U.S.authorities seize wordpress domain and other websites as well

jimpeel

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
It seems that the Internet is the administration's target after all. Seventy-three-thousand bloggers out of business in one fell swoop. So much for the free exchange of ideas.

Go to the linked article for hotlinks in the article.

SOURCE

U.S. Authorities Shut Down WordPress Host With 73,000 Blogs
Written by enigmax on July 16, 2010

After the U.S. Government took action against several sites connected to movie streaming recently, nerves are jangling over the possibility that this is just the beginning of a wider crackdown. Now it appears that a free blogging platform has been taken down by its hosting provider on orders from the U.S. authorities on grounds of “a history of abuse”. More than 73,000 blogs are out of action as a result.

Hot on the heels of recent threats from Vice President Joe Biden and Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel directed at sites offering unauthorized movies and music, last month U.S. authorities targeted several sites they claimed were connected to the streaming of infringing video material.

‘Operation In Our Sites‘ targeted several sites including TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. In almost unprecedented action, the domain names of 7 sites were seized and indications are that others – The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload – narrowly avoided the same fate.

Fears remain, however, that this action is only the beginning, and that more sites will be targeted as the months roll on. Indeed, TorrentFreak has already received information that other sites, so far unnamed in the media, are being monitored by the authorities on copyright grounds.

Now, according to the owner of a free WordPress platform which hosts more than 73,000 blogs, his network of sites has been completely shut down on the orders of the authorities.

Blogetery.com has been with host BurstNet for 7 months but on Friday July 9th the site disappeared. The following Monday the owner received an email from BurstNet:

Due to the history of abuse and on going abuse on this ‘bn.***********’ server.

We have opted to terminate this server, effective immediately. This termination applies to: bn.affiliateplex.com

Abuse Department
BurstNET Technologies, Inc
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Further correspondence received the following response:

Bn.xx*********** was terminated by request of law enforcement officials, due to material hosted on the server.

We are limited as to the details we can provide to you, but note that this was a critical matter and the only available option to us was to immediately deactivate the server.
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…and a later clarification:

Please note that this was not a typical case, in which suspension and notification would be the norm. This was a critical matter brought to our attention by law enforcement officials. We had to immediately remove the server.

“We notified him [the Blogetery owner] when we terminated it [the server], and we refunded him his money to his account, because he has other servers with us If he wants the refund to his card, we can easily do that. However, it should be the least of his concerns,” A BurstNet representative later confirmed.

“Simply put: We cannot give him his data nor can we provide any other details. By stating this, most would recognize that something serious is afoot.”
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Due to the fact that the authorities aren’t sharing information and BurstNet are sworn to secrecy, it is proving almost impossible to confirm the exact reason why Blogetery has been completely taken down. The owner does, however, admit to handling many copyright-related cease and desists in the past, albeit in a timely manner as the DMCA requires.

Nevertheless, a couple of quick Google searches which are likely to turn up blogs which link to copyright material appear to do just that – here, here and here. That said, on any network this large this type of activity is bound to happen. Many thousands of blogs on the same platform would have been perfectly legal.

“All of the users are without service just like when the Pirate Bay raids happened and all the people who were on the host sites were also taken down,” pointed out an annoyed Blogetery user who contacted TorrentFreak. “I have lost my personal site also and I don’t have any way to contact the owner since his contact info was on the blogetery.com site & that was the only way to contact him.”

Indeed, 73,000 blogs is a significant number to take down in one swoop, regardless of what some users of the site may or may not have been doing. Time will tell if it was indeed a copyright complaint that took down the service but the signs are certainly there. Not so long ago the conclusion that this type of action could be taken on copyright grounds would have been dismissed out of hand, but the current atmosphere seems to be changing.
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And they were going to go even farther ... and likely still will.

SOURCE

Go to the linked article for hotlinks in the article.

Pirate Bay and MegaUpload Escape Domain Seizure by US
Written by enigmax on July 07, 2010

As part of an initiative to crack down on Internet piracy and counterfeiting, the US Government recently took action against sites making available movies and TV shows. Arrests did not feature in the action, but controversially the authorities seized site domain names instead. TorrentFreak has learned that both The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload domains were also on the target list.

In the final days of last month, US authorities targeted several sites they claimed were connected to the streaming of movies and TV shows. ‘Operation In Our Sites‘ culminated in the apparent shutting down of 9 sites – TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net – although not in the conventional manner.

Rather than rounding the operators up physically or threatening them with ruinous legal action, the US Government seized at least 7 of the domains instead, and pointed them to their own server which carried an ominous warning.

The action came following recent threats from Vice President Joe Biden and Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel which were directed at those offering unauthorized movies and music. Nevertheless, the domain seizure route came as quite a surprise.

That said, domain seizures are nothing new. In 2008 the Governor of Kentucky grabbed around 140 domains connected with online gambling but we have to go back seven years to find a comparable copyright related case.

In February 2003, the US DOJ obtained the domain of release news site IsoNews.com after its owner pleaded guilty to selling Xbox ‘Enigmah’ mod chips, a violation of the DMCA. However, the site’s domain wasn’t taken ‘just like that’, it was handed over by its owner in a plea deal. So, how did the authorities manage to take control of the streaming-connected sites so easily? The answer lies with ICANN.

Amongst other things, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the body responsible for managing the web’s DNS system to ensure that users of the Internet can find websites by using domain names. Coincidentally, last month Internet policy and security research group KnujOn published a report which suggested that many dozens of Internet domain registrars (who sell domains to the public) could be violating their agreements with ICANN, including but not limited to the blocking of Whois information.

The report, which concerned domains through which unlicensed pharmaceuticals are sold online, was later cited by John Horton, the head of a LegitScript, a company which aims to ensure the legitimacy of online pharmacies. He noted the importance of pointing out to domain name registrars that “there is no reason to knowingly facilitate criminal activity including activity that violates intellectual property. Those are the choke points of the Internet.”

Of course, one such choke point is located a small but significant step above the registrars with ICANN itself and it seems the organization has been working both closely and freely with the authorities in respect of these recent domain seizures.

A source that has proved 100% reliable in the past told TorrentFreak that ICANN transferred the movie and TV related domains to the US authorities because it was agreed that they were violating their terms and conditions. We were also informed that, as mentioned in the KnujOn report, some registrars also violate ICANN’s terms and conditions by anonymizing the ownership of domains. This, we were told, could make other domains in a similar state targets to be seized by the authorities in the future.

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.

Clearly this development comes as somewhat of a surprise, so naturally we were keen to find out where this policy could end. How, for example, would it affect some of the biggest sites? Naturally The Pirate Bay came to mind.

Shockingly, TorrentFreak was informed that wheels were also set in motion to seize The Pirate Bay domain. But for reasons that remain unclear that didn’t come to pass. Our source believes that the US authorities would’ve had to contact the Swedish authorities on the matter first, but that since there is already an unfinished criminal process against the site, the time was not considered right. There is an implication, however, that patience won’t last forever and may run out after the founders’ upcoming court appeal.

Another site in the cross hairs appears to be MegaUpload. Although a domain seizure was suggested, it now seems that another route has been taken, at least for now. We have also been informed by other sources that further sites are being watched although it proved impossible to discover their names.

We asked ICANN for a reaction on this development, but got no reply.

“Hollywood lawyers have discovered the soft underbelly of piracy,” was the reaction of Professor Pouwelse from Delft University of Technology. Prof. Pouwelse is no stranger to legal proceedings, he has appeared as an expert witness on P2P matters in numerous civil and criminal court proceedings.

“This is very effective erosion of Internet rights, if it grows from an obscure practice into standard procedure for taking down entire websites”. The Kentucky example is dragging on for years already, so there is still hope.

Clearly the seizure of domains on terms and conditions violations is a worrying development but one that could remain unresolved for sometime. Are the operators of the above-mentioned streaming sites likely to turn up in a US court to argue for their safe return? Hardly….
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The full story comes out.

While "Operation "In Our Sites" did shut down the sites mentioned, it did not shut down Wordpress.

They sent a letter to burst.net demanding to get information on certain people who were possibly involved in terrorist activities. burst.net panicked and shut Wordpress down.

They claimed, at the time, that a law enforcement agency demanded that they shut it down but that was apparently a lie.

SOURCE

FBI Warning of Al Qaeda Hit Lists, Bomb-Making Tips Led to Shutdown of Blogging Site

Published July 19, 2010 | FoxNews.com

A popular website that hosted more than 70,000 bloggers was shut down suddenly last week after the FBI informed its chief technology officer that the site contained hit lists, bomb-making documents and links to Al Qaeda materials, it was reported on Monday.

When the WordPress platform Blogetery.com went dead, the initial explanation from the site's host, Burst.net, was that “a law-enforcement agency” had ordered it to shut down, citing a “history of abuse.” The explanation caused a wave of conspiracy theories in the blogosphere.

But according to a report on CNET Monday, Burst.net shut down Blogetery.com when it became spooked by a letter from the FBI, in which the bureau detailed the presence of terrorist materials among the blog posts.

Burst.net CTO Joe Marr explained that the FBI contacted them with a request for voluntary emergency disclosure of information, bringing to their attention that terrorist material presenting a threat to the lives of Americans was found on a server Burst.net hosted. FBI agents said they wanted specific, immediate information about the people who posted the material.

Paul Bresson, unit chief for the FBI's national press office, wrote in an email to FoxNews.com Monday that Burst.net shut down the website on its own. "We did not make a request to shut down a website," Bresson wrote.

Burst.net executives and public relations staffers were not available for comment; answering machines at the office appeared to be disconnected.

Bloggers had been theorizing for days about the shutdown, mostly speculating about conspiracies and anti-piracy movements.

File-sharing news site TorrentFreak claimed it was most likely the work of anti-piracy authorities. The site speculated that it could be part of a new initiative called "Operation: In Our Sites," designed to crack down on Internet piracy and counterfeiting under the authority of Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel.

"Operation: In Our Sites" has already targeted numerous sites including TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net.

Others wondered whether this was a step by the government to assert control over the Web. Just weeks ago, a plan giving the President emergency power to turn off the Internet was approved by the Senate.

The reality turns out to be much more serious. A representative for Burst.net said the company had offered Blogetery's operator his money back, but that "should be the least of his concerns."

“Simply put: We cannot give him his data nor can we provide any other details," the representative said. "By stating this, most would recognize that something serious is afoot.”
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For a long time AFTER we’ve booted his ass out of the
people’s house we WILL be justified in blaming this regime.
The Cuban style medical system it has imposed
the utterly destroyed economy
sadly these things will take years to rectify.
 
Cuban-style medical system? Hardly. Single-payer health-care in a country with your GDP would rock... but that'd mess with the insurance company bottom line, and we can't have that. Better the people die or go bankrupt first.

Of the people, for the people..that kinda thing. Nah...doesn't make sense for the taxes you pay to actually go towards your benefit. Better to support banks and billion$ company welfare. Why support education and health when you can line CEO pockets so deeply that they have to get bigger pants with gansta-pockets to fit more money in.
 
See America I told you you'd be better off working for the State
and the shiftless illegal alien living down the street.

Good job Spike.
 
MrBishop said:
So much for Blame Obama month
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Maybe you missed this part so I will repeat it ...

While "Operation "In Our Sites" did shut down the sites mentioned, it did not shut down Wordpress.

So Internet sites are being targeted by the administration. Where does the federal government get the authority to seize a domain name of a website?
 
Hey Jim - Someone violated the AUP and got closed down.
July 19, 2010 - Scranton, PA - BurstNET Technologies, Inc™ (http://www.burst.net), the largest web hosting and co-location provider in the Northeast Pennsylvania (USA) region, has been the subject of recent news headlines regarding the termination of service to popular website Blogetry.com.

BurstNET® is releasing the following information, in order to set the record straight regarding the matter:

On the evening of July 9, 2010, BurstNET® received a notice of a critical nature from law enforcement officials, and was asked to provide information regarding ownership of the server hosting Blogetry.com. It was revealed that a link to terrorist material, including bomb-making instructions and an al-Qaeda “hit list", had been posted to the site. Upon review, BurstNET® determined that the posted material, in addition to potentially inciting dangerous activities, specifically violated the BurstNET® Acceptable Use Policy. This policy strictly prohibits the posting of “terrorist propaganda, racist material, or bomb/weapon instructions". Due to this violation and the fact that the site had a history of previous abuse, BurstNET® elected to immediately disable the system.
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