Latest Domain Seizures May Come Back To Bite One Of The Biggest Supporters Of Domain Seizures

from the oops dept

Mon, Apr 18th 2011 4:22am — Mike Masnick

Well, this is amusing. With last Friday's seizure of top online poker site domain names, some are noticing that this might come back to haunt one of the biggest supporters of these domain seizures. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which has been an incredibly aggressive player when it comes to copyright issues, was one of the key operations that helped the Feds seize some domain names earlier this year.

Yet, it turns out that one of the biggest sponsors of many of the MMA fighters and of StrikeForce -- which UFC recently bought -- was (you guessed it) one of the sites seized, Full Tilt Poker. Oops.

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Filed Under: advertisers, domain seizures
Companies: full tilt poker, ufc

31 Comments

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Nick Diaz, 18 Apr 2011 @ 4:47am

UFC
This is most likely due to Dana White the perennial buffoon along with the UFC parent company known as Zuffa...

What they don't realise is many of the vidoes that they claim copyright on hosted on sites like youtube, are the very reason people are becoming more & more interested in the sport of mma...

UFC buying out Strikeforce is the worst thing that could have happened to the sport...UFC=Microsoft...buys out the competition whenever it feels threatened.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 5:17am

Friendly fire is such an ugly thing. But you have to expect it when you carpet bomb the city block where your friends hang out.
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Ragaboo (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 5:52am

Babysitter Government
Thank God for our babysitter government here in the U.S. Heaven forbid I use my personal funds to play a game of skill for pleasure and potential profit.

Guess I'll go play on any of the hundreds of less-reputable, less secure online poker sites that remain open. Thanks for having my best interests in mind!

PS. The tone of the DoJ press release was tilting with all of its horrible poker metaphors. Way to trivialize the fact that you just took six-figure incomes away from thousands of Americans, asshats. Dozens of my friends are now unemployed.
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:10am
  
  Re: Babysitter Government
  Maybe you and your friends should get real jobs and stop stealing from our economy then. /s
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  - Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 7:34am
    
    Re: Re: Babysitter Government
    Or maybe the FBI should get real jobs and go after real criminals instead of wasting their time doing this. What's that you say? They're too incompetent to catch real criminals so this is the best they can do? It's better that they do this than that they do nothing? At least this gives them the appearance of looking productive and we need to pay them for something which is better than paying them to do nothing? Maybe it's time we abolish the FBI.
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dwind (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:21am

Doesn't espn and vs and maybe others
also have tv poker shows sponsored by these poker sites? I thought they were quite popular.

When the US grabs one of these, is it then off line for everyone in the world or just the US?
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- Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:30am
  
  Re: Doesn't espn and vs and maybe others
  Since the US controls all domain names, the domain name is down for the entire world.
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  - Any Mouse (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 7:39am
    
    Re: Re: Doesn't espn and vs and maybe others
    You forget your /sarc?
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Adam Wasserman (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:22am

For once...
For once ICE is doing something remotely related to their mandate.

Online poker really *is* used extensively for money laundering by organized crime.

The boss sits down at a virtual table with several of their underlings, and they "just happen" to lose every hand. The boss's online account is - of course - under a false name with winnings transferred to an offshore account in some corrupt Baltic country.

The Online site are complicit. They accept the flimsiest and most obviously forged "identification" and allow people to set up these obviously fraudulent accounts. They do no monitoring of statistically impossible wins and losses (lose *every* hand?).

And money laundering is in fact traditionally the domain of US Customs.

So... I am shocked! Shocked I tell you! To learn that gambling has been going on here!
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- Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:35am
  
  Re: For once...
  And they did it by taking the lazy road. You know, not filing charges, just taking the domain name, and going after the big names instead of the little shady guys who the laundering is actually going threw. Think about it, if you're laundering money, would you go threw the big name site that actually attempts to check identity, or would you go threw the little guy who doesn't give two craps?
  
  This wasn't about laundering money. This was about showing off.
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  - Jay (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:57am
    
    Re: Re: For once...
    An insider gave a lot of info on the big boys. That's why they can go for these guys now.
    
    It's the same thing as the illegal drug trade though. Turn in one of your competitors, you have more money for yourself and your crew.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 7:55am
    
    Re: Re: For once...
    Actually, even though I think ICE's recent spate of domain seizures against blogs and stuff are a crock, in this case, they did go full-tilt. They've seized bank accounts, arrested website owners, etc... This op isn't just domain seizures and pretty press releases.
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- btr1701 (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:27pm
  
  Re: For once...
  > And money laundering is in fact traditionally
  > the domain of US Customs.
  
  And yet Customs had nothing to do with these seizures. It was the FBI and DOJ that did it.
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- JW, 19 Apr 2011 @ 5:38am
  
  Re: For once...
  No significant amount of money is laundered this way. It's too easy for observers of high stakes games(and they are legion) to see something fishy going on.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:35am

Lmao, which is why all those torrent sites are still down right? The poker sites may find it a little more difficult, this wasn't just a domain seizure, they froze bank accounts and issued indictments.

Honestly not even certain why this gets mentioned in the same breath as "in our sites" it looked like a straight criminal investigation, with the domains seized as part of the wrap up
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:58am

Stage 1 complete
Stage 1 complete: remove all potential rivals for US gambling funds.

Stage 2 commencement: legalize poker in US for US based gambling houses.
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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 7:14am

In a recent development...
the world has decided that all US domains are illegal and should be shut off.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 8:35am

At least one of the sites seized in November was supposed to challenge the ICE seizures, according to Masnick.

He bet $500 that they would be ruled unlawful.

So what's the deal?
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- The eejit (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 9:42am
  
  Re:
  IT's still ongoing, and I think you'll find that no-one took you up on your bet, y'know.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 10:46am
    
    Re: Re:
    No, Masnick took me up on the bet, so if those sites aren't going to legally protest the seizures, he owes MusiCares $500.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 12:19pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      It's funny how you have to lie.
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    - chillienet (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 4:40pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      If my memory serves me right, Mike bet that IF they go to court they will win. I don't believe he bet that they WOULD go to court.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 5:03pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        wrong.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 9:57am

Nearly all online poker sites...
...are spammers, scammers and money launderers. Not all: nearly all. But confiscating the domains is lazy and stupid; what's needed is thorough, accurate investigation and proper legal procedure against the people behind them.
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- Adam Wasserman (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 11:20am
  
  Re: Nearly all online poker sites...
  See my comment below.
  
  You have no idea what efforts are currently underway to conduct thorough investigation and proper legal proceedings.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 10:21am

Look for FBI to setup StingPoker.com sites to try to catch money launderers in the act... no can't do that - that would be effective. /sarc
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- Adam Wasserman (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 11:18am
  
  Re:
  You have no idea what the FBI is or is not doing in regards to being effective. Your comment is based on prejudice and assumption.
  
  While not thoroughly informed, I have been present at a two conferences attended by a mix of industry, academia and law enforcement.
  
  You sarcasm is misplaced.
  
  The issues are *extremely* tangled, involving international law and countries openly hostile to the US. Countries who feel that there is absolutely nothing wrong with defrauding little old ladies out of their life's savings... as long as they are *American* little old ladies.
  
  LE is not like in the movies where they go gun down the bad guys. They operate under rules that are very restrictive (unlike ICE which I will point out is not a traditional law enforcement agency) and it takes a long time to collect proper evidence and then in many cases it takes even longer for the Attorney General to act on that evidence.
  
  This is just me, but I try not to say disparaging things when I do not know what I am talking about.
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@JoeHobot (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 11:53am

Mah...shut them down.
People are spending money too much on gambling and some of those sites should be shut down, but what I do have problems with is that Feds are messing around with the sites like that.
Sure they catch criminals but what it also tell me that Internet is going to be ruled by government big time...
Soon enough you will have 5912813 laws to follow in order to comply what can you host, write, or register as domain name..

Freedom? What Freedom?
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Tom Landry (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:22pm

Dana White is a brilliant guy and deserves the success he's gotten but his stance on copyright is so totally moronic that I find it difficult to believe its the same person
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Frank, 19 Apr 2011 @ 7:36am

I received this email from fulltilt today:

"We're contacting you following the recent actions by the U.S. government last Friday 15th April.
As you may be aware, Full Tilt Poker is unable to accept "real money" play from U.S. players at the current time, and this includes any deposits or withdrawals. We are working to resolve these issues as soon as possible and will keep you updated as information becomes available to us.
We are deeply sorry for this inconvenience, but these events are beyond our control. Please be assured that your funds are safe, and we thank you for your patience while we do everything in our power to have money returned to those who have requested it as soon as possible.
Please note, that this action only impacts players based in the U.S. and Full Tilt Poker is still fully operational elsewhere. Players can currently access our site at www.fulltilpoker.co.uk which is available using the normal login details.
As always, we appreciate your continued support, and we will provide additional information to you as it becomes available.
Sincerely,
The Full Tilt Poker Affiliate Team"

and it made me feel much safer now that they are issuing an official statement, i hope they enable real money games soon.
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andy, 18 Jul 2011 @ 5:47am

domains seized and cash withheld. still
It's inexcusable. these poer companies act like banks becuase they hold your cash balances. Further, they invest it in overnight money markets to earn interest.
They SHOULD be subject to similar capital adequacy anf liquidty ratios.

Why can't they return the bankrolls to the righful owners?
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