Homeland Security Seizes Dozens of Piracy Websites

[OniaPL]

Doesn't American Homeland Security have bigger things to worry about than piracy?

 

[WrathOfBanja]

Pirate Bay is still running, so I fail to see what this accomplished.

So is isoHunt, btjunkie and Demonoid.
What exactly did they shut down...?

 

[Jumplion]

Well, this whole conundrum is no fun at all. Let's try to lighten things up with a so-

Well this is amusing ^_^

70 sites in one week? if they keep this up their wont be anywhere to download free stuffs, which I'm glad about.

I think this is appropriate

Damnit, ninja'd pirate'd!

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Sad day

Piracy is Bad!

OT: Other than piracy being a crime and all, how did the ICE - Homeland Security Investigations get all these powers?

And was it only sites registered in the US?

you got your video deactivated by youtube or the WMG or some lobby... but i know how this video goes, and i thank you for it.

They disabled embedding, that's all.

yeah, but right when i tried in different ways, i couldn't get in

 

[Sixcess]

Take that, Bin Laden!

Or not.

 

[CyberSkull]

So, Homeland Security, realizing that they can't do anything about terrorism or whatever the hell their mission is, decides to crack down on copyright infringement so they will be seen as doing something?

 

[Krakyn]

Seriously? We're going to start blacklisting websites? What happened to the land of the free?

Soon we'll be in the same condition as terrible countries like North Korea or China...or Australia. Way to go, authoritarians.

 

[Krakyn]

Sometimes I love this site.

NEWS: The Government is cracking down on things which are illegal

THIS SITE: NOO! The government are Nazis and we must have our illegal dowloads for various philosophical reasons I will argue about until I am blue in the face!

Now excuse me, I just have to go and murder a hooker after sleeping with her while mainlining heroine, I hope my philosophical debate on the nature of true freedom holds up in court.

I think it's fine if they shut down piracy websites in our country, even though it's a waste of time and taxpayer money. But the fact that they're blacklisting foreign sites and forcing ISPs to block them is extremely authoritarian, and spits in the face of the free ideals we all know.

This country, in comparison to the rest of the world, has been extremely against total censorship. Ratings apply to media for our protection, but almost nothing ever gets banned outright. Now a section of the government just said that part of its main goal will be to reverse that logic and disallow the sharing of information by forcing ISPs to comply. Now they're removing two freedoms: that of the people to visit these websites, and that of ISPs to allow these websites.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Homeland Security was never about terrorism, but about impinging civil liberties to prosecute more suspected criminals. Terrorism was only their excuse to get away with it. I don't like it, but I'm too poor to move. However, it's about freaking time they did something to deal with internet piracy. It hurts artists and makes everything slightly crappier by undermining basic principles of intellectual copyright and economics. Stealing is wrong, kids.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

I think I know what went down: some git confused the Somalia-esque pirates with the internet guys and gave DHS and the other guys an order to crack down on them. At least I can't think of any other way why the homeland security guys would waste their time on frivolous stuff like this when they have a real job to do...

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I think it's fine if they shut down piracy websites in our country, even though it's a waste of time and taxpayer money. But the fact that they're blacklisting foreign sites and forcing ISPs to block them is extremely authoritarian, and spits in the face of the free ideals we all know.

This country, in comparison to the rest of the world, has been extremely against total censorship. Ratings apply to media for our protection, but almost nothing ever gets banned outright. Now a section of the government just said that part of its main goal will be to reverse that logic and disallow the sharing of information by forcing ISPs to comply. Now they're removing two freedoms: that of the people to visit these websites, and that of ISPs to allow these websites.

How else would they go about it? Would you rather they did it on a person by person basis? I agree with parts of your argument, but not the conclusion. I mean, should the government allow child pornography sites to operate and just track the IP addresses of everyone who goes there? I'm all about individual freedom/responsibility, but the internet is a slightly different beast in that regard. You can be sent to all manners of illegal content in the blink of an eye without even knowing you did it. I might have to argue on behalf of the "public good" on this issue, though it makes me cringe.

Maybe the government (or preferably an independent organization like the ESRB) should just strongly recommend that ISPs block certain illegal sites. Then comcast or whoever would have the logo of this organization on their site to show that the ISP won't let you engage in illegal activities. But then again, a lot of ISPs are often monopolies and can be seen as public utilities and yada yada yada... Egads, I sound like a democrat and I don't like it.

 

[Mcface]

[http://photobucket.com/images/good%20luck%20im%20behind%207%20proxies]

Although 7 proxies can't save you from a JDAM.

 

[Weaver]

Looks like Australia has new competition for who can limit the internet the most.
At this rate China will look like a liberal paradise in 10 years.

 

[paragon1]

I think it's just wonderful that they can cut funding for education and caring for the disabled so that they can spend inordinate amounts of cash and resources to keep people from downloading the Jonas Brothers.

Welcome to Democracy!

 

[DannibalG36]

Welll... this can only get worse.

 

[Aurgelmir]

Um... Google lets me search for torrents too... just saying.

 

[DannibalG36]

Wow.... there's so many anti-piracy cheerleaders on these forums, it's kind of strange. Though, they don't seem to be very informed on the issue at all. "It's bad because it's illegal".

Probably the same crowd that believes marijuana makes you want to kill your parents.

I concur. Thank you for putting it in a brilliant metaphor.

 

[Xodyac]

Wow.... there's so many anti-piracy cheerleaders on these forums, it's kind of strange. Though, they don't seem to be very informed on the issue at all. "It's bad because it's illegal".

Probably the same crowd that believes marijuana makes you want to kill your parents.

This. So much, this.

Piracy is distributing. Copyright laws and whatnot forbid the -sale- of products by people who get the stuff for free. Piracy really isn't illegal in the least bit. Which is why it confuses me to no end why the government- oh. Wait. Yeah, that's right. Because we're ♪living in America, where it's like the Twilight Zone! And when you're living in America, at the start of the millenium-♪ Where was I? Oh. Right. Anti-piracy = stupid. kthxbai

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Other than piracy being a crime and all, how did the ICE - Homeland Security Investigations get all these powers?

And was it only sites registered in the US?

The American Media Cartels own a good number of politicians. The Maafia grunts and the American government drops its pants and bends over.

The pirates can always move their websites to China or Russia, they dont care about Piracy there, and I bet China will have something to say if the U.S decides to shut down their websites.