8:57 am on January 12, 2011 · copyright (79), DNS (36), ICE (4), law (46)

Is there such a thing as “criminal contributory infringement”? #ICE #copyright #dns #freeculture

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Mike Masnick of techdirt argues that recent seizures of domain names by Homeland Security’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) group have dubious legal validity. Even the Supreme Court’s embrace of the concept of “inducement as contributory infringement” in the Grokster case didn’t contemplate it as criminal activity.

The actual seizure itself was handled clumsily, using outside contractors. The tracking of visitors to the seized sites contrary to government policy led many observers to initially conclude the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. This was compounded by the ICE delaying public statements so they could make a splash on “Black Monday”. Techdirt further noted in December just how inept and flimsy the case against one site – torrent-finder – was. If the standard – commercial sites that link to web items that advocate or facilitate filesharing – was applied across the board, the ICE would have to seize a large portion of the entire web!

2 thoughts on “Is there such a thing as “criminal contributory infringement”? #ICE #copyright #dns #freeculture”

  1. Jan 19:

    ICE director John Morton said Tuesday. In “every single case,” federal investigators were able to obtain materials that infringe copyright from the websites that had their domain names seized, Morton said during a speech at the Congressional Internet Caucus’ State of the ‘Net conference.

    The operators of Torrent-finder.com, a BitTorrent search engine, and two hip-hop music blogs, have questioned why their domain names were seized. ICE and the DOJ “spent a lot of time” examining the websites, and the agencies did not honor all of the requests to take action that they received from copyright holders, Morton said.

    The owners of those sites can challenge the seizures in court, Morton added. The seizures have also started a lively debate about copyright protections in the U.S., and “that’s a good thing,” he added.

    [Source: Computerworld

    • The video of this is now online:

      Morton starts talking about domain takedowns at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWZY_LujUhc&feature=player_detailpage#t=328s

      • In all cases they obtained illicit goods via the sites before obtaining warrants.
      • He says they served the registries.
      • All seizures can be challenged in federal court.
      • After they seized 8 sites in June, 81 more sites shut down voluntarily.
      • One re-emerged under a different name. Working with UK police it was again shutdown.
      • Seizure banners have received 25m hits. Some sites got more hits after seizure.
      • After 131 referrals from industry they enforced 81 in November. (81 obviously a magic number)
      • Pirates don’t pay taxes or health care, invest in America.
      • Criticism provides publicity which is helpful..
      • Not interested in limiting speech or due process
      • Internet is not above the law.

      Then, in answer to question, about whther this set a bad example for Internet freedom in other countries.

      • All except 5 sites were selling counterfeit hard goods.
      • In the case of the 5 sites, special care taken to establish 1) content is illicit, and 2) knowingly supplied, in order to obtain court order.

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