

How To Stop Domain Names Being Seized By The US Government - iwwr
http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-stop-domain-names-being-seized-by-the-us-government-110205/

======
meric
[http://torrentfreak.com/us-resume-file-sharing-domain-
seizur...](http://torrentfreak.com/us-resume-file-sharing-domain-
seizures-110201/)

"Rojadirecta is an unusual target for several reasons, not least because the
site has been declared legal twice by Spanish courts. The site’s owners have
previously fought a three year legal battle in Spain, which they won, but a
single seizure warrant from US authorities has made this victory pointless."

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mkinnan
"4: Avoid incorporating as a US business"

It's one thing if you are a big company, but if I was creating a startup and
planning to incorporate in the near future do I (as a startup) want to
consider incorporating in another country like Ireland?

~~~
jdp23
good question. i'm wondering that myself.

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yread
Useful advice on how to actually get to the seized sites from a commenter
there:

[http://www.hm2k.com/posts/find-the-ip-address-of-a-seized-
we...](http://www.hm2k.com/posts/find-the-ip-address-of-a-seized-website)

~~~
3pt14159
That is really cool, but there are a couple of problems with this:

1\. An IP can have _many_ domains, (and a domain many IPs), so it may not
resolve to the right page.

2\. Many sites benefit from the network effect. Ten people seed, 100 download
initially, then continue to seed, allowing 1000 to download, etc. Without mass
adoption of snooping for who-is information people are basically going to move
on anyways.

But I think I've thought a partial solution. What we want is two things: Have
a significant portion of the semi-technical (a hacker's girlfriend or
boyfriend, for example) internet population be able to get back to the site
they want. Secondly we want the government to not be able to take down the
server that we are communicating with once we found out where it is.

All that is really needed to make domain name seizure irrelevant is a little
browser addon "IP History" or "Website Time Machine" or something that will
passively remember where the IPs are of sites you've browsed. Each time you
try to go to a URL the addon will make a check to see what percentage of the
internet browsers have reverted to the old IP address. If this % goes greater
than a threshold, say 0.5%, it can slide out a window saying "Some people have
used the time machine on this page recently, are you sure this is what you
want?"

It makes DNS a less distributed thing. I don't think manipulation would be all
that much of a problem, (I can think or 3 counter measures right off the bat).

As for the IP problem, if this browser addon becomes widely used enough then
it could support some sort of standard that admins could solve the one-ip-but-
many-domains problem.

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jdp23
These are great recommendations and anybody starting up a web-based business
should pay attention to them. I probably would have made a lot of unnecessary
mistakes if I hadn't read this.

~~~
benologist
Nobody making a web-based business should care unless their business relies on
showing people a bunch of ads on their way to pirate the latest movies etc.

~~~
jdp23
Nonsense. Read up on which sites the DHS has been shutting down and the
sloppiness of their processes. Any site with any kind of user-generated
content should seriously think of basing itself outside of the US.

~~~
tptacek
Which specific sites has the DHS intervened with improperly?

~~~
jdp23
They're claiming the right to shut down sites that link to infringing content,
and using it to shut down hip-hop sites (and others).

From TechDirt:

"The Marketplace radio show from American Public Media spoke to Special Agent
James Hayes from Homeland Security, who was apparently in charge of the
"raids" (if you can call them that) that involved the seizing of domain names
under the legally questionable theory that linking to infringing material is,
by itself, criminal copyright infringement. I've yet to find any legal expert
who seems to believe that the law actually says this anywhere."

[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110203/22422912958/homela...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110203/22422912958/homeland-
security-tries-fails-to-explain-why-seized-domains-are-different-google.shtml)

~~~
benologist
The article you mentioned is real torrentfreak quality - some sexy hyperbole
about Google being the biggest enabler for piracy, and an "innocent" victim.

The innocent victim is a link dump for mp3s from Snoop Dogg, 50 cent,
Timbaland and a bunch of other artists.

Takes about 5 seconds to see their business model - get the traffic in by
providing popular music they're going to have to remove... but not before
they've made some money off it.

These guys have got it down to an art too - they actually upload the songs to
a site that encourages "artists" to upload "their" songs and pays you when
people download it inconveniently for free or conveniently via premium
download accounts.

Apparently Snoop Dogg is so incredibly generous he wants them to be paid for
giving away his music too - not just from the ads on their site, but from the
download service as well.

But maybe these blogs are right and not just churning out fluff that converts
well to ad impressions. I could be that jaded, maybe these really are
impeccable sites, innocent victims, and not profiteering off piracy.

~~~
paul9290
These sites would have no users if it wasnt for the highly valuable content
that millions love and clamor for; content that cost millions to make and even
more to market.

Overall by the looks of it, it's going to be increasingly hard to maintain and
profit from sites like these. Maybe this will force us back to desktop
software like limewire, but a modern version.

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treitnauer
Related article from a ccTLD perspective:

[http://internetnz.net.nz/news/blog/2011/nz-right-choice-
Kiwi...](http://internetnz.net.nz/news/blog/2011/nz-right-choice-Kiwis)

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Qz
"US authorities had begun another round of domain name seizures, this time
against sites connected with sports streaming."

I'll just assume the fact that this is Superbowl Weekend is purely coincidence
here...

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lambda
It is sad, that a set of instructions on how to avoid unilateral seizure of
your assets with no due process for engaging in speech on the internet
involves "avoid any presence in the US at all costs, and follow US laws even
if you are not doing business in the US."

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Qz
It occurs to me that governments and computer programs are not that different.
Both suffer immensely from code rot.

