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.

Knowing that they could lose their domain names without warning or due process, many have secured alternatives. Others have taken things a step further by moving their sites to non-U.S. controlled domains as a precaution.

The Pirate Bay, for example, traded in its .org domain for a Swedish .se TLD earlier this year. Others BitTorrent sites including Demonoid, Torrentz and KickassTorrents took similar measures, as did several file-hosting and streaming portals.

The operators of these sites chose domain names that don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the United States under the assumption that they are better protected against seizures. However, yesterday it became clear that this is not necessarily the case.

On ‘Cyber Monday’ ICE announced yet another round of seizures, this time with help from European law enforcement agencies and Europol and dubbed Project TransAtlantic.

“Recognizing the global nature of Internet crime, this year the IPR Center partnered with Europol, who, through its member countries, executed coordinated seizures of foreign-based top-level domains such as .eu, .be, .dk, .fr, .ro and .uk. This effort is titled Project Transatlantic and resulted in 31 domain name seizures,” ICE states.

The authorities haven’t released a list of the European targets but chaussuresfoot.be, chaussurevogue.eu and eshopreplica.eu are included. In Denmark Cardsharing.dk was seized but the site might not fall under the same operation as it displays a different banner. Also, the Cardsharing domain is more piracy than counterfeit-related as it allows users to share access to pay TV.

It comes as no surprise that operators of file-sharing and streaming sites are concerned about these new developments. While yesterday’s actions were mostly targeted at retailers of counterfeit goods, similar efforts could easily cross over to “pirate” sites.

TorrentFreak talked to several BitTorrent site owners, and all fear that this may be a test case for a new round of piracy-related seizures. The general opinion is that by including the European domain names, ICE and partners are signaling that no domain name is safe.

The Pirate Bay team, currently operating under a .se domain, shares the concerns of other site owners but don’t think they will be targeted soon.

Previously The Internet Infrastructure Foundation, responsible for operating the .se TLD, said it would consider its options in the event a court order was received. According to the foundation, domain names are not the source of the problem as they are easily traded in for new ones.

“We believe the problem in this type of situation is not the domain, but rather its contents. The domain name itself is not an accomplice in act of copyright infringement and if thepiratebay.se, for example, were to be shut down, the site would almost certainly reopen under another top-level domain,” the group wrote in a blog post recently.

Indeed, if The Pirate Bay domains were seized the site would simply return under a new one within minutes. And TPB is not the only site in this position. As we previously documented the vast majority of all the streaming and file-sharing sites that have been seized over the past two years quickly returned under a new domain name.

However, this doesn’t mean that seizures don’t do damage. Torrent-Finder, for example, lost its .com domain late 2010 and never fully recovered to the same traffic levels the site had before. The loss of Google juice appears to be the main worry in this regard.

The torrent site operators TorrentFreak talked to are not planning to switch domains anytime soon, but all have backup plans in case they become a target. Time will tell whether these are needed or not.

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

Leading up to the Super Bowl this weekend, a total of 307 domain names were seized, 16 of which provided access to online streams of popular sporting events.

Commenting on the actions, ICE Director John Morton was quick to declare victory, but perhaps this came a little too soon. Firstrow, one of the largest sites which had several of its domains taken over by the US government, is not planning to give up the ‘battle’ anytime soon.

Quickly after its firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.tv, firstrowsports.net and firstrowsports.com domains were seized, the service was operating as normal under a new domain – Firstrowsports.eu. Talking to TorrentFreak, one of the owners said that the US has stepped out of line by simply taking away their property.

“The US has prided itself on their ‘innocent before proven guilty’ mantra, yet is clearly hypocritical when it comes to this,” the Firstrow co-owner told us. “Numerous times the US has seized domains, before the defendants have been proven guilty in a court of law.”

“What is the point of trying to approve SOPA and PIPA if they do the same without these laws,” he questioned, referring to the pending US bills that would make it even easier to seize allegedly infringing domains.

The response of Firstrow stands in sharp contrast with that of ICE Director John Morton yesterday.

“In sports, players must abide by rules of the game, and in life, individuals must follow the laws of the land. Our message is simple: abiding by intellectual property rights laws is not optional; it’s the law,” Morton said.

This comment forms the base of the dispute. What is the law of the land? The people who operate Firstrow don’t live in the US, and neither are their servers located there. In fact, Firstrow says that their site is perfectly legal where they are based, so they will continue business as usual.

“Since we don’t live in a third-world country here, the courts decide if something is illegal not the entertainment industry lobbies. We will continue until a court decides that the site is illegal, but for now we’ve seen three court decisions on this matter that say it is not.”

Firstrow’s co-owner is referring to the court cases in Spain, where sites that merely link to copyrighted works have been declared legal. Rojadirecta, a site very similar to Firstrow, won in Spanish courts twice.

In the US, however, things work differently. Two operators of streaming sites have already been arrested and await criminal trials. And if the domains are linked to foreigners, the US believes it has the authority to take them over if they are deemed to infringe copyrights.

This stance has raised eyebrows among foreign governments. A few months ago the European Parliament adopted a resolution which criticized US domain name seizures. According to the resolution these measures need to be countered as they endanger “the integrity of the global internet and freedom of communication.”

Yesterday’s actions show that the US authorities are not impressed by the international critique, just as Firstrow refuses to change course after yet another domain seizure. Firstrow says ICE is wasting its time and continues to provide access to sports fans all across the world, who are otherwise unable to see their beloved games.

“ICE must have a lot of spare time if they can waste it on these domain seizures,” Firstrow’s co-owner says. “They should invest time in the real important stuff , instead of chasing people who have no other option than to watch a sports game for free.”

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

At the time there was no official announcement from the authorities, but ICE has now confirmed that this, their 10th round of domain seizures, is being branded ‘Operation Fake Sweep.’

In total the authorities took down a record breaking 307 domain names. The majority, 291, sold counterfeit NFL merchandise and the remaining sites allegedly linked to copyrighted streams.

The full list of seized streaming domains is 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.

In addition to the seizures, police also arrested 28-year old Yonjo Quiroa of Comstock Park, Michigan. According to the press release Quiroa is the owner of nine of the sixteen sites, which he operated from his home.

Responding to the arrest and domain seizures, ICE Director John Morton declared victory.

“While most people are focusing on whether the Patriots or Giants will win on Sunday, we at ICE have our sights on a different type of victory: defeating the international counterfeiting rings that illegally profit off of this event, the NFL, its players and sports fans,” Morton said.

“In sports, players must abide by rules of the game, and in life, individuals must follow the laws of the land. Our message is simple: abiding by intellectual property rights laws is not optional; it’s the law.”

NFL’s Vice President of Legal Affairs Anastasia Danias welcomed the support of the authorities.

“We are grateful for Homeland Security Investigations’ tireless efforts in combating intellectual property theft and are pleased to be working along with them and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on this important issue,” he said.

The controversial seizures which started early 2010 have now resulted in the takeover of 669 domain names. The majority of the sites in question offered counterfeit goods and three dozen were linked to copyright infringements. One domain name has been returned because it was seized by mistake.

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

Although the XS admin denied begin connected, he did admit renting out a server to “a guy who rented it out,” a suggestion that he perhaps had suspicions about potential connections, intended or otherwise.

XtremeSpeeds then disappeared completely and a promised August update from the site’s admin never materialized. What followed was an information black-hole, a common feature of ongoing piracy investigations where authorities aren’t yet ready to shout about their achievements and lawyers advise their clients to keep their mouths shut.

Now the rumor mill is turning again. According to reports, IMAGiNE – one of the P2P scene’s most prominent release groups – have been busted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The reports, which have proven impossible to confirm from any official source at this stage, state up to nine arrests.

Last year, IMAGiNE launched their own “secret” private BitTorrent tracker that remained under the radar for roughly 10 minutes. The site, UnleashTheNet, also known by its acronym UtN, was hosted in Canada but in the last few days it simply disappeared.

This morning TorrentFreak spoke with the site’s host who informed us that they haven’t heard anything about any raids or arrests. A traceroute timed-out at the site’s IP address.

However, there is one person who claims to know the details of IMAGiNE’s fate and he spoke with us just a few hours ago. So, has IMAGiNE really been busted?

“Yep,” says DiGiTALiNK, founder of P2P release group EP1C. “ICE joint operation got them.”

In an email to TorrentFreak, DiGiTALiNK went on to say that 9 people were arrested including IMAGiNE members Spunky, HoD, Jason, Tank, TheStash and Spangy, all of them within the United States. [See update below]

If these words do indeed turn out to be true, this latest development marks yet another event in a turbulent few months for EP1C, IMAGiNE, and associated sites and individuals.

In June this year, IMAGiNE published a warning on their site which declared that EP1C members had been banned and that anyone inviting them back would share their fate. It was claimed that DiGiTALiNK, EP1C’s founder, had “turned in one if not more of his members to the feds” and that a private FTP site of his was being watched by the authorities.

In the hugely political world of private trackers, claims like this are not unusual. In many file-sharing circles paranoia reigns supreme but, as they say, just because you’re paranoid it doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

When EP1C’s DiGiTALiNK delivered his response to IMAGiNE’s claims, the focus was on escalating the conflict.

“They crossed paths with the wrong person, they lie, cheat, steal and have a fake identity to make people think they care about there [sic] safety, but in fact many of there [sic] source providers have been busted because they have no regard for your safety, only want the fame of that release,” the response began.

“Within the next few releases I will be providing proof of all this to the public and including all there [sic] personal identification information.. haha if I was a snitch they would have already been busted. IMAGiNE, are [expletives removed].”

Immediately some details related to the identity of one IMAGiNE member were released followed by the locations of others along with the words: “Get ready for a War.”

But those hoping to learn more from future EP1C revelations would be left disappointed. EP1C made their final releases on June 14th and 15th, dates which to within a week coincided with the accusations made by IMAGiNE.

TorrentFreak pointed out the history of bad-blood between EP1C and IMAGiNE to DiGiTALiNK and asked if he had a comment. We also asked how he came by the more specific details of the alleged arrests. At the time of publication we’re yet to receive a response.

After making releases of high-profile movies every few days for the last few months, last week on September 9th IMAGiNE made their most recent release – The.Guard.2011.DVDSCR.XViD.AC3-IMAGiNE. Nothing has been heard from them since.

The group did not respond to correspondence sent to a secure account so only time will tell if this release turns out to be their last.

Update: Fresh sources confirm that four people were visited by ICE

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

This wave of seizures, which took place with the Super Bowl just around the corner, netted 10 domains including Atdhe.net, ChannelSurfing.net, HQ-Streams.com, HQ-Streams.net, Firstrow.net, Ilemi.com, Ilemi.net, Iilemi.com, RojaDirecta.org and RojaDirecta.org.

Now the individual behind two of the domains, HQ-Streams.com and HQ-Streams.net, has not only lost his domains but now potentially faces losing his freedom.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have confirmed their agents arrested a New York man this week on suspicion of illegally streaming copyrighted sports events over the Internet.

Mohamed Ali, 19, of Hollis, N.Y., was taken into custody at his home in Queens and charged with a single count of criminal copyright infringement.

“Today’s arrest sends a clear message to website operators who mistakenly believe it’s worth the risk to take copyrighted programming and portray it as their own,” said ICE Director John Morton.

“Protecting legitimate business interests are a priority for HSI, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center and our law enforcement partners. We are dedicated to protecting the jobs, the income and the tax revenue that disappear when organized criminals traffic in stolen content for their own profit.”

According to the criminal complaint, between February 2010 to January 2011 Ali used his domains to show events from the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the Ultimate Fighting Championship and (UFC) and other boxing events.

ICE says that Ali charged $6, $12 and up to $25 to access links which would allow visitors to watch events. There appears to be no claim that Ali provided the streams himself.

At the time Ali’s domains were seized, ICE were very clear that they were targeting sites that were “among the most popular on the Internet for illegally distributing copyrighted sporting events”, but since then his domains have received just 50,000 hits, even though masses of news coverage will have boosted interest among Internet users. But clearly not all hits turn into business.

While ICE claim that Ali charged a fee to view streams, they say that in approximately a year he made just $6,000. A tap of the calculator reveals that at the $6 ‘cheap rate’ just 1,000 ‘tickets’ were sold, at $12 just 500 and at the top rate, around 240. If this is what constitutes one of the “most popular” sites, piracy is truly under control.

In August 2010, HQ-streams.com was hit with a direct court order from the UFC which restrained it from broadcasting their events, an order with which the site at least initially complied.

“Too (sic) All Members Of The Forum, There won’t be any UFC 118 stream here this Saturday,” said a notice posted on the site at the time. “We don’t want our site to get into troubles (sic) with Zuffa!”

Troubles with Zuffa, it seems, were the least of their worries.

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

“Operation In Our Sites” has now been running for more than 12 months and has resulted in the shutdown of hundreds of sites.

While file-sharing and streaming sites have been targeted, the main victims continue to be sites selling counterfeit goods.

The most recent copyright-related domain seizure was in May, but last week five further counterfeit goods-related domains were taken over.

Today we can report that three more domains are diverting to ICE’s seizure notice, as listed below:

- discountedoakleysunglasses.com
- onlypuma.com
- ventma.com

The seizure of domains connected to the sale of counterfeit goods appears to be much less controversial than the same directed at file-sharing sites. There has been no visible effort by the owners of the former to reclaim their domains.

On the other hand the admins of sites such as Torrent-Finder and RojaDirecta are actively seeking the return of their seized domains through the legal system.

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.

With such a high benchmark set for sticking-it-to-the-man, on countless occasions over the last decade the community has sighed in collective resignation and disappointment when site admins or product developers have “caved in” to the demands of the entertainment industries.

But there are real people behind these stories of admins fighting for their lives, and while it’s easy to move on to tomorrow’s news with barely a second thought for their predicament, they are the ones that have to live with the consequences of their actions.

In May, US authorities embarked on phase 4 of Operation in Our Sites, seizing the domains of several more sites including that of Re1ease.net, a portal that offered links to movie and TV shows. Although the site quickly returned with a new domain, once the dust has settled the seriousness of their situation weighed heavily on the site’s admins.

“At the time I was happy the domain was all that was taken. If we had of lost the server I imagine we would have just quit there and then,” site admin PiraCee told TorrentFreak.

RE1_VOD, another Re1ease admin, explained that it came as a shock for the site to be targeted over other much larger sites of the same kind, but they remained defiant.

“We registered several domains being stubbon not to be taken offline,” he explained. “The initial plan was to re-code Re1ease to be API-based and be a distributed website.”

But it seems the mood soon changed.

While RE1_VOD recalls the excitement of getting up during the night to be the first to add content and beat competing sites, he told us that once the US government got involved it was an altogether different game.

Already the site had suffered problems with advertisers who would delay payments for months only to announce they could not deal with the site, presumably on copyright grounds. DMCA takedown notices began to cause problems too.

“We would reply to DCMA requests but just one email from copyright holders to hosts would result in them turning the website off,” says RE1_VOD.

“Apart from the effort that was to be involved, personally, the whole thing killed my passion for the project. What started as something fun simply wasn’t anymore,” says PiraCee.

Despite the issues, Re1ease continued with their work but last month came news of a real game-changer – the attempt at extraditing TVShack.net admin Richard O’Dwyer to the US.

“This was one of the main reasons for the closure. We didn’t fancy a holiday of that nature,” PiraCee explains.

“The risks outweigh the pros of running a site like Re1ease now, then when we heard about TVShack, we thounoughtnough is enough.”

“Hopefully, in one way or another, if Re1ease was still being watched in the same was TVShack was, they will see the closure as willingness to co-operate and that will be the end of the matter. We really do feel for Mr O’Dwyer.”

So for Re1ease, this really is the end. Both admins send their thanks to the staff and users of the site but while PiraCee and RE1_VOD will stay online, priorities will change.

“We don’t plan on leaving the Internet, but we are going to concentrate on our personal lives. I myself have just got engaged and i’m in the middle of buying a house / starting a family,” PiraCee concludes.

As the world becomes ever more connected through the Internet and other networks, we are communicating like never before – more quickly and more often. But despite these greater links between us, through the myriad of so-called social-networks, it is easier than ever to forget that there are real people behind these mountains of text on screens.

Some of these are real people in the file-sharing community and they face difficult times – who can blame them when they make tough decisions? Their families won’t, that’s for certain.

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

Yesterday the company behind the site, Puerto 80, filed a petition in the Southern District of New York for the return of its domains. As reported by TechDirt, the company has brought in legal heavyweights in the form of Ragesh Tangri and Mark Lemley from law firm Durie Tangri.

The federal court filing by site owner Puerto 80 states that Rojadirecta’s domains were used for sports-related discussions, conceding that “an index of links to streams of sporting events” were available but adding that the site committed no acts of copyright infringement.

“Contrary to the grounds on which the domain names were seized, the Rojadirecta site is not violating copyright law, let alone criminal copyright law,” the filing begins.

“Rojadirecta explained this to the government when, on February 3, 2011, it sent ICE and the Department of Justice a letter requesting immediate return of the subject domain names pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 983(f).”

Puerto 80 go on to bemoan the fact that they repeatedly tried to engage the U.S. authorities in discussion about the seizures and that the process to reclaim their domain names had dragged on, a delay which continues to damage their business. Several weeks ago it became clear that legal action would be necessary.

“On May 26, 2011, the government informed counsel for Puerto 80 that the only acceptable ‘compromise’ would entail Puerto 80 prohibiting its users from linking to any U.S. content anywhere on its sites. Because this ‘solution’ would prohibit Puerto 80 from engaging in lawful acts not prohibited by copyright law, Puerto 80 chose instead to challenge the seizure in court,” notes the filing.

Puerto 80 say that the activities of Rojadirecta do not constitute contributory infringement because the site is capable of substantial non-infringing uses. Furthermore, the company refutes claims of vicarious liability adding that the actions of Rojadirecta do not constitute direct copyright either. Puerto 80 note that the government has failed to show that Rojadirecta committed even a single criminal act.

The lawsuit adds that the domain seizure by ICE effectively shut down the entire Rojadirecta website thereby stifling all speech hosted on it “based on an assertion that there was probable cause to believe that some of the material linked to the website (though not found on the website itself) might be infringing.”

The Rojadirecta website is still available online using an alternative URL – rojadirecta.es – but Peurto 80 said that losing its original domains cost it 30% of its traffic.

“We’re very glad that Rojadirecta is fighting back so that this and other domain name seizures can receive more careful judicial consideration,” said the EFF in a comment. “We’ll be following the case closely and expect to weigh in as amicus as well.”

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