US. admits defeat, gives back seized Rojadirecta domains

[nsane.forums]

Sites that challenge government domain seizures keep winning.

In 2011, the US government grabbed two domains, one .com and one .org, belonging to Spanish sports-TV "linking site" Rojadirecta, claiming that the site was a flagrant enabler of copyright infringement. The government then sought forfeiture of the domains, at which point Rojadirecta's Spanish parent company fought back. A year and a half after the seizure, the government has capitulated—today it dismissed the case against Rojadirecta and will have to return the domains.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been running "Operation In Our Sites" for two years now, obtaining federal seizure orders against US-registered domains believed to be associated with piracy or counterfeiting. Just before Super Bowl Sunday in early 2011, ICE grabbed a new batch of sports-related domains, most of them sites that let people watch live sports on the 'Net. Rojadirecta, one of the big players (no pun intended) in this space, was an obvious target, and ICE acted, replacing the domain names with its own seizure banner. Rojadirecta promptly relocated to rojadirecta.me and continued operations.

The government said, as part of its evidence against the site, that the links to popular and upcoming sporting events on the site's front page were "purposefully aggregated and organized by the owner(s) and/or operators"—no avoiding blame by saying that "the users did it." And "more than half the material available on the Rojadirecta Website at any given time during law enforcement's investigation appeared to be dedicated to making infringing content available"—trying to counter the "only a few links were infringing" argument.

Rojadirecta also framed the content it linked to with its own ads, and the government said that the site's CEO had made "more than $25,000" from Google AdSense between January 2006 and early 2011—hardly a large haul, but evidence that money was being earned on the activity.

But the site owner, a Spanish company called Puerto 80, fought back, hiring US lawyers to represent it in federal court. Among its arguments was the claim that the seizure had been illegal; the law only covered direct infringement, not linking, lawyers said. While Rojadirecta may have "induced" US residents to infringe copyrights, that was a matter for civil law, not criminal law.

The site's attorneys also argued that seizure law itself was far too draconian in these cases. Unlike a drug case, where the cops might seize someone's car to prevent it from being used to transport narcotics, the website was Rojadirecta's entire business. And, also unlike a drug case, the copyright claims here weren't nearly as clear as when police find someone with a brick of heroin in the back seat, which is by definition illegal to possess. Because of the differences, attorneys argued, Rojadirecta should have the chance to defend itself before having its entire operation seized.

The judge disagreed that the penalty was too harsh, noting that the site's servers had not been taken and that Rojadirecta had simply switched domain names and continued in operation.

Rojadirecta.me, as it appears today

As the case dragged on, the government dismissed a similar case against hip-hop music blog Dajaz1, the other major seizure target that had decided to fight back. In that instance, the feds kept postponing the case as they waited on the RIAA, only to realize eventually that the evidence they needed wasn't going to materialize.

Today, the government gave up the Rojadirecta fight with a brief court filing that voluntarily dismissed the case but offered few details about why it had done so after battling for over a year. The US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case, provided me with a copy of the cover letter it sent the judge along with the dismissal; that note said only that the case was being dismissed "as a result of certain recent judicial authority involving issues germane to the above-captioned action" and "in light of the particular circumstances of this litigation." The US Attorney's office would not comment further.

After the filing, the judge signed an order today vacating the seizure warrants and ordering Verisign (which controls the .com registry) and The Public Interest Registry (which controls .com domains) both to return the Rojadirecta domains to Puerto 80 "forthwith."

Attorneys for Rojadirecta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The advocacy group Public Knowledge weighed in quickly, however. "Like the unwarranted Dajaz1.com seizures, this case shows that the procedures for seizing domain names are flawed," said Sherwin Siy, vice president of Legal Affairs. "It is far too easy for the government to seize domain names and hold them for an extended period even when it is unable to make a sustainable case of infringement. The constant expansion of copyright enforcement laws has given us a system where website owners are effectively treated as guilty until proven innocent."

ICE boss John Morton said last year that the tactic was effective, and that most sites targeted didn't challenge their seizures/forfeitures. "Frankly unanticipated was the collateral impact of this enforcement action," he said at the time. "According to industry analysis, 81 other sites that had been offering pirated material voluntarily shut themselves down. In my many years in law enforcement, I have not seen that type of deterrence. Indeed, we were advised that seizing these domain names would be the proverbial Whac-a-Mole game with new ones popping up faster than we could obtain court orders. That did not occur."

But those upset about the entire ICE seizure campaign see only overreach in the examples of Dajaz1 and Rojadirecta. Law professor Eric Goldman, one of the first to spot today's filing, took to Twitter to post the news and then to ask, "But will they be held accountable for the improper seizure?"

View: Original Article

[DKT27]

US. Government: 0

The Internet: 1

[Ambrocious]

This is why I ALWAYS say, we must continue to RESIST TYRANNY. If we give up, like a bully, they will not only win, but CONTINUE to stomp our guts in. Kim Dotcom learned this and if he is not assassinated, people like him and the parent company of Rojadirecta and many other will pave the way for a truly free and open internet. The "desire" to be a cyber criminal will dramatically taper off because the need to "illegally" download will not be there because downloading will not be ILLEGAL, which in turns projects into the minds of people" Hey, I'm not a criminal anymore," and it causes then to ACT accordingly to a normal human being.

The war on Drugs in the United States of America is a similar story. If the USA government decriminalized all the drugs, the rate in which people use drugs would decrease in leaps and bounds; common knowledge would become more and more available about the dangers of drugs which can be related to common sense: some drugs CAN kill you while other just disorient. People will learn quickly that there are some things you just DON'T DO, sort of like it is common knowledge that your not supposed to stand in the middle of fast flowing traffic...the reasons for that are obvious.

If we all keep up the fight, even if we lose, in the long term, WE WIN. These petty Internet wars will wage on for as long as corruption exists in governments. The people of this planet NEED to stand up and be the demanding voices; we must be the ones to make the change because it's becoming VERY clear that our governments are doing the wrong thing more and more, and they are doing it on purpose: this is planned. The voice of all people on Earth is a truly powerful thing and I am convinced that if we all stood up and advocated true freedom, it can and will eventually be accomplished.

[DKT27]

U.S. Returns Seized Domains to Streaming Links Site (After 18 Months)

The hugely popular sports streaming and download site Rojadirecta has won its battle with the U.S. More than one and a half years after the feds took the domain names of the Spanish company the authorities have now dropped their lawsuit, meaning that the domains will soon be returned. Later today Rojadirecta will become available again on its .com domain, marking yet another shameful episode in the overbroad U.S. war on online copyright infringement.

At the end of January last year the U.S. authorities kicked off yet another round of domain seizures, this time against sites connected with sports streaming.

One of the most prominent targets at the time was Rojadirecta, one of Spain’s most popular sites which describes itself as a major Internet sports broadcast index. The site links to free streams of many soccer events plus NBA, MLB, NFL, NPB and IPL matches.

While rights holders see Rojadirecta as an illegal thorn in their side, Spanish courts have already ruled otherwise. The site is owned by a Spanish company that pays its taxes and has been deemed to operate legally in Spain. Not once but twice.

However, that didn’t hold back the U.S. Government’s decision to seize the .com and .org domains of the company.

After the seizure Rojadirecta continued its operation as usual under .es and .me domains. However, it wasn’t planning on giving up the original domains that easily and fought back, in and out of court.

“We immediately initiated talks with the government, through our legal representatives in San Francisco and New York, in order to obtain the return of [our domains],” Rojadirecta’s owner explains now.

“Since it was impossible at that stage to recover domains amicably, we filed a complaint against the Government, the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the United States of America.”

The result was a long court battle in which the U.S. had to show why it was allowed to keep the domain names. Now, after nearly 19 months, it appears that the U.S. authorities are not able to.

Yesterday, United States Attorney Preet Bahrara informed the judge that they are giving up the case.

“…in light of the particular circumstances of this litigation, the Government now seeks to dismiss its amended forfeiture complaint. The decision to seek dismissal of this case will best promote judicial economy and serve the interests of justice,” Bahrara writes.

The case has now been dismissed, meaning that Rojadirecta can welcome back its .com and .org domains. Rojadirecta’s owner says they swiftly informed all the responsible registries and the domains should be up and running again later today.

“Shortly after learning of the court order, we started proceedings with the organizations responsible for all .com and .org domain registrations (Verisign and PIR respectively) in order to restore the domains.”

“In the coming hours Rojadirecta will again be accessible from rojadirecta.com and rojadirecta.org, that is from the domains that never should have been censored,” he concludes.

This is not the first time the authorities have been forced to return a seized domain. Last year music blog Dajaz1 had its domain name returned after more than 12 months. It turned out that the seizure, initiated by the RIAA, was a mistake.

Thus far the “mistakes” have been without consequences for the U.S., but it’s clear that passing SOPA-like legislation where domains can be seized left and right will become harder and harder.

View: Original Article

[calguyhunk]

:clap: :clap: :clap:

[BigDawg]

"But will they be held accountable for the improper seizure?"

Rojadirecta should, without delay, file a civil suit for damages against I.C.E., The US attorneys office, and individuals associated with this fiasco. Common sense will never prevail for these groups, unless it is forced, because they are fueled by corporate interests. The only way to keep a bully from his deeds is to knock him down in front of all.