U.S. Threat of Extradition Has Some Web Admins Running Scared
U.S. Threat of Extradition Has Some Web Admins Running Scared
Posted 07/07/2011 at 7:14am
| by Paul Lilly
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It might seem like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is on a wild goose chase if it hopes to extradite foreign .com and .net Web admins accused of copyright violations simply because their sites are routed through Verisign, a registry service based in Virginia. But one thing ICE's tactics aren't proving are futile. It seems, for now at least, that the threat of extradition is causing once defiant Web admins to second guess whether keeping their sites alive is really worth the risk of going up against the U.S. government.
Back in May, ICE seized Re1ease.net, a site that linked to movie and TV shows. The site came back with a new domain, but the prospect of being extradited to the U.S. isn't one that's particularly appealing to its admins.
"At the time I was happy the domain was all that was taken. If we had of lost the server I imagine we would have just quit there and then," site admin PiraCee told TorrentFreak.
RE1_VOD, another Re1ease admin, said he was surprised ICE targeted their site when much larger ones of the same nature are still out there. RE1_VOD explained that he "registered several domains being stubborn not to be taken offline" and that it was exciting to be one of the first to add content and beat competing sites. But as advertisers started to withhold payments and the threat of extradition looming large, Re1ease's admins say it's just no longer worth the effort.
"We would reply to DCMA requests but just one email from copyright holders to hosts would result in them turning the website off," RE1_VOD told TorrentFreak. His partner agrees, adding that "Apart from the effort that was to be involved, personally, the whole thing killed my passion for the project. What started as something fun simply wasn't anymore."
PiraCee admits that the threat of extradition is "one of the main reasons for the closure... The risks outweight the pros of running a site like Re1ease now, then when we head about TVShack, we thought enough is enough."
Whether or not ICE will be successful in extraditing foreign Web admins like Richard O'Dwyer, who runs TVShack, remains to be seen. But for now anyway, the threat of extradition appears to be enough.
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RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
July 07, 2011 at 10:50am
If the idiots behind Anonymous and LulzSec wanted to be something more than assholes in the eyes of the world, they would concentrate ALL their energies against Sony, Time Warner, BMG, Geffen, Fox, Columbia, the RIAA, ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and their ilk.
Really, if you're going to attack something, attack something that really deserves it.
stradric
July 07, 2011 at 8:43am
The government enforcing copyright laws to the benefit solely to corporations wouldn't anger me so much if they were half as effective at providing basic human services like health care to the people. More and more the US government is becoming a government by the corporations, for the corporations while We the People can't even afford basic health care.
blkpanthr
July 07, 2011 at 9:07am
Providing Health care to the people would imply that the US us a socialist country.
it is not. It is capitalist.
big_montana
July 07, 2011 at 12:54pm
Capitalism is an economic system, not a form of government. We were formed as a Constitutional Republic.
blkpanthr
July 07, 2011 at 5:41pm
very true. I wasnt talking about a form of governemt. Socialism is a form of hybrid economic system
America has a capitalist economic system. Canada and UK are socialist (to some extent). As soon as industries become nationalized, it becomes socialist.
Silver925
July 07, 2011 at 11:20am
I never understood this logic. Do you consider your roads, power grid, defense spending, and communications infrastructure 'socialist' projects? The government collects massive amounts of tax revenue from people and uses those funds on all of those things.
But, people consider the idea of taking that same tax revenue and spending it on public health care, and suddenly that's a 'socialist' idea that has no place in a capitalist country.
There is nothing wrong with spending tax revenue on things that will improve the lives of average people who pay those taxes. It does not suddenly make the country into a communist/socialist country. There is much more involved to become that.
blkpanthr
July 07, 2011 at 5:42pm
infrastruct is not an industry. If they owned all the construction companies that made hte infrastructure, that would be socialist.
big_montana
July 07, 2011 at 1:05pm
Yes, it is wrong when you trample teh Constitution, and the tax laws you quote also violate the same document. Just because someone or governemnt does something or has done it for a while does not make it right or legal under our Constitution. The feds can tax you because of the Taxing Clause of the Constitution (though even then only four types of taxes are legal).
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
July 07, 2011 at 10:57am
Dumbass.
Socialist policies and programs provide your freaking health insurance. And your Social Security. Disability compensation when you get hurt. The public education that taught you how to read and write. Police and firefighting services. Minimum wages. A 40-hour work week. Overtime compensation. And every single civil right you have (but complain about others having).
If our REPUBLIC wasn't stitched together with socialist ideologies, you and your children would be locked in a factory somewhere, making .25 cents a day, survicing on dog food and sheltering in a tin and cardboard shack.
Capitalist? Your red neck is showing.
blkpanthr
July 07, 2011 at 5:44pm
again, the goverment does not OWN THOSE INDUSTRIES. There are private insuranace, private security, private education.
Ghok
July 07, 2011 at 9:45pm
So you're cool with the government providing free or heavily discounted health care to anyone who wants it as long as there is also private care? I only ask because I don't know many who feel that way.
blkpanthr
July 07, 2011 at 10:16pm
im ok with that, as long as its cost effective and not wasteful to the taxpayers.
We basically already have that with education, and medicare.
Totally nationalizing an industry wipes out competition, choice and innovation.
Ghok
July 07, 2011 at 8:33am
The big problem is what's considered a copyright violation.
I don't think the US government is going to go after me for using a Batman avatar, it's just not important enough... but I don't think what they're doing now is very important either.
Fair use is great, but it's not enough, and it's not something these media cartels seem to even believe in. Which sucks since they seem to own the courts.
The rules aren't clear and they don't make sense in the modern world.
The rules need fixing before they're enforced.
Really, customs going after guys who are linking to TV shows and movies? Give me a break.
blkpanthr
July 07, 2011 at 7:59am
The drug cartels are not concidered a "clear and present danger" to the US which is what is required for military action. Most of the violance caused by said cartels is within mexico itself
ICE, ATF, and the DEA are underfunded. They are respnsible for control of what gets in and out of the country.
big_montana
July 07, 2011 at 1:09pm
ATF underfunded? That is laugh. Apparently you ahve not heard of project gun runner, where the ATF allows local gun shops to sell auto and semi auto weapons to drug smugglers, and tehn (supposedly) track teh weapons route. But they never get tracked and end up in Mexico, who use them on their own people, and even killed a couple ICE agantes with ATF sold weapons. ATF/Project Gunruner is under Congressional criminal investigation right now.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
July 07, 2011 at 11:02am
Go hang out in Mexico city for a couple weeks. Then you'll see violence affecting your lily-white hide.
David Hartley's widow would likely disgree that the cartels are a Mexican problem.
stradric
July 07, 2011 at 8:15am
If you ask me, the DEA is an overfunded, worthless agency that exists to support the failed drug prohibition. The DEA barely manages to sieze their budget's worth of drugs every year. Solution? Legalize all drugs and regulate them like alcohol. Spend a fraction of the DEAs budget on better drug information that will allow people to make their own informed decisions about what they put in their body. Portugal recently legalized all drugs. Both crime and drug use has gone down there. Go figure.
whelderwheels613
July 07, 2011 at 9:10am
This is funny. You eliminate one problem, and ten more pop up. Do you know what the highschool drop out rate is in portugal? Its almost the same percentage of the amount of graduates in the U.S.
Peanut Fox
July 07, 2011 at 12:29pm
Are you saying that the drop out rate has a direct link to legalizing of drugs?
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
July 07, 2011 at 7:39am
Funny how the U.S. government has unlimited money and resources when it comes to killing Muslims and chasing after copyright infringers, but nothing is done about Mexican drug cartels.
Whenever there is no outside agency willing to pay off Senators and Representatives in Congress (like defense contractors, the RIAA, Warner, Sony, and other media giants), the U.S. Government simply looks the other way in the face of all manner of crimes against humanity.
Since there is no one able to bribe Congress into sending troops and law enforcement after the MUCH LARGER threat of Mexican drug cartels, the flow of narcotics into America isn't a priority.
In America, "justice" is whatever you can pay for.
That's why I hope the whole fucking country burns.
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