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.”

Prominent sports streaming site Rojadirecta has asked a U.S. judge to return its domain names. The company behind the site, Puerto 80, said that its property was wrongfully taken during the third phase of ICE and Homeland Security’s ‘Operation in Our Sites’, an action which has severely damaged its legitimate business.

During the last 24 hours Homeland Security seized another domain and put up the copyright infringement notice but now a quite unusual picture is forming. Allegedly an anti-vaccine blogger and claimed “batshit” conspiracy theorist with plenty of enemies had his server hacked and filled with illegal material. This appears to have resulted in his domain being seized for copyright infringement.

Yesterday and without warning, US authorities resumed “Operation In Our Sites” seizing several domain names associated with copyright infringement and counterfeiting. Today, yet more domains were added to the growing list. TorrentFreak caught up with one site owner who told us that while they were taken by surprise by a “pointless” seizure, they’ll soon be back.

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.”

The U.S. Government is celebrating the importance of intellectual property by educating visitors to the domain names it seized in previous months. These visitors are now redirected to an anti-piracy video instead. The viral video is running on 65 of the seized domains which have now become property of the Government, and shows how illegal downloads can financially ruin innocent workers.