Feds confiscate 'illegal' domain names

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Feds confiscate 'illegal' domain names

By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 26, 2003, 8:10 PM PT

WASHINGTON--Federal police have adopted a novel crime-fighting tactic: seizing control of domain names for Web sites that allegedly violate the law.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday that the domain names for several Web sites allegedly set up to sell illegal "drug paraphernalia" would be pointed at servers located at the Drug Enforcement Administration. A federal judge in Pittsburgh granted the U.S. Department of Justice permission to do so until a trial can take place, the government said.

Wednesday afternoon, the DOJ said it had taken over the iSoNews.com domain, whose owner pleaded guilty to felony copyright crimes under the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). David Rocci, 22, pleaded guilty in December to using his site to sell "mod" chips that let Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation owners modify their devices so that they could use them to play illegally copied games, or "warez."

Rocci "attempted to profit by marketing circumvention devices to (the gaming) community knowing they would be used to play pirated games," Michael Chertoff, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ's criminal division, said in a statement. "He thought that there were no risks associated with his actions. He was wrong, and everyone engaged in the warez scene should take note."

As previously reported, manufacturers such as Sony have waged an international fight against mod chips, with Canadian police targeting an Ottawa man last July for selling mod chips for the PlayStation 2. A Hong Kong video-game retailer, Lik-Sang, has been sued by game console makers Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

But this case appears to have been the first such prosecution in the United States under the DMCA, a 1998 copyright law that generally restricts anyone from circumventing copy protection technologies or distributing software or hardware designed for circumvention purposes. The DMCA says commercial violators "shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first offense."

The Justice Department did not release a copy of Rocci's plea agreement, but said that he will be sentenced on March 7 before U.S. District Judge James Cacheris in Alexandria, Va.

"Rocci used his Web site as the exclusive means to advertise and market the sale of mod chips to individuals in the online warez community," the government said in a statement. "The iSoNews Web site was dedicated to providing information about copyright infringement and piracy, and included pages with news on the illegal warez scene, discussion forums on piracy, and up-to-date listings of all of the latest pirated products that were available. The site had over 100,000 registered users and claimed to receive over 140,000 hits each day."

Rocci allegedly sold the Enigmah chip, which cost between $45 and $60 apiece. Like other mod chips, the Enigmah defeats security systems in the Xbox, allowing owners to play legally and illegally copied games, run unauthorized software and play games intended for other geographic regions.

Some hackers have seized on mod chips as a vehicle to run Linux on the Xbox. Advocates argue such legitimate, nonpiracy uses of mod chips disqualify them as "circumvention devices" under the DMCA.

Visitors to iSoNews.com on Wednesday saw a notice saying: "The domain and Web site were surrendered to U.S. law enforcement pursuant to a federal prosecution and felony plea agreement for conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws."

But the Web site is still online and accessible via means other than the domain name. iSoNews.com regulars have resorted to using the site's numeric IP address--66.201.243.170--and are continuing to discuss the case. "Thanks to everyone for your support in this site, we all appreciate it and will continue to do so," one person wrote.

In October 2000, Sega had threatened iSoNews.com with a cease-and-desist letter, but Jennifer Granick, the attorney representing the site at the time, said Wednesday that no suit had been filed.

An attorney for Rocci could not be reached Wednesday.

Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said Monday that redirecting Web visitors to Justice Department sites becomes a kind of "electronic flypaper" that raises novel legal questions.

The privacy policy on the Justice Department's site permits the DOJ to hand personal information about visitors to the FBI or other law enforcement agencies. It says, "We may take additional steps to identify you based on this information, and we may share this information, including your identity, with other government agencies."

At least four drug-related Web sites targeted by the Justice Department--PipesForYou.com, ColorChangingGlass.com, 420now.com, and OmniLounge.com--now sport government messages. The text says: "By application of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the Web site you are attempting to visit has been restrained by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania."

Federal law prohibits selling any product that is "primarily intended" for use with illegal drugs, including water pipes, roach clips and small spoons used with cocaine.


full article at http://news.com.com/2100-1023-986225.html

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I think this has to be rediculous. Well we now know that the muscle of the big corporations seems to be the feds. What's next are all the hacking sites going to be seized? This article really shocked me. I'm not a big warez person. I use p2p file sharing and that's about it. The worst part is

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WASHINGTON--Federal police have adopted a novel crime-fighting tactic: seizing control of domain names for Web sites that allegedly violate the law.

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What's next ? Anyone wanna form a new country together?

<sigh> that tears it, i'm moving to canada... all the perks of being a US citizen, without the displeasure of watching it turn into nazi germany. they don't even enforce drug laws much there, unless you reallly piss off the cops, you could get a license to cultivate and carry weed and sell it to american college students. Make a tidy little living that way. lol. I mean, come on, is there really any better place to live than canada? no other country will dick with you because of your pitbull, the fiercest military presence that ever existed (america) you can benefit from trade with the most stable economy in the world, (america) and your kids can become singers, actors, or comedians and make a killing in america, and when the **** hits the fan and world war 3 breaks out, it's BACK HOME TO CANADA. hell's ya, im getting some dough and movin up north, before i'm forced to sew a f*&%ing star to my coat and hurdled onto a train to some death camp cause the government is really startin to piss me off.

This is crazy! I am with x acidreign x, lets move to Canada...

The netherlands is a nice country to move to to !!! You can come by and have a beer or something.
I understand the feds want to somehow restrict warezsites to exist, but this isn't the solution... like those people are afraid of just plain 123.456.7.3 adresses, ot dot.tk or any free dynamic hosting subdomain thing. Ow well... as long as they stay away from other countries stuff. I wasn't planning to move to the US of A anyways.

I believe it was Thomas Jefferson (or Franklin) that said, when helping to create this country, that this form of government should only last around 200 years. Well, 200 years has come and gone and people are getting more and more unhappy with it. It has become corrupt and unjust, much of what they were running from in starting the states in the first place. It is written in the constitution that if our government no longer serves the people, the people have a right to revolt. perhaps that's what is necessary. North vs. South? East vs. West? whatever. a new country might not be a bad idea. All we need is a charismatic leader that couldnt be discreditted by media, governemt, et. al.
or in the meantime... OOOOO CANADA!!...

screw revolt! I aint takin a howitzer to the anus for nothing, i'll settle for getting the hell outta dodge

Yeah I think Canada would be a good place for us :)

Just remeber if you want to join canada ,you must - 1. be polite 2. dont bring any guns 3 .dont be shooting anyone 4. take at least a center -center left attitude 5. bring long underwear(for some places anyhow) 6. change huhh in to ehh 7. add a u into words like colour flavour 8.learn metric(its easy ,its base 10 ,like fingers and toes) 9. remember we are a cultural mosaic not a melting pot , And that is about all it takes ehh ps. you have to have a legit medical reason to grow pot (not that that stops many people)

Ya well a little further. What happens in the US happens here. Believe me, if you think down in the US bad, don't expect it to be any better here. Russia I hear has real lax laws on this kind of stuff. South east Asia (Malaysia?) as well!

Hmmm Canadian beer and even more hockey....I'm driven, who's coming?

Now come on, that is so stupid that the government seems to be more attentive to sites that are selling mod chips than the drug traffiking ones! I mean Xbox is my drug of choice, but seriously... :). Maybe Mr. Gates has some mysterious influence over the government that the Drug Enforcement Administration doesn't possess....hmmm. Thats great, Linux can be installed on a Microsoft Xbox, no wonder Gates is pissed. Hey I'm a Jr. member now, hurray!

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Just remeber if you want to join canada ,you must - 1. be polite...

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Well, I ain't coming then.
:cool:

Does anyone here have any sense of morality? What is everyone saying? That you think you should have the right to steal somebody's product? The fact that using pirated software is illegal, though important, is beside the point. It seems pretty amoral to me. I mean how is using a copied game any different from walking into WalMart and stealing it? It seems the same to me. You may not like Microsoft or Sony but that doesn't mean you should steal from them. I thought AO was supposed to be about security yet we have a discussion that seems to condone pirating copyrighted material. Somehow I don't think any of you would be saying these things if it was money out of your pocket. And what is this talk about weed? Acidreign, you're saying that you want to be able to sell pot to college students and not have the cops bother you? Am I hearing this right? Maybe all of you should go to Canada.

TheMechanic,

That may be true but there is a larger issue. The idea of shutting down websites because they promote something that the US finds "illegal". The DMCA has validity but it doesn't when it shuts down freedom of expression. This is an old battle and one that will not go away easily. Granted the use of "illegal software" is not something I believe that AO promotes. However, being aware of what goes on is. And that is what this article is talking about.

I would have issue with a gov't deciding that. They may decide that AO is too 'hacker' like and thus promotes hacking, which by many media and gov't definitions is breaking into someone's computer. Because the perception is that AO promotes hacking it would be shut down.

It's not an accurate statement.

The DMCA has been used in ways that are not necessarily right. Adobe, who's Ereader standard (I think that was the one), was "reversed engineered" at one point dropped the charges against the guy who had done it. And yet, the US gov't went after him. Now, he had shown Adobe what the flaw was. The DMCA went after him because of simply the "reverse engineering" but what they failed to see was that he found a valid flaw. He made his findings public. How many others didn't?

Now for some of this article, the issue of the modded chips using illegal software -- certainly makes sense to remove them, regardless of anything else. But the chip that allows you to access linux on the box. Now that one I'd object to it being removed. Once I buy that box -- and as long as I'm not interested in getting support from Sony -- if I want to mod/muck around in it, why shouldn't I? I bought the hardware.

One of my biggest issues with the Law (both Canadian and US) is that it is not adequately prepared for what is happening. It truly doesn't know how to deal with those who are exploring the boundaries of these binary machines and their languages that they speak. There should be allowances for creativity while still allowing for protection of the product produced. It's too bad these laws weren't in place earlier. I wonder if Microsoft, Sony et al would have ended up where they are -- since they all took/reversed engineered their own products from other people/companies.

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This is crazy! I am with x acidreign x, lets move to Canada...

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How about Aussie... :cool:

I can't believe you all are talking about RUNNING AWAY! That makes me sad. Although the government is out of hand and.. Well.. "****ed Up" (Sorry) does not mean America is. We have to stand up for it. Not run away and let "them" win. Doesn't anyone have any pride in thier country that gave them so many things we all take for granted..? I myself by no means have any soulution, but I know I will NEVER run from my problems. Ecpecially when someone is screwing up MY stuff.

Please don't give me any neg points for voicing my opinion.

Thanks.

What a bunch of panzies!!! The going gets tough, so let's run for the hills or Canada, cause they won't sweat us about wanting to buy bongs.(or should I say "waterpipes", cause no one uses them for illegal substances....)

Revolt, yeah like the native americans, that'll work. No, please, don't leave for Canada, all you 17 year olds, you might actually raise the intelligence quotient for the country......no please, no......(fading voice)

That's the problem with the youth of today, if it isn't handed to you ,don't bother... I'll bet you mom still does your laundry, am I right? I already know I am.

How about caring about the country that gave you the ability to choose how you wanted to spend your life? Do you really think the founding fathers had it easy? How about caring about those that gave their life so you could have a soft, pleasant existence? Don't care about them? I guess it's too far back for you to comprehend...it's only history.

Just go piss on the tomb of the unknown soldier or on the wall of the VietNam memorial as you leave the country and don't ever come back.

What a constructive show of civil disobedience.....pathetic, absolutely pathetic.

You know how a democracy works, don't you?

Lets buy an oil rig somewhere in the ocean at least 40 miles from anywhere.

We can then declare it our own country and do what the feck we want.

We can have our own domain ending .oil and our own search engine which only searches these pages.

sounds like a little place of the coast of the uk called sealand.

have a look www.sealandgov.com/

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Originally posted here by rcgreen

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Just remeber if you want to join canada ,you must - 1. be polite...

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Well, I ain't coming then.
:cool:

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You can still come to the Netherlands. ::smoke-ko

the idea of arming up and fighting the government is a noble but outdated concept... sure it was effective in the revolutionary war when it was muskets vs muskets, they were outnumbered, and on our turf, but if the government continues as it has, by the time the people are pissed enough to fight it will be sticks, rocks, fire, and homemade bombs vs nukes, guns, howitzers, and napalm... besides, i got eye problems, in canada, i can score weed! but come to think of it, maybe the Amsterdam is better, weed is totally legal, like cigarrettes, so is prostitution and they have these sex clubs there.. besides, chicks there do bikini wax "swedish style"

Someone said don't bring guns to canada. I heard that canada has more guns per capita than US. Besides canada is too bloody cold. Anyway,whenever someone puts a little pressure on congress, things can change. Nothin like a little public outrage.

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Originally posted here by owen76
Anyway,whenever someone puts a little pressure on congress, things can change. Nothin like a little public outrage.

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That's the entire problem, all you have to do is cause a little rukis and you can influence the government, it is for this reason the nation is governed by the STUPID. the same reason they put directions on SHAMPOO, and labels on gasoline warning people not to DRINK IT!!

ya we got lots of guns but we don't use them on each other(usually) ,most are for hunting animals not humans . 80 % of the guns used in crimes in canada were brought(smuggled) in from the states .I never imagined gas needed labeling ,thats crazy

im with x acidreign x and CXGJarrod we should all just move to canida

but..... why has noone mentioned greece???? Best weed in the world is right here.... and the laws here are really relaxed (you do what you want, only the strong survive :D )

Think about it, 365 days of summer :)

Chears.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

I thought Greece recently outlawed video games. If this is true the laws do not sound very relaxed to me...

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http://news.com.com/2100-1040-956357.html