Posted on 11/27/2010 7:15:22 AM PST by GreaterSwiss
The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak.
ICE appears to be targeting sites that help Internet users download copyrighted music, as well as sites that sell bootleg goods, such as fake designer handbags.
The sites are replaced with a note from the government: "This domain named has been seized by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations."
For instance, 2009jersey.com, 51607.com, and amoyhy.com have each been seized.
One of the site owners told TorrentFreak that his site was shut down without any notice or warning.
The effort come as Congress considers the Combatting Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). Critics, including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) say it is too heavy-handed. He has vowed to put a formal hold on the bill.
Well, ICE can’t handle illegal immigration. Obviously, they need something to do, in order to earn their keep. So, why not cross some alien “boundaries,” which have nothing to do with preventing illegal immigration, nor rounding up illegals...
America, you are FUBO.
You've got it figured out netmilsmom - the rest of us will follow ...
Oh I hope so, my FRiend!
We are having so much fun with all of it, I wouldn’t trade it for the world!
ping
Agreed!
Cheers
¨The bigger the government the smaller the citizen.¨
This is a total nose-thumbing at our Freedom of Speech by this Administration!
The tipping point will be they drag your family members out of their homes in the middle of the night. Only then it will be too late.
20 million illegals flooding our borders and this is what ICE is working on?
Clearly they serve at the leisure of rich, white liberal CEOs - but it’s okay, those Plutocrats are liberals. :)
It drove me crazy when FREEPERS were all head over heals about Homeland Security when President Bush started it.....such shortmindedness. They had no idea what the future would bring but were just so glad to have this new “Secretary” to guard over America.
It might be prudent for FR to acquire alternate domain names pointing to the FR IP address, like freerepublic.ky (Cayman Islands) and freerepublic.lr (Liberia) to guard against this sort of thing.
This would also facilitate moving FR to a different ISP, if a combined shutdown of FRs domain and hosting were done.
First they came for the Copyright domains, then they will come for the “hate speech” websites. I wouldn’t be surprised is they shut down FR for anti Obama hate speech. We are loosing our liberties a piece at a time!
Do you guys remember some "digital rights management" laws that said that when you buy a DVD player or computer, you didn't really own the hardware, just permission to use it according to the rules determined by the manufacturer?
Example: You want to alter the device driver for your computer's DVD player to skip over 15 minutes of commercials at the start of a DVD (and when you press the skip button it says "Not allowed."). Nope, you shall wait for all those commercials and the copyright message too!
I agree. It's a show of power...because Homeland Security and ICE have absolutely nothing more pressing to attend to. This reminds me of the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still", where the aliens temporarily made the power go off all over the planet as a small demonstration of their capabilities should earth not cooperate with their agenda.
It’s horrific what is happening in America under the Obamanation. Why there hasn’t been more uproar at the airports for example, I don’t know. Why are so many people taking it? This I do not understand. I guess too many people are still doing well with a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and a doctor that will still see them. Maybe we aren’t suffering enough under this regime so far. Is that the message here? I wonder.
Yes, vaguely. That's a ways away from my area of practice. I think you're right. I think that some modifications to DVD players can be illegal, as you've described.
It might be prudent for FR to acquire alternate domain names pointing to the FR IP address, like freerepublic.ky (Cayman Islands) and freerepublic.lr (Liberia) to guard against this sort of thing.
This would also facilitate moving FR to a different ISP, if a combined shutdown of FRs domain and hosting were done.
When Bush started using the phrase, “The Homeland”, I knew nothing good would come of it.
But they won’t “seize” the NYT website — and the old gray mare is gleefully publishing WikiLeaks stuff all over the place.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.