

The new way the feds take over websites - quellhorst
http://now-movies.com/index.html

======
jambo
This web page is in contravention of Section 508 (29 USC § 794d). It's just an
image with no alt-text. Here's the markup:

<html> <body> <center><img src="SiteSeizedNOTICE.JPG"></center> </body>
</html>

~~~
ovi256
The fence is for the sheep.

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jessor
_So the basic formula appears to be this – the US Government felt the sites in
question were illegal and since they were accessible from the US, they should
do something about them. On its part, ICANN has no problem cooperating with
the Government and is happy to act on terms of use violations either by domain
owners or domain registrars._

That's quite disturbing.

(source: [http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-megaupload-escape-
dom...](http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-megaupload-escape-domain-
seizure-by-us-100707/))

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quellhorst
Details: [http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-megaupload-escape-
dom...](http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-megaupload-escape-domain-
seizure-by-us-100707/)

~~~
SoftwareMaven
This is actually quite disturbing, as it seems to ignore due process in every
way, shape, and form. (Side rant: I really wish I could figure out how to get
the US Government down to about 1/20th its current size.)

It is also seems obvious to me that there will be a solution to this very
soon: Underground DNS. Since only the DNS addresses were taken and it was
facilitated by ICANN, I can't imagine that somebody else (I could even picture
it being the Pirate Bay, once upon a time) saying "I'll play root for the
sites that can't trust ICANN anymore."

~~~
mistermann
> I really wish I could figure out how to get the US Government down to about
> 1/20th its current size.

The US always likes to talk about the founding fathers. I wonder if the
founding fathers ever envisioned the government, under the framework they laid
down, commanding 40% of the economy. I doubt it.

In my opinion, and I like to assume that was the goal of the founders, the
decisions of the government should not carry that much weight. But as it is,
as they've taken over so much of the economy, and the money supply, and
setting interest rates, this is no longer the case. Specific measures were
laid down in the constitution to prevent this, which is why they never
considered it I suppose.

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sbov
The more this happens the more the UN will argue that the role of ICANN should
be in their hands. Meanwhile the US government will continue to shoot itself
in the foot for stupid reasons.

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codingthewheel
Can somebody explain why these unilateral Big Brother actions always seem to
originate from or be attached to the state of New York or jurisdictions within
New York?

~~~
dmix
Most media companies are headquartered in NYC. These sites were mostly movie
sites.

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ajaimk
This violates all concepts of the FREE Internet.

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todayiamme
What happens when someone makes a distributed client to query an index of
links to torrents hosted on legitimate file storage sites like dropbox? If
everything becomes distributed how will they be able to kill it?

IMHO the long term solution would be to compete with pirates instead of trying
to shut them down. There is a simple reason why piracy exists, because there
is a demand for it. As long as the demand exists someone will try to fulfill
it. Since, you can't sue millions of people in different countries and
jurisdictions maybe it is time to sit down and reflect on what is the best
course forward.

If I were the RIAA then I would use torrent networks to my advantage. They're
ideal to transfer data at negligible cost. You only need to seed the file
initially. So you don't have to cough up a lot of money for a high bandwidth
server. They could come up with a system which takes money for a download pass
within their platform. Don't put up any locks, instead put in a competitive
price which will be far lower than iTunes due to the lack of a huge central
server.

I genuinely believe that no one wants to be a thief people can't afford to buy
media at the audacious prices they charge so they turn to such ways and means.
If they can proactively cut this off then they'll be able to make far more
money than they can even imagine.

~~~
encoderer
I think you just invented Gnutella.

~~~
todayiamme
I feel like an idiot right now. I am sorry. I should have checked if I was
rehashing some old thing. I just got really excited and wrote this down.
Sorry.

Should I delete it?

~~~
encoderer
nah, not a big deal, i was just making a joke :) your idea is obv right-on.

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raintrees
I'm thinking of saving the graphics and putting it into my 403 page...

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hdx
What does ICE have to do with taking down websites is what I wanna know...
anybody?

~~~
wmf
I guess they're foreign sites, so preventing their bits from getting into the
US falls to Customs.

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StrawberryFrog
Their bits aren't getting into England either. What's it got to do with us?

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DanielBMarkham
And so begins the story of how a second DNS was set up.

Right now, most file sharing is being done on top of a normal stack. I'm not
advocating breaking the law, but economics are economics -- I can't change
reality for Hollywood and make it 1980 again. I can point out that future
file-sharing does not have to be limited to a normal stack. There are all
kinds of fun games we can play in this area. It may have been a legal and
proper thing for the feds to do, but strategically it was really a bad idea.

The tighter you squeeze your fist, the more that slips through your fingers.
True for tax law. True for file sharing law.

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igravious
Another page I, uh, stumbled upon recently.

<http://www.movies-links.tv/index.html>

~~~
Niten
I think it's even more disturbing that they'd use this power to take over a
domain in a TLD sponsored by another country. I can't imagine the EU would be
happy about this precedent...

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ajaimk
Hmmm. Someone needs to let them know that computers these days have higher
resolution than VGA. MY PHONE has higher resolution than VGA!!!

~~~
jambo
Also, blind people exist.

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WALoeIII
Yeah but they probably don't watch movies.

~~~
chopsueyar
Ass.

<http://moviesfortheblind.com/>

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tpinto
What? No HTML5? No CSS3?

Oh boy... these feds never learn...

