Ash_Williams
1st July 2010, 07:02 AM
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office are seizing and shutting down seven popular websites accused of hosting pirated movies, a move the U.S. attorney in Manhattan said is a step in increasing the fight against copyright infringement.
Referring to the seven sites as "among the most popular" websites for distributing illegal copies of movies, the government highlighted illegal copies of films currently in theaters, such as "Toy Story 3" and "The A-Team," for evidence to obtain the warrant. One site, Movie-Links.tv, was reported as the 258th most popular website in the world with 3.3 million visitors each month.
Some of the sites allowed users to directly upload, download and stream the content while others gathered links to the sites that hosted the content.
The seven sites are TVShack.net, Movies-Links.tv, Filespump.com, ZML.com, Now- Movies.com, ThePirateCity.org and PlanetMoviez.com. The websites are listed to computers located domestically in Colorado, Florida, Illinois and internationally in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K.
Visitors to these web pages will now be redirected to a page that notifies them the sites have been seized by the government, though hours after the seizures were announced four of the sites appeared to still be working properly.
Attempts to contact those websites still operating were not immediately successful.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said he believes seizing the websites will have a deterrent effect among persons who would watch movies illegally.
"You should absolutely expect to see more actions like this, up to criminal enforcement against individuals," Bharara said.
He declined to comment on whether the U.S. attorney's office knew the identity of the individuals behind the websites. He said the investigation is ongoing.
"We're taking a hard look at a whole area of separate websites," he said.
The affidavit written by a federal agent for ICE pointed to TVShack's attempt to cool off users upset with slow download times.
"[P]lease keep in mind that you're watching videos for free as opposed to spending over 20 dollars at the [movie] theater or purchasing a show," the affidavit quoted TVShack as saying. "This should help you put things in perspective."
One site still operating, PlanetMoviez, listed on its site a disclaimer claiming it was providing "legal copyright owners with the ability to self- publish," adding, "We take copyright violation very seriously and will vigorously protect the rights of legal copyright owners."
Movie studios, artists and media companies have long battled illegal file- sharing and piracy sites with lawsuits on top of lawsuits. The government cited data from the Motion Picture Association of America, which claims that the U.S. film industry loses $25.6 billion a year to piracy.
Read more: [url=http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201006301905dowjonesdjonline000 712&title=update-doj-seizes-seven-websites-for-pirated-movie-content#ixzz0sRIRghZj]Link to Article]
EDIT: Changed long link to named link to prevent horizontal scrolling. -Gaillo
Referring to the seven sites as "among the most popular" websites for distributing illegal copies of movies, the government highlighted illegal copies of films currently in theaters, such as "Toy Story 3" and "The A-Team," for evidence to obtain the warrant. One site, Movie-Links.tv, was reported as the 258th most popular website in the world with 3.3 million visitors each month.
Some of the sites allowed users to directly upload, download and stream the content while others gathered links to the sites that hosted the content.
The seven sites are TVShack.net, Movies-Links.tv, Filespump.com, ZML.com, Now- Movies.com, ThePirateCity.org and PlanetMoviez.com. The websites are listed to computers located domestically in Colorado, Florida, Illinois and internationally in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K.
Visitors to these web pages will now be redirected to a page that notifies them the sites have been seized by the government, though hours after the seizures were announced four of the sites appeared to still be working properly.
Attempts to contact those websites still operating were not immediately successful.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said he believes seizing the websites will have a deterrent effect among persons who would watch movies illegally.
"You should absolutely expect to see more actions like this, up to criminal enforcement against individuals," Bharara said.
He declined to comment on whether the U.S. attorney's office knew the identity of the individuals behind the websites. He said the investigation is ongoing.
"We're taking a hard look at a whole area of separate websites," he said.
The affidavit written by a federal agent for ICE pointed to TVShack's attempt to cool off users upset with slow download times.
"[P]lease keep in mind that you're watching videos for free as opposed to spending over 20 dollars at the [movie] theater or purchasing a show," the affidavit quoted TVShack as saying. "This should help you put things in perspective."
One site still operating, PlanetMoviez, listed on its site a disclaimer claiming it was providing "legal copyright owners with the ability to self- publish," adding, "We take copyright violation very seriously and will vigorously protect the rights of legal copyright owners."
Movie studios, artists and media companies have long battled illegal file- sharing and piracy sites with lawsuits on top of lawsuits. The government cited data from the Motion Picture Association of America, which claims that the U.S. film industry loses $25.6 billion a year to piracy.
Read more: [url=http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201006301905dowjonesdjonline000 712&title=update-doj-seizes-seven-websites-for-pirated-movie-content#ixzz0sRIRghZj]Link to Article]
EDIT: Changed long link to named link to prevent horizontal scrolling. -Gaillo