The Fed's Vicious War On Illegal Handbags
www.LibertyJuice.com ^ | November 30, 2010 | Brittany Pounders With a war on two fronts, tax cuts that are about to expire, unemployment in the double digits and skyrocketing, border wars from Mexico, an invasion of illegal immigrants that is one of the main causes of the dissolution of our economic infrastructure, deepening and dire threats from North Korea and an extremely unstable Middle East….just to name a few immediate crisis within our country…you can certainly understand the Feds feeling so urgent to react and respond to….domain names??
Let me be clear lest you misunderstand. These are domain names that are not terrorism focused, these are domain names that may or may not be responsible for illegally selling handbags or copyrighted items.
"The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak.
ICE appears to be targeting sites that help Internet users download copyrighted music, as well as sites that sell bootleg goods, such as fake designer handbags.
The sites are replaced with a note from the government: “This domain named has been seized by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations.”
For instance, borntrade.com, 51607.com, and amoyhy.com have each been seized.
One of the site owners told TorrentFreak that his site was shut down without any notice or warning."
The American people are feeling an increasingly sense of irresponsibility from a government that seems to major on the minor and minor on the major. The information continues:
"Thankfully critics like Oregon Senator Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, has vowed to block the COICA as it is currently written.
“Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile,” he said at Senate Subcommittee meeting on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness. “If you don’t think this thing through carefully, the collateral damage would be American innovation, American jobs, and a secure Internet.'
Please note and let it be written…I’m agreeing 1,000% with a Democrat. Why is ICE involved in something so small minded and insignificant when we are dealing with a literal meltdown of our immigration system? Could it be because big name lobbyist are now involved and backroom and behind the scene deals from enormous corporations like NFL, NIKE, and Johnson- just to name a few.
Why have they decided to go this route as a solution to the problem when we already have laws on the books dealing with those who steal copyrighted materials and deal in illegal downloads. The next question that this leads me to would be… Is this not just another giant step towards Net Neutrality and government regulation over the free use of the internet? If they can take domain names for this than clearly it just opens the floodgates for snatching domain names for anything else they see fit. According to Wired:
"Among the sites that could go dark if the law passes: Dropbox, RapidShare, SoundCloud, Hype Machine and any other site for which the Attorney General deems copyright infringement to be “central to the activity” of the site, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group that opposes the bill. There need not even be illegal content on a site — links alone will qualify a site for digital death. Websites at risk could also theoretically include p2pnet and pirate-party.us or any other website that advocates for peer-to-peer file sharing or rejects copyright law, according to the group.
In short, COICA would allow the federal government to censor the internet without due process."
Further, this only goes to prove the time wasting incompetence that we see on display via the government everywhere. Take a domain name away from a company, what will that company do in response? The answer is simple… wait a day or two and make another domain name.
While claiming not to have the manpower or capabilities to track down and deport illegal aliens or to protect our borders from the daily invasions that have murderous and disastrous results within our country, ironically they have enough to patrol the internet and track down those selling a copyrighted version of Single Ladies? And while figuring out the answer to that question, could someone please tell me again why Homeland Security is involved in copyright issues at all?
I firmly believe in the right of patents, trademarks and copyrights and believe that they should be protected. Ideas and businesses have the rights to be guarded and defended. But, they also have the right to be protected from the government. This idea of brute force, without the benefit of a warrant or due process is wrong and just another massive power-grab on the part of an already overreaching government.
Since when were Socialists champions of property rights anyways?
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