U.S. Judge Orders Hundreds of Domains Seized, De-Listed from Search
U.S. Judge Orders Hundreds of Domains Seized, De-Listed from Search
Posted 11/29/2011 at 3:57pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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A U.S. federal judge in Nevada has ruled on a series of requests from luxury goods maker Chanel allowing the company to seize several hundred domain names thought to be selling counterfeit goods. For good measure, the ruling also forces all search engines and social media websites to censor mentions of the offending domains. The court specifically called out Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Bing, Yahoo, and Google.
The troubling thing about the ruling is the apparent slapdash way the investigation was done. When Chanel added 228 sites to the nearly now 700-large pile in the case, it ordered merchandise from just three of them to verify it was fake. The remainder were deemed counterfeiters based on online investigations only. Oh, and all this was done by Chanel’s own private contractors. None of the owners of these domains were permitted to have a say before the decision.
Many have expressed concern that the judge in the case appears to have no awareness that the Internet is a global entity. Forcing sites like Facebook and Google to remove content affects everyone, not just those in his jurisdiction. Not to mention that some of the sites are hosted in other countries, and the registrars are under no obligation to hand over the keys to Chanel. Legal experts have also been skeptical that a court should even have the power to force de-indexing of websites. Looking forward to SOPA? What could go wrong?
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acidic
November 30, 2011 at 7:45am
welcome to the new world country. soon to be know as United States of China or Republic of United China or some other variant. i cant wait until we get our own great firewall here. its nice to know that all the big corporations run this country now due to our governments ability to. they also have WAY more money than barrack osama and crew
haboh
November 30, 2011 at 7:51am
We're pretty much already there. Only difference is that people in china know they are being oppressed and lied to. For some reason americans still think they live in a free country
acidic
November 30, 2011 at 12:33pm
ive told friends and others about SOPA. no one even cared or said much about it because it "doesnt affect me." once youtube and facebook are wiped off the internet due to big corps crying "infringing content." maybe then they will wonder why and how this all happened
h e x e n
November 30, 2011 at 6:08am
SOPA can burn in hell. If it passes, it would be such full proof evidence that our elected representatives DO NOT have the best interest of the people at heart.
It's almost unanimously viewed as a negative by the public. I've already sent a letter and three emails.
In this case, the judge definitely overstepped his bounds. Piss poor investigation coupled with wild accusation seems to be enough to condemn these days.
What a shame.
Holly Golightly
November 29, 2011 at 11:43pm
You know... It is Chanel's fault that they priced themselves out of the market. I say what happened to Chanel is a good thing. There will be even more bootleg websites. Plus, there is a great selection of fake purses downtown. All at reasonable prices. Why else would I care about paying the fool price? Sometimes American courts have too much power over the world. This is one of those times.
someone87
November 30, 2011 at 7:28am
In this instance I agree with you with the following conditions.
#1. The knockoff sights were not lying to consumers. IE. *BRAND NEW CHANEL STUFF* when it's a knockoff. Which in that case consumers should be bringing them to court, not Chanel themselves.
#2. Chanel doesn’t have certain patents that are being infringed upon. In which case they do have legal rights to seek damages.
Even in the event that the knockoff sites are totally lying, infringing, etc. There is still no legal ground to shut down their website, or censor the info from Google Yahoo Facebook etc.
livebriand
November 29, 2011 at 10:22pm
Could this mean a reduction in the usual spam we always get here? You know, the usual "Very good web: we got <lots of crap you don't want>" thing with links to that please shop or whatever site...
Marthian
November 29, 2011 at 5:14pm
you know, they COULD have put a warning that it says it's counterfeit, there are actually some pretty decent counterfeit items. Besides, let the consumer deal with the "you get what you paid for" crap.
Asides from that, what the hell. Pipa nor sopa has even passed, and it seems like they just went up and are ruining sites... and jobs.
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