TorrentFreak
November 27, 2010
Following on the heels of this week’s domain seizure of a large hiphop
file-sharing links forum, it’s clear today that the U.S. Government has been
very busy. Without any need for COICA, ICE has just seized the domain of a
BitTorrent meta-search engine along with those belonging to other music linking
sites and several others which appear to be connected to physical counterfeit
goods.
While complex, it’s still possible for U.S. authorities and copyright groups
to point at a fully-fledged BitTorrent site with a tracker and say “that’s an
infringing site.” When one looks at a site which hosts torrents but operates no
tracker, the finger pointing becomes quite a bit more difficult.
When a site has no tracker, carries no torrents, lists no copyright works
unless someone searches for them and responds just like Google, accusing it of
infringement becomes somewhat of a minefield – unless you’re ICE Homeland
Security Investigations that is.
This morning, visitors to the Torrent-Finder.com site are greeted with an
ominous graphic which indicates that ICE have seized the site’s domain.
“My domain has been seized without any previous complaint or notice from any
court!” the exasperated owner of Torrent-Finder told TorrentFreak this
morning.
“I firstly had DNS downtime. While I was contacting GoDaddy I noticed the DNS
had changed. Godaddy had no idea what was going on and until now they do not
understand the situation and they say it was totally from ICANN,” he
explained.
Aside from the fact that domains are being seized seemingly at will, there is
a very serious problem with the action against Torrent-Finder. Not only does the
site not host or even link to any torrents whatsoever, it actually only returns
searches through embedded iframes which
display other sites that are not under the control of the Torrent-Finder
owner.
Torrent-Finder remains operational through another URL, Torrent-Finder.info, so feel free to
check it out for yourself. The layouts of the sites it searches are clearly
visible in the results shown.
Yesterday we
reported that the domain of hiphop site RapGodFathers had been seized and
today we can reveal that they are not on their own. Two other music sites in the
same field – OnSmash.com and DaJaz1.com – have fallen to the same fate. But ICE
activities don’t end there.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
-
Several other domains also appear to have been seized including
2009jerseys.com, nfljerseysupply.com, throwbackguy.com, cartoon77.com,
lifetimereplicas.com, handbag9.com, handbagcom.com and dvdprostore.com.
All seized sites point to the same message.
Domain seizures coming under the much debated ‘censorship bill’ COICA?
Who needs it?
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Update: Below is an longer list of domains that were
apparently seized. Most of the sites relate to counterfeit goods. We assume that
the authorities had a proper warrant for these sites (as they had for
RapGodFathers yesterday),
but were unable to confirm this.
2009jerseys.com
51607.com
amoyhy.com
b2corder.com
bishoe.com
borntrade.com
borntrade.net
boxedtvseries.com
boxset4less.com
boxsetseries.com
burberryoutletshop.com
cartoon77.com
cheapscarfshop.com
coachoutletfactory.com
dajaz1.com
discountscarvesonsale.com
dvdcollectionsale.com
dvdcollects.com
dvdorderonline.com
dvdprostore.com
dvdscollection.com
dvdsetcollection.com
dvdsetsonline.com
dvdsuperdeal.com
eluxury-outlet.com
getdvdset.com
gofactoryoutlet.com
golfstaring.com
golfwholesale18.com
handbag9.com
handbagcom.com
handbagspop.com
icqshoes.com
ipodnanouk.com
jersey-china.com
jerseyclubhouse.com
jordansbox.com
lifetimereplicas.com
louis-vuitton-outlet-store.com
lv-outlets.com
lv-outlets.net
lv-outletstore.com
massnike.com
merrytimberland.com
mycollects.com
mydreamwatches.com
mygolfwholesale.com
newstylerolex.com
nfljerseysupply.com
nibdvd.com
odvdo.com
oebags.com
onsmash.com
overbestmall.com
rapgodfathers.com
realtimberland.com
rmx4u.com
scarfonlineshop.com
scarfviponsale.com
shawls-store.com
silkscarf-shop.com
silkscarfonsale.com
skyergolf.com
sohob2b.com
sohob2c.com
storeofeast.com
stuff-trade.com
sunglasses-mall.com
sunogolf.com
tbl-sports.com
throwbackguy.com
tiesonsale.com
timberlandlike.com
topabuy.com
torrent-finder.com
usaburberryscarf.com
usaoutlets.net