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Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

thehill.com

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Re: Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

#21

Post by esrauch »

ghurlman wrote: post #19
usea wrote: post #6

As part of the operation, federal law enforcement officers made undercover purchases of products such as sports jerseys, DVD players, clothing and jewelry from websites suspected of selling counterfeit products. If the copyright holders confirmed that the products were unauthorized, ICE obtained a court order to shut down the sites. I am confused due to the way this is worded. Does this mean that sites selling second…

If they were selling them as "new", sure.

Can the MPAA stop someone from selling a sealed DVD as "New" then if they bought it from Best Buy first?

Re: Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

#24

Post by ImprovedSilence »

hughesey wrote: post #16

Once seized, they generally point them at the server at 74.81.170.110 which hosts their seized image. Thus using a simple reverse IP lookup we can see a list of all seized domains: http://viewdns.info/reverseip/?host=74.81.170.110

wow that's pretty cool. Looks like everything from that list was in November. Also looks like the majority of the sites were selling prescription drugs.

Re: Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

#25

Post by charonn0 »

tshtf wrote: post #17
joshuahedlund wrote: post #15

> It is the third straight year that the government has seized websites on "Cyber Monday"... Did not know this. > ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit coordinated with officials from Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania, the United Kingdom and the European Police Office to take down the sites. A great example of mission creep. Counterfeit goods have nothing to do with terrorism.

ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Still mission creep, though.

Re: Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

#26

Post by bri3d »

esrauch wrote: post #21
ghurlman wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they were selling them as "new", sure.

Can the MPAA stop someone from selling a sealed DVD as "New" then if they bought it from Best Buy first?

In the US, they probably can't. If the DVD is imported, they almost certainly can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_S.A._v._Costco_Wholesale_....

Omega was able to successfully prevent Costco from selling genuine, certified authentic Omega watches intended for different foreign markets as "new Omega watches" in the US.

So yes, if you bought a sealed DVD from a Russian Best Buy equivalent (ignoring the region coding issues) and sold it in the US, you'd probably be in trouble.

Re: Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

#27

Post by tptacek »

charonn0 wrote: post #25
tshtf wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Still mission creep, though.

Counterfeiting has always been part of ICE's mission and the "homeland security" dig is a cheap shot, since ICE got absorbed into DHS; it wasn't an effort spun up by homeland security.

Re: Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

#28

Post by enraged_camel »

jlgreco wrote: post #4
nekojima wrote: post #3

What about those folks who bought from these sites in the preceding days and weeks before this action was taken? Shouldn't sites be taken down as found, instead of waiting for a "special" day, if they allegedly violate laws.

They know full well that these take-downs are nothing but token gestures. That means two things: 1) theatrics are emphasized. Taking them all down at once is more theatrical. 2) If they take down sites weeks before a major shopping holiday, they will be back well before the holiday hits. They are doing the equivalent of spritzing febreeze around the apartment right before people come over to visit.

I'm not sure how valid your argument is. Christmas is almost a month away, and that's plenty of time for these websites to spring back up.

Re: Federal officials take down 132 websites in 'Cyber Monday' crackdown

#29

Post by ams6110 »

tptacek wrote: post #27
charonn0 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still mission creep, though.

Counterfeiting has always been part of ICE's mission and the "homeland security" dig is a cheap shot, since ICE got absorbed into DHS; it wasn't an effort spun up by homeland security.

ICE is a merger of the former INS and Customs. Prior to DHS Customs had nothing to do with immigration, and that job is now split between ICE and CIS for reasons that don't seem apparent.
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