I saw this on Drudge, and thought some might want to read this.



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.




Rest of article is here:
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-an...

Hip hop torrents?....ya got one ya got em all..and just when I was going to download Kanyes rant...damn...lol

Only 710 days until November 6, 2012.  

nankerphelge wrote on Nov 27^th, 2010 at 11:08am:




I don't understand your gripe? This is a law enforcemnt issue. I don't see how the administartion is leading this, compared to the previous admin... As much  as I enjoy getting stuff for free, if I download copyrighted material, I am stealing... and I'm under the impression, that the government enforces the laws... Are you for net nuetrality? Is downloading commerical products for free ok?

"I don't understand your gripe? This is a law enforcemnt issue. I don't see how the administartion is leading this, compared to the previous admin... As much  as I enjoy getting stuff for free, if I download copyrighted material, I am stealing... and I'm under the impression, that the government enforces the laws... Are you for net nuetrality? Is downloading commerical products for free ok?"

Don't know if you read the piece I linked to -- pretty much says it all.

As the article pointed out, sure federal enforcement of copyright law is one thing.

The point is, typically the FBI handles federal law enforcement, such as crimnal copyright infringement.  Or copyright holders bring private civil suits.  

Here you have the Administration via the DHS enforcing the law, which is unusual in itself as the DHS was put in place after 9/11 to coordinate issues of national security.  So why is it now seizing private property (shutting down websites) without formal notice or due process as would be the case in a court, whether criminal or civil.

You know, those same pesky 4th, 5th and 6th Amendment type things that everyone had issues with when the Patriot Act was first passed.

"we allowed the governtment to wiretap, and toruture pretty much anyone, hold people seize assets, and do all this without needing courts or probable cause"

True, we did allow the government to wiretap.
Prior to the Patriot Act, that did require a warrant from a specialized court and did require some showing of why the wiretap was needed.  After the Patriot Act passed, a number of those safeguards were removed, and many people were rightfully upset that the government had unfettered discretion on who to wiretap.  And that was only listening to conversations where one party was overseas.

The issue of torture dealt with enemy combatants, which was directed to some enemy combatants and no citizens in the US.  It was not "pretty much anyone" as you suggest.

True US law enforcement does have the power to hold people and seize property, but usually it is in the confines of a criminal investigations, and does require probably cause and courts.  I know there  are exceptions, such as terrorist organizations getting funds frozen, but even then, I believe that there must be some showing of misconduct before such assets are taken.

So yeah, I am a bit alarmed to see that DHS, an agency that is supposed to be tasked with protecting our country from terrorism, shutting websites.  I am bothered that their mission has drifted to seizing property without notice because of intellectual property violations typically handled by the FBI or through private lawsuits.  

 

In the meantime, we all should just, play the fucking tracks and fugetabout it.