronaldo Solano, Quiroa has been held in custody without bail ever since, a total of almost seven months without trial. On August 1, 2012, Quiroa entered a guilty plea for a copyright misdemeanor on the understanding that he will receive a sentence of between 6 and 12 months.

“Mr. Quiroa has waived any rights to a presentence investigation and report,” writes Quiroa’s attorney in a letter filed in the docket this week and addressed to the judge handling the case.

On September 4 Quiroa will be sentenced, but even on release his punishment will continue.

“Mr. Quiroa will be removed from the United States following his service of his sentence in this case,” Quiroa’s attorney writes. “In light of these facts the guidelines do not recommend a term of supervised release [..]”

ICE claim that Quiroa was running a serious criminal enterprise set on turning a large profit, but from his entire operation which started in 2010 he made just $13,000.

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

But that all changed today when the UK Government’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) took over the domain and arrested its operators.

“SOCA has taken control of this domain name. The individuals behind this website have been arrested for fraud,” reads a message on the site’s home page.

In addition to arresting the site’s operators for allegedly defrauding the music industry by posting links to copyrighted music, SOCA also warns those who used the site to download tracks.

In a rather threatening tone SOCA explains that RnBXclusive readers face up to 10 years in prison.

“The majority of music files that were available via this site were stolen from the artists. If you have downloaded music using this website you may have committed a criminal offence which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine under UK law.”

To guarantee maximum impact the warning also displays the IP-address of those who visit the site. SOCA explains that they may use this information for further investigation.

“SOCA has the capability to monitor and investigate you, and can inform your internet service provider of these infringements. You may be liable for prosecution and the fact that you have received this message does not preclude you from prosecution.”

The above is reminiscent of a message that was displayed when the UK authorities shut down the popular BitTorrent tracker OiNK. At the time, the site’s visitors also received a warning. The OiNK case, however, turned out to be a waste of tax payer money and the site’s owner eventually walked free.

Finally, SOCA’s warning on RnBXclusive concludes with a rather tendentious claim which appears to come directly from a music industry lobby group.

“As a result of illegal downloads young, emerging artists may have had their careers damaged. If you have illegally downloaded music you will have damaged the future of the music industry.”

The above is worrying, because it wouldn’t be the first time that UK authorities are dragged into a criminal investigation solely based on evidence provided by the entertainment industries. In fact, this was the main reason why the operators of another BitTorrent tracker – FileSoup – had their case dismissed.

In the US similar mistakes were made with the seizure of the music blog Dajaz1. More than a year after Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized the site’s domain, they finally gave it back. It turned out that the seizure was a mistake.

Mel of Dajaz1 also sees similarities between today’s actions and the seizure of their site in 2010.

“Unbelievable, apparently the UK Govt doesn’t believe in Due Process either and their claims of damaging the industry and artists is unsupported propaganda,” she told TorrentFreak. “We’re completely against the process of seizing first and asking questions later.”

Thus far UK authorities haven’t officially responded to the RnBXclusive shutdown and arrests. We will add an update as more news becomes available.

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

Thus far, neither the Department of Justice nor Homeland Security’s ICE unit have officially commented on the seizures, but it can’t be a coincidence that sports streaming sites are being targeted a few days before the Super Bowl is due to be aired.

The targets of today’s seizure round include Firstrowsports.tv, Firstrowsports.com, Firstrowsports.net and Soccertvlive.net, but more may be added in the coming hours (see update below). The former apparently remains operational via Firstrowsports.eu.

For the first time, seized domains also include the .TV extension as Firstrowsports.tv is now displaying the familiar seizure banner. The .TV domain belongs to islands of Tuvalu, but is operated by the US-based company Verisign.

Last year there was a similar round of domain seizures during the lead up to the largest American sports broadcast. At the time the feds seized a dozen domains including Firstrow.net and Atdhe.net.

Both sites continued to operate under different domain names, several of which have been taken down today.

The seizures in 2011 also targeted domains linked to the website Rojadirecta, owned by the Spanish company Puerto 80. Despite being declared legal by two courts in Spain, the US authorities ruled that Rojadirecta was a criminal operation. The company has been fighting in US courts to get the decision overturned, but so far without luck.

Another target during the seizures last year was ChannelSurfing.net, which was operated by the Texan Brian McCarthy. The 32-year-old McCarthy was later taken into custody on suspicion of criminal copyright infringement, and he is currently awaiting his trial.

The extent of the fallout of the new “Super Bowl Crackdown” will become apparent in the coming days. It will, however, once again fuel the censorship debate which exploded last month with the SOPA/PIPA protests and the MegaUpload shutdown.

Update: ICE statement and arrest.

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

The new round comes exactly a year after 82 domains, including Torrent-Finder, were taken over in 2010. At the time ICE labeled the actions “Cyber Monday crackdown,” referring to the Monday following Thanksgiving where consumers are persuaded to shop online.

TorrentFreak has identified more than 130 domains taken over by the government during the last 24 hours, which makes this the largest seizure round to date. The authorities have yet to comment via official channels, but we assume that they will use the same justification for the domain seizures as they did last year.

“Intellectual property crimes are not victimless,” said Attorney General Eric Holder at the time.

“The theft of ideas and the sale of counterfeit goods threaten economic opportunities and financial stability, suppress innovation and destroy jobs. The Justice Department, with the help of our law enforcement partners, is changing the perception that these crimes are risk-free with enforcement actions like the one announced today,” Holder added.

Compared to previous seizure rounds, there are also some notable differences to report. This time the action appears to be limited to sites that directly charge visitors for their services. Most of the domains are linked to the selling of counterfeit clothing (e.g. 17nflshop.com), and at least one (autocd.com) sold pirated auto software.

Last year several sites were taken down because they allowed their users to access free music and movie downloads, and these were followed by several streaming services a few months later. No similar sites have been reported in the current round.

After the November 2010 seizures were covered widely in the press, many torrent site owners began to work on backup plans in case they too become a target. A few dozen sites have switched over to alternative domains, and other torrent site operators have purchased additional backup domains just in case.

The need for a backup plan was only intensified when US lawmakers introduced legislation to make domain seizures common practice, such as the pending Protect IP and SOPA bills.

The fact that the authorities have once again launched a large crackdown on “rogue” websites begs the question why this legislation is needed in the first place. Apparently, the current system already allows for the seizure of domain names, without due process and all the other constitutional issues.

Perhaps the authorities will be able to answer this question when they officially announce the latest “Cyber Monday crackdown.” Meanwhile, a full list of the 131 seized domain names we have identified thus far is embedded below.

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

Under the flag of “Operation In Our Sites” the authorities shut down a dozen file-sharing and streaming sites and many more accused of selling counterfeit goods.

The last copyright related domain was seized in May, but during the last weeks several counterfeit domains were taken by the authorities.

The domain names below were seized in the past 24 hours.

* choosepuma.com
* ebayshoppingjoy.com
* newerahatsnow.com
* newerahatss.com
* pumaforever.com

Whether ICE and DOJ’s increased focus on counterfeit sites means that ‘pirate’ sites are off the hook for now has yet to be seen.

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