Talking About Homeland Security's Domain Seizures
from the priorities dept
We've had a bunch of posts this week about Homeland Security's seizure of domain names under questionable legal reasoning. Yesterday I went on The Alyona Show to discuss it. Here's the clip (though, I was actually in Sunnyvale, CA about 400 miles from Los Angeles, despite the claim that I'm in LA):Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: domain names, seizures
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I'm so disillusioned now.
/sadface
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Worst. Policy. Ever.
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Maybe it's the angle.
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Who's playing who?
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Who's playing who?
I think the reason is that wikileaks uses a .org top-level domain which is not managed by a company on U.S. soil, i.e., they could not serve a seizure warrant on them.
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But, but, but...
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I daresay nobody who purchases a $5 Rolex on a street corner in NYC is misled in the slightest. It seems to me it is a different matter when the seller is located behind an official looking website, most of which it seems are situated in countries such as China.
Of course, blogs and torrent sites raise a host of other issues, which I readily admit can include legitimate issues under the First Amendment. Blogs situated in the US certainly enjoy rights under the First Amendment. However, it does not necessarily follow that blogs situated outside the US enjoy similar rights since such rights are territorially limited.
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Sure. Sue them, take them to court and have a trial. Then you can put them out of business. But seizing it first and never charging anyone with a crime where a trial can be had? You don't find that even the least bit troubling?
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Importantly, it was determined beforehand that they were in fact selling counterfeits. Likewise, the authority to seize was cabined by the fact that before seizure US authorities had to present competent and relevant evidence to the court, and then secure the court's order.
Of course, the dynamics and procedures would have changed completely if any of these companies were physically present in the US. The principals would have been arrested, and the actual facilities padlocked.
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Huh??? Determined beforehand they were guilty? Do you have a transcript of the case because I was not aware of any trial. It seemed we had a guilty until proven innocent seizure here. It has been pointed out here and other places that a couple of the sites were search engines that didn't host any content, and a couple of the other sites were hosting content that definitely included legitimate content (maybe some illegitimate content too).
DHS has overstepped their bounds by a great deal and trampled free speech in the process. I for one hope that people get fired and the courts get involved.
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Let me ask you a practical question. How would you propose to handle sales by such companies into the US when they are beyond the reach of US authorities? People doing this in the US would be arrested and their sales/shipping facilities closed. These matters would then be addressed at a criminal trial. But what about companies where you are unable to arrest the individuals and close their facilities because they are located outside of the US? It seems to me that making it harder for such companies to ply their illicit trade in the US is a reasonable response.
It might help to put the shoe on the other foot. You are a purchaser of goods, you buy a product from one of these off-shore sites, and then when the product arrives you discover you have been duped. Yes, sometimes what these sites sell is so discounted that only an idiot would think they are getting an honest to goodness product. Unfortunately, it is not at all unusual for many of these sites to sell their counterfeits at a modest discount over what you would otherwise pay to a retailer here in the US. Even a cautious buyer can find himself in a position of having been screwed big time and having no effective recourse to cure what has happened.
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Oh come on. How often does either the merchant or the customer believe they're dealing with authentic goods?
Everyone except the trademark holder is perfectly happy with this arrangement.
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Morons in a hurry? Maybe. The rest not so much.
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This is just too funny.
It's like "Free Ammunition Day" at the gun shop...
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This is just too funny.
It's like "Free Ammunition Day" at the gun shop...
I wondered why the clock at the bottom left told the time in Moscow. :)
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I hope the IP industries enjoy cold fish soup for breakfast.
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She is right, I would pay for the good ones, the good ones being open source music the rest is just not worth it.
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In a couple of the cases it seems more like a newspaper who printed a want ad of someone selling something illegal and they rushed in and seized the newspaper's printing presses.
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Nice clip mate, fingers crossed some people listened!
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Look at the general direction they have moved over the last 30 years - and compare with the US or Western Europe.
They still have a lot of problems - but, broadly, things are getting better.
Over here on the other hand I'm not so sure.
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Yup. Sure does give me the warm fuzzies just thinkin about it!
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Homeschooled in Texas?
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