TorrentFreak

As US authorities continue with Operation in Our Sites, putting pressure on file-sharing services and seizing their domains, for some it is all to easy to champion a heroic fight back against these “forces of evil”. But for the admins of one site targeted by ICE and DHS, the thought of being extradited to the US is a step too far. What started off as fun was turning into something else. Today they announce that “enough is enough.”

At the end of January 2011, the U.S. authorities kicked off yet another round of domain seizures, this time against site connected with sports streaming. This third round of action in ‘Operation in Our Sites’ took control of the domains of Rojadirecta, one of Spain’s most popular sites. Last week the company behind the site, [...]

US authorities have resumed “Operation In Our Sites” and have seized several domain names associated with copyright infringement or counterfeit related crimes. Among the new targets are two sites that linked to copyrighted films hosted on third party streaming sites such as megavideo.com and veoh.com. Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has yet to officially announce the new operation.

Domain seizures of alleged pirate sites continue to be criticized in the United States. Two of the most outspoken politicians on the issue have asked the responsible authorities about the legitimacy of the seizures, but received insufficient answers. In a response both politicians characterize the seizures as censorship and claim that the authorities “demonstrate little if any understanding of the Internet’s value and function.”

Homeland Security’s ICE unit is not happy with a Firefox add-on that allows the public to circumvent the domains seizures carried out during the past several months. In an attempt to correct this ‘vulnerability’ in their anti-piracy strategy, ICE have asked Mozilla to pull the add-on from their site. Unfortunately for them Mozilla denied the request, arguing that this type of censorship may threaten the open Internet.

The seizure of file-sharing related domain names by the US Government hasn’t been as effective as the entertainment industries had hoped since many of them simply continued their operations under new domains. To make these type of domain transitions go more smoothly, an anonymous group has coded a simple Firefox add-on that automatically redirects users to these new homes.

ICE director John Morton has confirmed that the seizure of domain names that are alleged to be promoting copyright infringement will continue in the coming years. In a statement before the U.S. House of Representatives, Morton said that “Operation In Our Sites” will continue through and beyond 2011. In addition and contrary to popular belief, Morton claimed that the seizures “respect free speech” and “provide due process.”