Feds crack down on Internet movie pirates, score bust

Adding some swashbuckling to its tough talk on fighting piracy, the federal government Wednesday seized several websites that were offering downloads of pirated movies such as "Toy Story 3" and "Iron Man 2" within hours of their release in theaters.

Federal authorities announced that they had seized domain names from nine websites engaged in the "criminal theft of American movies and television." The websites include TVShack.net, PlanetMoviez.com and ThePirateCity.org and Ninjavideo.net. The sites combined drew 6.7 million visitors a month, authorities said.

Officials also seized assets from 15 bank, investment and advertising accounts and executed residential search warrants in North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and Washington, according to a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which coordinated its investigation with the Southern District of New York, the Department of Homeland Security and various other agencies.

The crackdown, which involved 100 agents working in 11 states and the Netherlands, is part of a renewed campaign dubbed "Operation in Our Sites" by the feds to curb Internet counterfeiting and piracy. The announcement comes a week after the Obama administration unveiled a detailed plan on how to tackle global piracy, including targeting illegal websites.

ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton, speaking at a Walt Disney Studios soundstage where he was joined by movie studio executives and union representatives, trumpeted the bust as the beginning of a "long-term effort to turn the tables on these thieves." The targeted websites, he added, are "run by people who have no respect for creativity and innovation."

Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that the actions were necessary to protect the jobs and livelihoods of "ordinary working people" and warned others involved in similar websites. The studios claim that they lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually to pirated content.

"If your business model is piracy, your story will not have a happy ending," Bharara said.

-- Richard Verrier

Comments

[Freddie Sanchez]

Go to wwwmoviejet.net

[hal9000]

They didn't close ATDHE.NET ???

[Melanei]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[D]

NO, NINJAVIDEO, NOOOOOO! :(

[Sanely]

Ninjavideo was a NINJA. How the heck did it get caught? I am disappoint.

[Elena]

Ugh i'm honestly so upset. Ninjavideo wasn't just any site. ninjavideo was SPECIAL

[Damien]

They don't do enough about child porn on the net, but God forbid they let someone see movie's or tv for free.

[bob smith]

Another pointless exercise of futility by the government wasting our tax dollars. Luckily now some Hollywood movie studio guy will make 5.6 mill instead of 5.5 mill this year. I know I feel better. Go Fed!

[flogst]

big deal, there are enough sites still up and running

[August]

These sites are just like a LIBRARY. The video that was posted was ALREADY PAID FOR!

[BewdyCall]

So viewers who didn't watch any illegal stuff get screwed as well?

My hubby and I are huge NinjaVideo fans but never watched any movies there; we only ever used it for catching up on already-broadcast TV shows (that were posted on their original networks' sites, anyway), minus all the obnoxious ads. We canceled our cable TV last year because I got laid off.

It was absolutely awesome to sit down and enjoy an entire episode of, say, "Lie To Me" or "Real Time With Bill Maher", without the constant interruptions. I'm unemployed with no benefits so ads have no influence over me; I'm the one who manages the budget and we can't afford what they're pushing, anyway.

Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water! Guess hubby & I will have to start communicating with each other again ...*sigh*...

[1guynoc]

Once upon a time......in Anytown U.S.A., there we're movie theaters that showed the latest Hollywood Pictures and it was $7 per adult and $3 per child or you could go on Sunday and catch a matinee after 10:00 am for $5 a person. Candy was $1, popcorn was $2, hotdogs $3, and drinks were $2.50. You could catch a baseball game at your local stadium for $12, parking was $2 or go to a concert at your local venues and get a seat behind the floor for $25 or pay the maximum for floor seats from $50 to $75 depending on how popular the group was. Disneyland was $50, Knottsberry Farm was $25 per entry. Cartoons were on TV Monday thru Friday in the afternoon for the kids, buying recordings of your favorite artists cost from $5 to $10, and you could rent released movie's at you local video store for $1 on VHS. Video game sets were $75, games $10 and cable was $10 a month, and everything was fine with the world. Everyone worked and through work had health insurance for their family, and a retirement plan, and those who didn't weren't as visable, and you never heard of a terrorist threat in this country, houses we're between $100,000 and $150,000 for modest home, 3 bed, 2 bath, cars ranged from $7,000 to $10,000 for a modest family car and there were no wars olny skirmishes and the deficit was in the millions.

Then the rich elitist decided it was not enough to be a millionaire and went nuts with greed, and now this is how it is:
Movies-$12 per person-popcorn-candy-drinks $5 hotdogs nochos $7
Concerts-$65 to $125 per seat, parking $10
Games- $25 to $35 per ticket, parking is $10
Recording's on CD's-$25, movies on DVD-$20
Disneyland is $75, Knotts is $65
Video Game Sets-$125 to $250, games $50 to $75 (some only downloadable once)
And there's no more cartoons for the kids on weekdays, everywhere you look people are homeless and begging from the intersections, the jobless rate is 12% nationally (this is the true number or around there, the other figures lie...) and we have wars that hurt those involved and our economy, cars, homes, cable, phone, gas, electric and every necessity is either too expensive or has been federalized and the deficit is in the trillions!

And this man's government wonder's why people Pirate????

[wewe]

I don't get it. TVshack only posted links to movies at other sites (like megavideo, etc). So why is TVshack down? THEY weren't destroying the copyrights, it was the sites who put the movies up available for download in the firstplace (i.e. the sites TVshack linked to). So why does a great site like TVshack have to suffer? It was one of the last best places in the whole of the internet!

[Sneww]

im really sad they got ninjavideo. the thing is, and im sure many would agree, i NEVER would have paid to see any of the movies or shows i watched on ninjavideo in the first place.

now when new shows come out im gunna have to wait the stupid week ofter the episode goes on the air to watch it online on hulu. ninjavideo always had them up like an hour after they aired.

[BewdyCall]

Here's what's really stupid about this. NinjaVideo also provided access to previously broadcast TV shows, just without all the obnoxious commercials. There's nothing "pirated" about relaying those episodes, because they're freely available on their original networks' websites, anyway. OK, so maybe Ninja did play pirated movies, but this doesn't mean ALL their content was illegal. Now those of us who can't afford cable TV or Netflix have to hunt n' peck around the internet for decent entertainment. What's next? Shutting down the internet altogether? Or only allowing political propaganda commanding praises to *Our Dear Leader*? ...*sigh*... I don't look good in black pajamas ...

[Asa]

Oh what a futile effort. This is the war on drugs, just even more futile.

[Andrew Levent]

I can't believe this. It's completely untrue, saying the TV and Movie industry is losing money because of sites like this. In the last ten years, in the height of the online piracy era, the movie industry has skyrocketed. More people have discovered many different series and movies they regularly wouldn't have before, because of sites like Ninjavideo. I'm a HUGE NV fan, and directly BECAUSE of Ninjavideo, I found things like Misfits, Top Gear and Merlin, all of which I've now BOUGHT because Ninjavideo showed me them. Ninjavideo is the only reason I was able to find out I liked Dexter, Monk, Psych and plenty of other shows, now which I've bought. I'm Canadian, and I barely get ANY of those shows.

Saying that any of these sites are a DRAIN is BULL.

[J]

I think we should take a lawsuit out on the Fed for wasting our money. They seem to be in cahoots with Hollywood, taking Hollywood's interest over the proud American people. When money is held over love and understanding the poor are punished! This is only adding to to rift between rich, middle class and the poor. America is better than this!

[FIDEL CASTRO]

i guess they werent so ninja after all hahhhhhhaaaaaaaaaa

[Tomasz Jurek]

All these sites reopoened within minutes. Everything is still available. You should start tackling real crime instead of trying to support the riches of this world with more money.

[TVSHACK]

OH MY GOD I WAS WONDERING WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO TVSHACK
I hope they open soon

[Sean]

:( I'm going to miss Ninjavideo.

Being in the UK, it was the only way I could access certain content, like the Daily Show and Colbert Report. They're surely not losing out on any money here, as even paying subs in the UK isn't contributing even remotely to a US-exclusive TV show.

Not to mention that after using ninjavideo in the past few months, I've purchased ...
24 seasons 1-7 for £110 ($165)
House seasons 1-5 for £70 ($105)
X-Files seasons 1-9 for £100 ($150)

Without Ninjavideo, I'd have probably never even bothered with these shows which were already well into the latter seasons by the time I'd heard of them. I'd say $420 in a couple of months from ONE customer is decent going.

[505guy]

u-know...when regular movies hit $10 bucks a pop (and more for 3D) I decided to check out sites like ninja. Like another poster mentioned, there's no way I'm going to toss-out $10 bucks for a flop.

I don't care what production and salary costs are for Hollywood. If they want consumer loyalty, drop the admission price so we don't have to cry after taking the entire family out for a $100 bucks worth of crap-o-vision. Case-in-point: Alice. Are you kidding me? Really? After checking it out online, I'm glad I saved the $40 on tickets, and the $50 on concessions, and the $5 on gas.

Wow. Time for anonymous proxy browsing. I'm sick and tired of hearing how the rich and powerful industries are hurting because their profit margins have dropped, and how government is being used to 'protect their interests' in the name of profiteering. They seem to pay less taxes per capita than any working class slave like me, or maybe that's just my imagination. F*** Y**.

[Traci]

Oh Please! These sites will be back up. Actually, one already is LOL

[Xifa]

Haha I love how the government thinks this will stop piracy. There are always Asian countries like Vietnam and China to give us our entertainment needs.