ICE steps up for Hollywood, Big 4 labels
p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- With the shut down of domain names of nine alleged ‘movie pirate’ sites, taxpayer funded copyright cops, acting for, and on behalf of, Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels, have massively escalated their corporate-controlled attacks on P2P communities.
Not at all incidentally, “Piracy is theft”, Hollywood Joe Biden, vice president of the United States of America, recently said in support of the corporate entertainment cartels, going on, “It’s smash and grab. It ain’t no different than smashing a window at Tiffany’s … ”
The occasion “was the unveiling of Victoria Espinel’s official strategy to ‘combat intellectual property theft’, as posted on the White House blog”, said p2pnet.
Biden was there with her, said CNet News and, “Through reporters”, she “issued a warning to those who infringe on U.S. intellectual property rights”, it said. “We have committed to putting you out of business,” it also had her stating, “adding that copyright owners who are losing money to piracy can rest assure [sic] ‘help is on the way’.”
Biden and Espinel’s comments will be “welcomed by the large Hollywood studios and recording companies”, said the story, noting “The Obama administration has appeared very sympathetic to their antipiracy efforts.
Key homeland security priorities
ICE, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit, is billed as “the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security”.
It’s a “21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities”.
Now, on the heels of Biden and Espinel’s promises, the news that Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA has re-booted its attacks on American students, and with ACTA in the wings, ICE has been ordered to add corporate copyright protection to its “key homeland security priorities”.
Here’s the official statement on Operation In Our Sites (bet they had a good chuckle over that one) …
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced the launch Wednesday of “Operation In Our Sites,” a new initiative aimed at Internet counterfeiting and piracy.
In the first action carried out as part of the initiative, authorities executed seizure warrants against nine domain names of Web sites that were offering first-run movies, often within hours of their theatrical release. Seven of those sites were targeted for seizure by the SDNY. Agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also seized assets from 15 bank, Paypal, investment and advertising accounts, and executed four residential search warrants in several states.
ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton, joined on a Los Angeles soundstage by senior representatives from major movie studios, entertainment unions and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), made clear that the theft of such intellectual property is a serious crime and one the U.S. government has made a priority combating.
Copyrighted material is known as intellectual property (IP) under the law.
“ICE and our partners at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center are targeting pirate Web sites run by people who have no respect for creativity and innovation,” said ICE Assistant Secretary Morton, who was in Southern California to meet with the leaders of the movie industry. “We are dedicated to protecting the jobs, the income and the tax revenue that disappear when organized criminals traffic in stolen movies for their own profit.”
“Criminal copyright infringement occurs on a massive scale over the Internet, reportedly resulting in billions of dollars in losses to the U.S. economy,” said Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office handled the seizure warrants of seven domain names Wednesday. “That translates into lost jobs and real hardships for ordinary working people. That’s why we took the actions we did. If your business model is movie piracy, your story will not have a happy ending.”
“Content theft online has become increasingly ubiquitous as technology and software improve and access to the Internet increases,” said Mike Robinson, chief of operations, content protection for the MPAA. “We are committed to working with law enforcement to get the illegal choices out of the marketplace and instead focus on continuing to offer more innovative and flexible legal options to consumers to enjoy the movies and TV shows that we all love. The American motion picture and television industry is one of our nation’s most valuable cultural and economic resources. We are grateful to ICE, the Obama Administration, and the federal agencies that have made the protection of intellectual property a priority for the United States.”
“We are facing a dramatic rise in the number of foreign and domestic Web sites that are in the business of making films and television shows – created by our members – available for illegal download or streaming,” said Kathy Garmezy, associate executive director of government and international affairs for the Directors Guild of America. “If left unchecked, this illegal activity threatens the very ability of filmmakers to both earn a living and create the content that is enjoyed by billions around the world.”
“We commend the action of ICE and the IPR Center in striking a significant blow against those who seek to profit from the copyrighted, intellectual property of others,” said Matthew D. Loeb, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). “Intellectual property is the basis of our modern economy. The stealing of digital content is not a victimless crime; it’s also the theft of tens of thousands of American jobs.”
The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), based in Virginia and managed by ICE, is directing the government’s response to a crime that is estimated to cost American industry billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs every year. Its “Operation In Our Sites” is targeting not only films and music, but other items distributed over the Internet, such as counterfeit pharmaceuticals, software, electronics, games and other products that threaten public health and safety.
The investigation involving SDNY together with the ICE New York Special Agent in Charge and the IPR Center resulted in the seizure warrants for seven domain names: TVSHACK.NET, MOVIES-LINKS.TV, FILESPUMP.COM, NOW-MOVIES.COM, PLANETMOVIEZ.COM, THEPIRATECITY.ORG, and ZML.COM. In an undercover capacity, investigators downloaded various newly released movies from the Web sites and their affiliates, to identify those Web sites that were involved in the distribution of stolen content.
Also on Wednesday, as a result of a months-long operation, the IPR Center seized the domain names and Web site content of NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net, both of which generated revenue from donations and advertising. These sites allowed visitors to stream or download popular television shows and movies. Over the course of the investigation, agents observed links to more than 200 movies and more than 300 television programs on the NinjaVideo site. This investigation resulted in the execution of federal search warrants for their content and domain name at servers in the United States and the Netherlands. HSI agents also executed four residential search warrants in North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Washington. The case is ongoing.
The IPR Center has united the U.S. government agencies that combat intellectual property theft. In addition to ICE, the partners include: U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the FBI; the Department of Commerce; the Food and Drug Administration; the Postal Inspection Service; the General Services Administration, Office of the Inspector General; the Naval Criminal Investigative Service; the Defense Criminal Investigative Service; the Army Criminal Investigative Division’s Major Procurement Fraud Unit; and the Government of Mexico Tax Administrative Service.
The IPR Center is one of the U.S. government’s key weapons in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. The IPR Center offers assistance for both law enforcement and the private sector to address the growing transnational threat of counterfeit merchandise. The IPR Center coordinates outreach to U.S. rights holders and conducts domestic and international law enforcement training to stem the growing counterfeiting threat as well as coordinating and directing anti-counterfeiting investigations.
Stay tuned.
… and identi.ca
massively escalated – The NinjaVideo manifesto, July 1, 2010
White House blog – Releasing the Joint Strategic Plan to Combat Intellectual Property Theft, June 22, 2010
p2pnet – Obama IP czarina to movie, music cartels, June 22, 2010
CNet News – Biden to file sharers: ‘Piracy is theft’, June 22, 2010
attacks on American students – RIAA re-launches attacks against students, July 2, 2010
ACTA in the wings – ACTA document calls for criminal sanctions, June 25, 2010
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:17 am
A massive federal agency that was set up for the express purpose of guarding the nation against international terrorism, costing US taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, has been transformed into Hollywood’s private police, who use force of arms to settle civil copyright disputes.
Let’s not forget that for most of these indexing websites, their only “crime” was linking to other sites such as YouTube. They did not host any material themselves. But then the feds aren’t about to bust Youtube over this, as they prefer defenseless targets.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
“ICE and our partners at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center are targeting pirate Web sites run by people who have no respect for creativity and innovation,”
Oh! Look who have no respect for creativity and innovation and no respect for their customers and the artists they are milking!
July 2nd, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Why doesn’t Obomba give the entertainment Kartels a major “bailout” at the expense of the taxpayer and re-boost the American economy?? Those thousands of jobs with the Kartels will save our precious economies! Not the jobs that build our cities, roads, nor research for alternative energies! Spend, spend, spend, they now need more money from you to decide how to spend.
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Call me a “conspiracy theorist” – but the timing of this raid, less than two weeks after a judge ruled in favor of YouTube in the Viacom lawsuit, seems more than just a coincidence.
It’s common knowledge that YouTube is probably the world’s biggest source of copyright-infringing content, and if YouTube can’t be nailed to the wall in court like Napster and Grokster were, then maybe the copyright cartel feel they have no other option than to work their way down the food chain, by attacking the websites that feed off YouTube-hosted videos.
Conversely, had YouTube lost in court, then this massive police bust would not have even been necessary. Youtube, and other video hosting sites, would have then been forced to proactively screen content for infringement (or shut down entirely) thereby choking off index sites that link to unauthorized movies and TV shows posted on YouTube.
July 4th, 2010 at 3:05 am
What ever happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’. The idea of due process seems to have gone out the window. Surely the idea of law is to take a company or individual to court, then ‘prove’ by considered debate or arguement that a law has been broken? In a free society the actions of those charged are ultimately judged by their peers, members of the same society with an impartial view. Has this changed in America? Are we now seeing a country that removes balance from the judicial system and dictates in favour of one sector of industry without the individual’s right to redress? Is this no longer considered unconstitutional? Is this not the very definition of a dictatorship?
July 4th, 2010 at 3:43 am
How ironic that I should post this on Independence Day of all days…
How things have changed in America; do we actually remember what is celebrated on this day?
Remember why the Declaration was drafted; what the Declaration accused the British King of?
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Unfit to rule? The British in America, or the the Government of America?
July 4th, 2010 at 11:38 am
I have to say I got a good chuckle about a couple of these responses.
“Let’s not forget that for most of these indexing websites, their only “crime” was linking to other sites such as YouTube. They did not host any material themselves. But then the feds aren’t about to bust Youtube over this, as they prefer defenseless targets.”
I highly doubt that YouTube is purposely allowing illegal copyrighted content. The excuse of people not hosting the content themselves is the lamest and oldest defense out there. So in other words a person that would keep a public list of drug dealers, people that sold illegal handguns, and so forth would be completely innocent? The fact of the matter is that websites like tvshack.net and the others mentioned are KNOWINGLY linking to copyrighted materials. The websites were created with the intent to link to copyrighted material. It’s not like someone that randomly posts on a forum or other media that’s not even remotely related to such content.
As for YouTube being one of the largest sources of copyright infringement that may be possible, however, are they intentionally doing this? An example from the Viacom suit is that YouTube was given a list of 100,000 videos. By the next day YouTube had removed them all. To me that doesn’t sound like a company that’s purposely hosting illegal copyrighted content.
Innocent until proven guilty? I’m a fan of the whole “innocent until proven guilty” saying, however, there are instances where violation of the law is in plain sight. It’s not like some hidden operation where the details are murky. I’m sure every single person that has posted a comment has first hand knowledge of at least one of the websites mentioned. These websites were publicly violating the law. They didn’t just start doing this. These websites have been doing this for a couple years at least. It’s not like they accidentally allowed linking to illegal copyrighted material. How many here honestly think that if someone sent the administrator of one of these sites a list of all the copyrighted material on their website that they would take down the links? I highly doubt they would considering that literally 99%+ of the content linked to is illegal copyrighted videos.
July 5th, 2010 at 11:21 am
@ Jeff
Violation of the law by the site operator is one thing. The point i was making is the removal of the right to defend oneself. How would you like me hacking your router and you facing the consequences? Would you chuckle then? It would be your IP address so you would obviously be guilty. Do you seriously think EVERY one sued and made to pay is guilty here? All of them? Not a single one innocent? Okay then. Lets hope the little old lady from Pasadena enjoys her copy of Hurtlocker and MegaCock porn.
July 5th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
From what I’ve read, ICE replaced INS, who’s primary function was to deal with apprehension and deportation of illegal aliens. This has NOTHING to do with copyright. Of course Obama is a big amnesty guy, so if he can tie them up with copyright bullshit it serves two purposes, it keeps his RIAA masters happy, as well as his friends in La Raza. Even if you support amnesty, in the U.S. we have MS-13. This is an illegal alien gang and there is NO reason for ANY of those gang bang shitheads to be here. Rather than having ICE deal with copyright bullshit, which was never their purpose, why not have them round up and deport MS-13 members? They don’t seem very hard to find, a lot of them have giant MS-13 tattoos prominently showing. I think if the feds can find mafia people who are trying to hide, they can find the MS-13 dick heads.
December 19th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
wow. pretty sad that the government goes after students of all people.
Before:
Students are poor and have no money.
Students don’t have a real job and are making less than minimum wage per year.
Some companies and professors actively exploit students as free labor.
Now:
All of the above and …
Students are being targeted by the department of homeland security.
Students are being arrested for sharing information, free thought, and ideas
Me:
Time to start stealing from the government and stop paying my tax dollars. The government no longer serves me or protects me.