Five more domains were seized and the affidavit issued for all ten of this week’s seizures has been released in the latest US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “Operation in our Sites” round-up. The most recent targets of the US government’s initiative to shut down alleged copyright infringing websites has targeted domains that host streams of major sporting events, and has been timed perfectly to shut down the sites before they are able to capitalize off of illegal web broadcasts of Super Bowl XLV.
The DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) issued an official statement Wednesday regarding the Pre-Super Bowl crackdown. It claims that the ten domains seized offered “pirated telecasts of the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, World Wrestling Entertainment, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.”
"This swift action by our HSI New York special agents and analysts sends a clear message to website operators who mistakenly believe it's worth the risk to take copyrighted programming and portray it as their own," ICE Director John Morton said. "Protecting legitimate business interests is a priority for HSI and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center and we will continue to aggressively investigate this type of crime with our law enforcement partners."
The affidavit, prepared by ICE Special Agent Daniel Brazier, acknowledges on page 9 that all of the domains seized were linking websites and did not host any of the content on their own server. It also states that all of the sites involved were all hosted in countries other than the United States.
Of course, those close to the investigation are justifying their actions due to the financial impact these sites would have on US sports leagues and broadcasting affiliates.
"The illegal streaming of professional sporting events over the Internet deals a financial body blow to the leagues and broadcasters who are forced to pass their losses off to the fans in the form of higher priced tickets and pay-per-view events," Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, stated in response to the DHS action. "With the Super Bowl just days away, the seizures of these infringing websites reaffirm our commitment to working with our law enforcement partners to protect copyrighted material and put the people who steal it out of business."
The ten domains shut down this week are ATDHE.NET, CHANNELSURFING.NET, HQ-STREAMS.COM, HQSTREAMS.NET, FIRSTROW.NET, ILEMI.COM, IILEMI.COM, IILEMII.COM, ROJADIRECTA.ORG and ROJADIRECTA.COM.
While I can agree that it’s not proper for these sites to capitalize on the illegal streams of major sporting events, I don’t believe that these ICE domain seizures are even going to make a small dent in the losses that the leagues and broadcasters experience because of the streams. The illegal streams are still out there and, no doubt, being broadcast by other sites that do the same thing as the ones that were shut down. If the US government is going to stage these types of crack downs with taxpayer’s money, they should at least attempt to cut off the problem at its source.
