Feds Seize 18 More Domains in Piracy Crackdown
- By David Kravets
- February 14, 2011 |
- 6:08 pm |
- Categories: Crime, intellectual property
The U.S. government seized 18 more internet domains Monday, bringing to at least 119 the number of seizures following the June commencement of the so-called “Operation in Our Sites” anti-piracy program.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement seizure, in honor of Valentine’s Day, targeted sites hawking big-named brands like Prada and Tiffany & Co.
Customs’ agents had bought counterfeit bracelets, earrings, handbags, necklaces, rings, sunglasses, wallets and watches from Burberry to Nike and Timberland, the government said.
“These counterfeits represent a triple threat by delivering shoddy, and sometimes dangerous, goods into commerce, by funding organized criminal activities and by denying Americans good-paying jobs. HSI and our partners at the IPR Center will continue to work together to keep counterfeit products off our streets,” ICE Director John Morton said in a statement.
The seizures are based on the same law the government invokes to seize brick-and-mortar drug houses, for example. When it comes to internet domain seizures, the U.S. government has jurisiction over top-level domains such as .com, .org and .net.
The latest seizures, which were done without advance warning to the sites, came nearly two weeks after the government seized 10 domains connected to pirating streams of professional sports.
Preet Bharara, the Manhattan U.S. attorney, blamed such sports broadcasting piracy for “raising prices for tickets and pay-per-view events.”
Meanwhile, in November, the federal government targeted 82 web sites, many bartering in counterfeited goods like scarves and golfing gear. In June, when the seizure program was announced, the government took down nine sites that distributed pirated motion pictures.
Here is a list of the 18 sites taken Monday.
See Also:
The Silence of the Lambs review Toy Story 3 review Se7en review Its a Wonderful Life review Memento review
No comments:
Post a Comment