Under directions from the movie industry, the U.S. Department of Justice and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized more domain names in the last two days, under Operation In Our Sites, which was launched last year.
One of the seized domains, Re1ease.net, did not host any pirated content at all, but merely provided links to content hosted on video sharing websites such as Megavideo.com and Veoh.
PiraCee, an admin on Re1ease.net, told TorrentFreak that they were given no warnings at all regarding the seizure. PiraCee also explained that Re1ease.net had an active DMCA policy, and have complied with removal requests, both of them, in the past.
But like most websites who has had their domains seized as part of Operation In Our Sites, most are back within hours, under different domain names. PiraCee says that Re1ease.net will do the same, and is already back under a different domain name. As the website was hosted outside of the United States, the actual website was not taken down, only the domain name, which allows the website to quickly come back, almost instantly, after the new domain name is pointed at the website.
And as such, critics have argued against the effectiveness of Operation In Our Sites, but ICE director John Morton says that the operation is as much about education, as it is about taking down pirated content.
Domain seizures will become common place, along with search engine result removals and web server seizures, if the proposed PROTECT IP bill is passed by the U.S. Congress.
Amongst the other domain names seized in this new wave of seizures are WatchNewFilms.com, DVDCollectionSale.com, DVDsCollection.com and DVDSetsOnline.com, and other websites that allegedly conducted in either piracy or counterfeiting.
Do you think operations like Operation In Our Sites is the most effective use of tax payer funds to fight the problem of online piracy on behalf of billion dollar corporations? Post your comments in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=94875
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