Domain Seizures

Last week, the domain names for about 150 web sites allegedly accused of selling counterfeit goods were seized by the US Department of Homeland Security. The law allowing these seizures passed Congress and was signed by the President last year as the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). It was first used last November to seize about 70 websites said to be involved in distributing pirated content or selling counterfeit items; this last set of seizures brings the total to 350 domains.

COICA is based on the same principle as other federal laws that allow the government to seize property linked to an illegal activity -- for example, the car of a drug dealer might be seized if it is proved that the car was involved in the illegal drug deals. Prior to the last set of seizures, federal agents had purchased numerous counterfeit items from these websites, such as sunglasses, sport jerseys, handbags, golf clubs, shoes and DVD sets. Jurisdiction over these domains was based on the fact that the two Internet registrars for the dot-com, dot-net and dot-org domains, the Public Internet Registry and VeriSign, are based in the United States.

The purpose of the law was to go beyond punishing copyright infringement for specific items and actually stop the mechanism for the distribution of such items. The law stipulates that authorities must prove a web site be actually engaged in online piracy by the selling or distribution of counterfeit items ranging from music CDs to perfumes to movie DVDs to pharmaceuticals to just about any consumer product.

Advocates of the law cite the economic damage to both consumers and businesses if nothing were done to stop the onrushing tide of pirated and counterfeit items into the US. Opponents to the law at the time of passage cited the possible damage to the domain naming process and the lack of an appeal process for web site owners.

A separate legal process does allow the owners of any property seized, which in this case are the domain names, to appeal in court that the items seized were not related to the named crime. However, the only company to try such an appeal, Rojadirecta, failed to prove to the court's satisfaction that the company's dot-com and dot-org domains seized last January under COICA were not linked to the stated crime of pirated video streams of sports events. Rojadirecta had claimed the pirated streams only appeared on their web sites in forums dedicated to downloads, an area over which the company claimed to have no control -- the court disagreed.

A full list of the latest set of seized domains can be found at the Scribd web site.

Kimberly Dovander

Kimberly is the pro blogger in the WHS family. WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr... It doesn't matter - she knows them all. Send her a question, or a drop a line in the comment section below, and she'll get back to you.

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