Holder and John Morton, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, announced the seizures of 82 websites. The new crackdown, part of “Operation In Our Sites v. 2.0,” is aimed at websites that sell counterfeit goods like fake scarves and golf gear, as well sites that that facilitate what the government deems to be illegal music piracy, officials said. The announcement appears timed to coincide with Cyber Monday, the start of the holiday online shopping season.

“Intellectual property crimes are not victimless,” Holder said in a statement. “The theft of ideas and the sale of counterfeit goods threaten economic opportunities and financial stability, suppress innovation and destroy jobs.”

A reverse DNS lookup reveals the list of seized domains is dominated by sites dealing in tangible goods, with addresses like realtimberland.com and louis-vuitton-outlet-store.com. Scattered among them are a handful of music or movie sites, including filespump.com, thepiratecity.org, planetmoviez.com, and the torrent search site torrent-finder.com. (A complete list is at the bottom of this post).

Federal law enforcement agents made undercover purchases from a variety of sites, according to Holder. For items confirmed as counterfeit or infringing, agents won seizure orders against the sites’ domain names  from U.S. magistrate judges.

Visitors to the closed websites are now greeted with the following message from ICE: “This domain name has been seized by ICE — Homeland Security investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of 18 U.S.C. §§ 981 and 2323.” Those two sections of the federal code describe civil seizure.

“The sale of counterfeit U.S. brands on the internet steals the creative work of others, costs our economy jobs and revenue and can threaten the health and safety of American consumers,” Morton said.

The crackdown targeted “online retailers of a diverse array of counterfeit goods, including sports equipment, shoes, handbags, athletic apparel and sunglasses as well as illegal copies of copyrighted DVD boxed sets, music and software,” according to the Department of Justice.

The latest domain name seizures represent a substantial escalation of law enforcement activity from “Operation Our Sites I”, announced last June, in which nine domains were seized because they allegedly allowed users to stream first-run movies over the internet.

The domain name seizures have alarmed some civil liberties and free speech advocates: in at least some of the closures the proprietors of the targeted websites were not given advance notice of the action, and had no opportunity to challenge the seizure in court.

The operator of  torrent-finder.com, one of the shuttered websites, told news agencies that he was given no advance notice of the seizure of his web address.

“My website does not even host any torrents or direct-link to them,” Waleed GadElKareem, who is based in Alexandria, Egypt told the New York Times by e-mail. GadElKareem said he only links to other websites. “I am sure something is wrong!”

GadElKareem quickly re-opened his website at torrent-finder.info.

The crackdown comes as Congress mulls a bill called the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (COICA), which would allow the government to shut down websites that are “dedicated to infringing activities.”

COICA was approved unanimously by the Senate Judicary Committee, but Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has said he will excersise his right to block the bill, meaning it is effectively dead until the next legislative session begins in early 2011. Legal experts, technologists, and civil liberties groups have denounced the bill, saying it makes it too easy for the feds to seize a website and puts the U.S. on course to censor the internet.

During the Monday morning press conference, ICE chief Morton said that many more domain names could be seized in the coming days.

See Also:

• Appeals Court: Pirate Bay Admins Still Guilty, Now With Higher Fines
• Bill Would Give Justice Department Power to Shutter Piracy Sites
• Final Guilty Plea Wraps Up Federal ‘Warez’ Crackdown

Seized domain names:

2009jerseys.com
500i.net
51607.com
Amoyhy.com
B2corder.com
Bishoe.com
Borntrade.com
Borntrade.net
Boxedtvseries.com
Boxset4less.com
Boxsetseries.com
Burberryoutletshop.com
Cartoon77.com
Cheapscarfshop.com
Coachoutletfactory.com
Dajaz1.com
Discountscarvesonsale.com
Dvdcollectionsale.com
Dvdcollects.com
Dvdorderonline.com
Dvdprostore.com
Dvdscollection.com
Dvdsetcollection.com
Dvdsetsonline.com
Dvdsuperdeal.com
Eluxury-outlet.com
Getdvdset.com
Gofactoryoutlet.com
Golfstaring.com
Golfwholesale18.com
Handbag9.com
Handbagcom.com
Handbagspop.com
Icqshoes.com
Ipodnanouk.com
Jersey-china.com
Jerseyclubhouse.com
Jordansbox.com
Lifetimereplicas.com
Louis-vuitton-outlet-store.com
Louisvuittonoutletstore4u.com
Louisvuittonoutletstores2u.com
Lv-outlets.com
Lv-outlets.net
Lv-outletstore.com
Massnike.com
Merrytimberland.com
Mycollects.com
Mydreamwatches.com
Mygolfwholesale.com
Newstylerolex.com
Nfljerseysupply.com
Nibdvd.com
Odvdo.com
Oebags.com
Onsmash.com
Overbestmall.com
Rapgodfathers.com
Realtimberland.com
Rmx4u.com
Scarfonlineshop.com
Scarfviponsale.com
Shawls-store.com
Silkscarf-shop.com
Silkscarfonsale.com
Skyergolf.com
Sohob2b.com
Sohob2c.com
Storeofeast.com
Stuff-trade.com
Sunglasses-mall.com
Sunogolf.com
Tbl-sports.com
Thelouisvuittonoutlet.com
Throwbackguy.com
Tieonsale.com
Timberlandlike.com
Topabuy.com
Torrent-finder.com
Usaburberryscarf.com
Usaoutlets.net
Suprbay.us

Authors: Sam Gustin

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