Comments

1. Muscle Sprouts says

   November 25, 2011 at 11:41 am

   I wonder what happens when they get to the point of increasing seizures and then have huge overheads of renewing domain names?

   Will they park them to offset the losses…LOL ?

   It’s not so far-fetched, sadly.

2. Muli says

   November 25, 2011 at 1:19 pm

   Whats with all the jersey, what did this sites used to hold in them.

3. techdomainer.com says

   November 25, 2011 at 1:44 pm

   How is dvdshopdvd.com even violating anything

4. 492 says

   November 25, 2011 at 1:58 pm

   muscle sprouts, great point.
   do they get a break from verisign?
   otherwise DHS is looking like a domainer, whether they know it or not. they could tell verisgn to delete these from the zone. but they choose to keep them active. yet do nothing with them. squatters! denying the names from all those web entrepreneurs who deem themselves “more worthy” of owning them. lol.
   perhaps we’ll eventually see these names in an auction.
   maybe they’ll sell them privately to the nfl.

5. BrianWick says

   November 25, 2011 at 2:00 pm

   I own CheapJerseys.com and have been contacted about selling jerseys made overseas and always stay away from those offers.

   Seisure like this is a good thing – unfortunately it will allow the government czars to sieze stuff that should not be seized – i.e. guilty unless you spend several hundred thousand proving your inocence.

   noticed this one when i search cheap jerseys at google – pretty much in your face – http://www.wholesalejerseyschina.us/

6. WQ says

   November 25, 2011 at 2:54 pm

   They were breaking federal law. I side with the law on this one.

7. MV says

   November 25, 2011 at 5:11 pm

   How is this a bad thing ? They are allegedly violating federal laws. The last thing the DHS wants to do is take down a legitimate site and then have to deal with being sued and losing credibility.

   This is good thing, domainers. 131 bad apples off the internet. Stop being ignorant.

8. Michael H. Berkens says

   November 25, 2011 at 5:20 pm

   MV

   Because History has showed even the short history of ICE seizures that not every domain and site that was seized was guilty of anything.

   There is already a history of domains that were used for perfectly legal purposes caught up in seizure craze

9. MV says

   November 25, 2011 at 8:15 pm

   @MHB

   I understand, but that doesn’t mean they are intentionally taking down legitimate sites; no system will be perfect. Even just looking at these sketchy, nonsensical hyphenated names ….. come on now, they have “we are counterfeiting and/or infringing” written ALL OVER THEM.

10. Meyer says

    November 25, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    “Better 10 Guilty Men Go Free than to Convict a Single Innocent Man””

    United States legal system is built on the presumption of innocence. And, this action further erodes our rights.

    A couple of the domains I checked in the internet archieves, it appeared they were actively selling TM jerseys. Were they authorized? I don’t know.

    It just scares me when I see this type of seizure without the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

11. Anon1 says

    November 26, 2011 at 1:44 am

    Notice the intense focus on ‘jerseys’.

    I’d bet that you could trace campaign contributions from sports interests to a certain politician, who made phone calls to DOJ, that precipitated all of this.

12. Dave Zan says

    November 26, 2011 at 4:01 am

    @Techdomainer – probably because of its content, especially if it indeed sold counterfeit goods.

13. BrianWick says

    November 26, 2011 at 4:23 am

    If the Yellow Pages has an advertiser that offers massages – but , in fact , prostitution occurs at that advertiser’s business – is the Yellow Pages liable ? – NO – but in new legislation discussed on other threads that is what is being proposed to combat illegal activity – namely counterfeit and bootleg goods – like sports jerseys.

    It is not the domain – it is how it is used – and, now who allows that domain to be used that way – namely thr advertiser.

14. Dan says

    November 26, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    Hi

    @ MV ‘Ignorant’?

    They are taking down these sites, even without the “SOPA/IP Protect Act, being a ‘law’ yet. They have been doing so for over a year.

    So, one has to ask themselves, why do they need to pass this law? As they are taken down sites All over the world, under a program called “Operation In Our Sites”

    This program has specific guidelines & mandates, which “ICE” & “HLS” seem to missing the mark on.

    I suggest you watch this video a couple times, as it will make what this “mandate” and their supposed “priorities” are… perfectly clear.

    And it is not going after every ‘little’ website selling illegal sports jerseys, who’s website gets 200 unique visitors a day…as a ‘top priority’.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXK8hZYcc0Q&feature=player_embedded

    ____

    @ Meyer 100% right on the money, as the only ‘due process’ is that when your ‘indicted’ and are facing up to 5 years in jail & a 250K fine…you get to hire lawyers to defend yourself, costing you what 50K-100K plus?, to prove your innocent….or take a ‘plea deal’…

    ____

    @ Brian, I tried to make a point of this ‘possible’ fact, with this ‘link provision’ in this ‘SOPA/Protect IP Act’….in a blog post I made a few days ago.

    You say you own CheapJerseys.com, OK, now say you have this domain name ‘Parked’ and your landing page, is getting its feed from Google….and the website you list in your post (wholesalejerseyschina .us) is running an “ad campaign” and their ad is now on your ‘landing page’.

    Guess what?

    ‘ICE’ & ‘HLS’ could and can ‘seize’ YOUR domain, because now you are ‘linked’ to a site, selling ‘counterfeit’ or ‘knock offs’…all beacuse your domain is just ‘linked’ to this website. They of course would ‘seize’ both.

    Disclaimer…wholesalejerseyschina .us could be selling all legitimate items, just using your example to make a ‘point’.

    Just some things to think about.

    Peace!
    Dan

    BTW: @ Muscle Sprouts….Who picks up the ‘tab’ for anything the government does? Those ‘renewal fees’ will be paid for by everyone that has made a comment in this thread 😉

15. 675i says

    November 26, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    I think the most interesting question here is why these jersey sites are drawing visitors. Is it because of what they are selling, or is it because they are good type-ins or they do well in Google SERPs? To think of it another way, what if these sites displayed ads for NFL-approved merchandise? What if these sites lined up advertisers who are authorised to sell these jerseys? Are web users really looking specifically for counterfeit (read: cheap, and not authentic) products? Or are they just typing things like “cheap jerseys”?

16. BrianWick says

    November 26, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    @675i –
    Can’t resist your statement – “Or are they just typing things like “cheap jerseys”?”

    We can’t stop consumers from typing in an intutive .com term like CheapApartments.com, CheapJerseys.com, CheapHomes.com, CheapEletronics.com, CheapDresses.com, CheapTies.com, or whatever … as they have been programmed to do by countless UDRP and ACPA opinions emphatically and indisputably proving the .com is the only one on the shelf (….something the courts “TOLD” me to do 13+ years ago – i.e. ???.com)

    “Are web users really looking specifically for counterfeit”
    – NO they are looking for the best value.

    Candidly – I refuse to “Mr. Wang” in China asking me to change my Cheap???.com’s to retail sites selling their conerfeit shit – hense I still use PPC – i.e. no different than the Yellow Pages book we all still get in the USA.

17. Dan says

    November 26, 2011 at 4:12 pm

    Hi,

    @ Anon1, they seem to target specific holidays and events, when they get the chance.

    Last year on or just before “Cyber Monday” they took down 82 sites:

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

    *looks like they took down at least a few ‘Jersey’ related domains also last year.*

    I am quite sure we will know by this Tuesday, what, if anything else they have done for: “Cyber Monday”, Nov 28th 2011

    ____

    FEB 2010:

    Just before the “Super Bowl” they took down 10 domains most all ‘allegedly’, streaming or providing “links” to the illegal downloads ‘sporting events’.

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

    ‘D’

18. Dan says

    November 26, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    Hi,

    My bad…posted the wrong link for the “Super Bowl” post above…should be:

    FEB 2010:

    Just before the “Super Bowl” they took down 10 domains most all ‘allegedly’, streaming or providing “links” to the illegal downloads of ‘sporting events’.

    http://torrentfreak.com/operation-in-our-sites-feds-arrest-19-year-old-streaming-site-admin-110825/

    ‘D’

19. Stephen Sanders says

    November 28, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Gee, Nice little raid. Its probably much easier to catch these guys on the web, then when they are on the streets of NYC working out of cardboard box, or a trunk of a car. When I first saw the list I had to double check and see if any of the guys who joined my little “Free Link” site were affected:

    SeedSite.info

    I made very few rules and naturally expected that people like this would come, it better than getting all kinds of spam when you trying to write serious articles, like my 1st website TheWritersCafe.org (I did not try to make it a link out of respect). I didn’t know about these spammers and used to be so happy to get all these comments, now I have about 14,ooo of them back logged, any need 14,000 plus spam links?

20. Dan says

    November 28, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    Hi

    @ Stephen

    “Gee, Nice little raid. Its probably much easier to catch these guys on the web, then when they are on the streets of NYC working out of cardboard box, or a trunk of a car. ”
    ___

    They tried to address part of this back in April, with the most ridiculous video ever…IMHO

    Antipiracy PSA

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx8obpx4844&feature=player_embedded

    Peace!
    ‘D’

21. Dan says

    November 29, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    Hi,

    The fight continues….

    “The internet censorship bill “SOPA” is in big trouble–you may have killed it. But now the forces behind SOPA are pushing another censorship bill (“PROTECT IP”) through the Senate.

    __

    The Senate is going to try to pass their internet censorship bill between now and Christmas, and they could take it up as early as this week. TAKE ACTION TODAY, and if you have a website, blog, or Tumblr page, embed our call widget in your site!”

    Don’t let them. Call your Senators now, and use our new calling widget to drive thousands of calls to the Senate.

    Senators need to know that PROTECT IP is just as controversial as SOPA. And we’ve made it super-easy to call. Just enter your phone number, and don’t worry if you’re not sure what to say. We’ll give you talking points before we connect you.”

    http://americancensorship.org/

    This is a part of an effort of a coalition of sites and groups all over the internet. And the chorus of opposition is growing every day — the NYTimes, LATimes, and even Microsoft have come out against SOPA because of the momentum you helped create.”

    ____

    Peace To All!
    ‘D’

22. Louise says

    November 30, 2011 at 12:39 am

    This will put the fear into anyone THINKING about moving counterfit goods through his website: http://servingnotice.com/sdv

23. Brian says

    August 15, 2012 at 3:53 am

    How is this a bad thing ? They are allegedly violating federal laws. The last thing the DHS wants to do is take down a legitimate site and then have to deal with being sued and losing credibility.

    This is good thing, domainers. 131 bad apples off the internet. Stop being ignorant.

24. Yunga says

    August 15, 2012 at 3:58 am

    Seisure like this is a good thing – unfortunately it will allow the government czars to sieze stuff that should not be seized – i.e. guilty unless you spend several hundred thousand proving your inocence.