US Government seizure of the internet has begun!

[achilles]

Department of Homeland Security takes down over 76 websites! As part of a new expansion of government power over information, the Department of Homeland Security has begun seizing and shutting down internet websites (web domains) without due process or a proper trial . DHS simply seizes web domains that it wants to and posts an ominous "Department of Justice".

[achilles]

Here is an example. Torrent finder has been taken down. http://torrent-finder.com/

[Knot4Prophet]

Yeah, torrent websites sure seem a real threat to homeland security.~

I thought it'd be something akin to terrorist websites.  This is Draconian and illegal.

[achilles]

Here is the article i was reading about the seizure. http://www.naturalnews.com/030542_censorship_internet.html

[DaBees-Knees]

Unrestricted laws with no safeguards are the sign of very poor law making and are usually associated with totalitarian states that the United States professes to hate so much. It seems that when it suits it decent law making can be rapidly side stepped.  Unless the average American protests laws like this will continue to be made.

[achilles]

Whats the likely hood that this site will be blocked or taken down soon? I'm also surprised that BtJunkie is still up. They are the largest torrent site on the net. 

[SouthernGentleman]

Please. We're talking about the people who elected George W. Bush not once, but twice in a row - you can't seriously expect anything on the level of rational or intelligent from that country, its government, its laws, its mentality, or its people.

As a newbie imperialist babylon with not so much as an history or an identity (they haven't even been around long enough to have them, being the country equivalent of a scrungy, moral-less, bad behaved 12-year-old boy), I'd have to rate the U.S.A. as no more than 2/10. That's 1 point for the ideals they profess (but which they haven't carried out in any way so far, as expectable), and 1 extra point for inventing footjob-specific porn sites.

[achilles]

It was not those that voted George Bush into office that passed this bill. On the contrary it was the Obama supporters. This bill was underway well before the November election. Now that the house majority has changed hands there may be a chance to get this bill overturned.  Obama has been known throughout his presidency to go against the will of the majority of the American people.

[achilles]

I'm making a correction on my last post. There's little chance that this bill is going to be overturned, but there is a chance that this bill could be amended.

[White Stripes]

site admins in other countries should register domains with a suffix that belongs to that country to at least get some headway with this....  (.ca .uk .nl .de and similar type domains)  ...  .com .org .net .gov are unfortunatly US specific.... and are going to be snatched up left and right...

[achilles]

BitTorrent Based DNS To Counter US Domain Seizures.  http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-based-dns-to-counter-us-domain-seizures-101130/

[Pri]

site admins in other countries should register domains with a suffix that belongs to that country to at least get some headway with this....  (.ca .uk .nl .de and similar type domains)  ...  .com .org .net .gov are unfortunatly US specific.... and are going to be snatched up left and right...

Unfortunately it appears this wont work either. They have been taking names belonging to other countries as-well. It appears that many of the international domains are still controlled by American companies like Verisign and because they are inside America the federal government is asserting control over them and forcing them to hand over the domains.

In some of these seizures the websites aren't even offering any content. They took one site that merely had an iFrame on the main page which showed another website within it.

[achilles]

I believe bittorrent's new DNS project is going to work. Their already getting support from several other P2P organizations.

[Pri]

It sounds good arhilles ..... however this isn't the first time something like this has been attempted. I do hope they can accomplish it but it has been done (and failed) several times before.

The main issue with these things is that you can't get everyone to switch over to a new central DNS system so clients need to specifically run software or change their own DNS server to one that uses the new central DNS system. This significantly cuts down on the amount of users that sites which use this new TLD (.p2p) will receive.

I'm hopeful but I have my doubts.

[achilles]

It sounds good arhilles ..... however this isn't the first time something like this has been attempted. I do hope they can accomplish it but it has been done (and failed) several times before.

The main issue with these things is that you can't get everyone to switch over to a new central DNS system so clients need to specifically run software or change their own DNS server to one that uses the new central DNS system. This significantly cuts down on the amount of users that sites which use this new TLD (.p2p) will receive.

I'm hopeful but I have my doubts.

You have a good point. That will be a difficult hurdle to overcome. Hopefully they will make the transition very easy for those less technically inclined.

[White Stripes]

that bittorrent dns thing plans to offer regular servers same as opennic eventually http://www.opennicproject.org/ -- so no extra software would be needed... but the switch in DNS servers in the settings will be a problem for quite a few...

They took one site that merely had an iFrame

that was a dot com tho...

i thought the country code domains were safe considering taking them away is stomping on the soveringty of that country ... such a thing wont be pretty with international relations in the long run...

um.. not that international relations with the us are that great anyway....

[Pri]

that bittorrent dns thing plans to offer regular servers same as opennic eventually http://www.opennicproject.org/ -- so no extra software would be needed... but the switch in DNS servers in the settings will be a problem for quite a few...

They took one site that merely had an iFrame

that was a dot com tho...

i thought the country code domains were safe considering taking them away is stomping on the soveringty of that country ... such a thing wont be pretty with international relations in the long run...

um.. not that international relations with the us are that great anyway....

The iFrame site was different to the other site. They took a domain that used .cc (for the congo) because the congo (like many many many countries) uses United States servers and companies to control their domains on their behalf.

[White Stripes]

They took a domain that used .cc (for the congo)

this is gonna get ugly... ...really ugly... before all is said and done...

[White Stripes]

uh... pri?

there is no .cc domain in this list;

http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-and-more-101126/

all .com and .net ...

where is your souce of info for a takedown of a .cc ?

esp considering now that demonoid.com is now demonoid.me and bitsnoop.com is now bitsnoop.it ....

btw, methinks winmxworld needs to get a country code url as well... i doubt just one p2p site will be in the targets for the next sweep...

[Pri]

uh... pri?

there is no .cc domain in this list;

http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-and-more-101126/

all .com and .net ...

where is your souce of info for a takedown of a .cc ?

esp considering now that demonoid.com is now demonoid.me and bitsnoop.com is now bitsnoop.it ....

btw, methinks winmxworld needs to get a country code url as well... i doubt just one p2p site will be in the targets for the next sweep...

An 83rd domain name seized on Monday -- TVshack.cc - You can check it yourself right here: http://tvshack.cc/