Feds 'raid' websites trading counterfeit goods

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, the feds are once again cracking down on websites dealing in bootleg goods.

The Department of Justice said Monday that it moved to seize 82 domain names of websites "engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyright works."

The illegal goods include sports equipment, shoes, handbags and sunglasses, as well as the usual merchandise: illegal copies of copyrighted DVD boxed sets, music and software.

Federal law enforcement agents made undercover purchases from online retailers suspected of selling counterfeit goods, which in many cases were shipped to the U.S. directly from suppliers in other countries using international express mail.

"Intellectual property crimes are not victimless,'' said Atty. Gen. Eric Holder in a statement. "The theft of ideas and sale of counterfeit goods threaten economic opportunities and financial stability, suppress innovation and destroy jobs."

The operation, which involved several federal agencies, comes six months after authorities seized domain names of eight websites offering pirated copies of first-run movies. One of those sites, TVShack.net,  shut down only to pop up under a similar name, TVShack.cc.

That U.K. domain site was among those seized on Monday, said John Morton, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"We are not going to go away,'' Morton said.

Naturally, the film industry's leading trade group was happy with the crackdown. Bob Pisano, chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, called the Internet sites '' 'the worst of the worst' rogue websites, which cloak themselves in respectability and yet traffic in counterfeit and stolen goods."

-- Richard Verrier

 

Comments

[;lkjhbcx]

stupid feds ruin fun!

[Jaba]

Good job guys. Protect the wealthy while the rest of us starve!

[Curmudgeon]

eBay and Meg Whitman should be #1 on the list. eBay is the #1 source for bootleg products, with no questions asked.

[Ray]

8 will go down today and 10 will pop-up by Friday

[B]

go Feds, my tax dollars at work. good work!

[ZH]

So how do you "purchase" counterfeit goods from a website that streams live video for free?

[jim]

oh I feel so safe now, the border is over run with drugs and aliens but they stopped the sell of bad dvds wow

[jim]

oh I feel so safe now, the border is over run with drugs and aliens but they stopped the sell of bad dvds wow

[Anonny Moose]

.cc isn't a UK domain (that would be .uk, d'uh), it's the country domain for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory

[I.P. Address]

Tvshack.cc was linking to other sites, which stream the video for free. They were not distributing or reproducing anything themselves. Besides, if they wish to stay up, they'll just change domain names again. The crackdown is a joke.

[Jen]

This is such a waste of tax payers money. They shut that site down and there's already 10 more waiting to take its place.

They will NEVER win this fight.

[hankmoody]

Wonderful. Just another job well done by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

So lets look at what DHS has jurisdiction over, shall we:

1) immigration
2) drugs
3) pirated goods

Throw that in with the 100 mile "Constitution-free" zone going all around our border and we got ourselves a nice little body of government with minimal oversight.