He He

I would not pose that question Paul. People may favor it in your case.

He He He

The problem is (as DamianJ is sort of brushing against) is that you can easily have the situation where websites (adult pay sites) are closed for any reason they deem fit.

Ie, all sleep sites can be shut as it could be argued they promote rape.

All s and m/bondage sites could close as it could be argued those involved are restrained and thus fosed (some forms of s and m have been made illigall in the uk recent uyears).

Any sites where the models are wearing a school girl outfit, look young, wear pigtails, and so on, could be closed as it could be argued they promote cp.

You can keep going.

And they would target the small guys first knowing they will not have the cash to fight the cases.

BUT.....

On the otherhand, porn = tax money. So when the usa goverment is a bit short of cash, would it want to close down sites that raoise them money.

ps

If the US goverment closed Pauls site(s) would anyone know? I mean does anyone even go on them?

He he.

shutting down torrent sites is not censorship, their entire existence is to distribute illegally obtained and licensed material-WHICH INCLUDES CONTENT WE ARE ALL TRYING TO SELL! If they were blocking news sites and sites with information (the legal kind) then that would be a lot worse and considered censorship.

You freedom of speech alarmists need to relax with these slippery slopes...

finally!

The points you make are accurate. But obviously it is a lot more complex then that. It is a matter of what laws and Government actions are most appropriate. The argument isn't whether the Government has a role, it is a matter of what role we trust them with. Additionally, as much as the US would like to think it controls the internet it doesn't and cannot effectively - that is a fact. Even if they control the root servers, if they start seizing country codes TLD's, etc you can believe that alternative DNS systems will rise immediately.

In any event seizing domains at the moment will prove ineffective past the few headlines it gains at the moment, people will operate from IPs or from the many alternate TLDs the US doesn't have direct control over, in addition to the never ending whack a mole. Not saying it is completely useless, but it will not be effective.

The most effective strategy would be blocking sites at an ISP level in the US (given the size of the market), but even then it will eventually be circumvented on such a scale that it won't even matter, if someone is willing to download utorrent to get their favorite movies, you think they won't download the inevitable circumvention software? That said it will have some effect.

At the end of both these policies though we will be left with laws that leave a dangerous precedent - especially for adult. Domains will be seized regularly in the future for anyone accused of obscenity, or other such matters, and sites will be filtered. This will become normal practice. When they pushed to introduce a child porn ISP filter in Australia, by the time it was about to come to fruition the filtered content included regular porn websites which were viewed as obscene, euthanasia websites, drug advocation websites (include for weed), etc. The US does have constitutional protections in place, but as every adult webmaster is aware the legality of porn, and certain types of porn, is still very much in question in the US.

In reality content owners have to be prepared for a long battle, and it will take international treaties such as ACTA, or the US giving up control of ICANN to an international body that represents all WTO nations, that has a process similar to the UDRP for dealing with infringement, to make any real difference given the nature of the internet. Everything in the mean time will have limited success. Unfortunately it takes years to negotiate such treaties. But 10-20+ years of rampant infringement is a small amount of time in the grand scheme of things given the revolutionary and global nature of the internet. In the mean time have patience and remain vigilant against *bad law past the short term "benefits".

Are these the same domains they took last week, or have more been taken?
ds

the entertainment industry companies pulled their money together to buy the congressman or whoever has pull in the government

the adult industry would have to do the same

I blame Hillary Clinton

Is it the making of such films that's illegal or making them and publishing them? Making publishing them illegal is another word for censorship.
So is heavy sadomasochism.

No it's enforcing a law.

Now you're thinking and the first one to do so, so far.

No, censorship is where you deem something like a nipple as allowed and a vagina as illegal. There's no middle ground with counterfeiting. The law doesn't say you can counterfeit a film but not a song.

Those who think about it for a while should be praying this measure works. Take 5 minutes to think about why you should do.

OK did you think about it? :thumbsup

If this law fails the US Government won't give up and leave the Internet alone. It will start to think up new laws and they will be more stringent. Don't use the Bush anti spam farce as an example. Spam costs the US little. Counterfeiting costs billions.

So what could the next law be?

Maybe a law about financial dealings. Visa and Mastercard can't process for counterfeit sites. Or any company associated with them.

Maybe advertising. AFF or US affiliates can't send traffic to sites involved with counterfeiting.

Be sure laws, rules and regulations are coming to the Internet. Pray that this one works so they don't have to go to the next stage.

Yes there's always the risk they go on further if this one works. But not the same risk.

So all those hoping this law fails. Think again.

Spam may be cheap for the people who send it, but it can be a serious expense for your business. According to a study conducted earlier this year by Nucleus Research Inc., spam management costs U.S. businesses more than $71 billion annually in lost productivity ? $712 per employee.

http://www.focus.com/articles/it-sec...eal-cost-spam/

censorship |ˈsensərˌ sh ip|
noun
the practice of officially examining books, movies, WEBSITES etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts

Nor is there with censorship. You either have freedom of speech, or you don't.

I don't thing so.

http://rapidshare.com/ - still up and running
http://depositfiles.com/ - still up and running
http://megaupload.com/ - still up and running
http://hotfile.com/ - still up and running
http://oron.com/ - still up and running

No one was shot down. Those 70 domains that were "seized" are something I even didn't know about. The REAL FUCKING EVIL is still online and laughing on so-called "Homeland Security" (there is something Nazi in this name, don't you have the same feeling?) :2 cents:

Excellent post.

I'll add some more:
piratebay.org - up and running
torrentz.com - up and running
...
spamfreexxx.com - up and running
...
illegal tubes - up and running...

And course http://pornolab.net/ is also there. The guys have rips of almost every fucking site in industry. A real heaven for surfers.

"Homeland security" sucks a monkey dick right now. Bon appetit!

So you think there should be no censorship.

In exactly what areas?

But this isn't about censorship. It's about thieves STEALING. Period.

It's black or white Paul. You have censorship or you don't.

I don't think that you should have censorship. And if that means things that you seem to think are disgusting like BDSM and scat have websites, then sobeit.

I realise this means websites *I* think are horrible will have to exist.

But as the VERY SIMPLE option is allow everything, or let the government censor the internet, I vote for allow everything.As a pornographer, it astounds me you trust any government not to block access to your work. But OK. We have different opinions and are unlikely to alter each other's opinion, are we?

:2 cents::2 cents:

So you think no censorship, allow everything.

So CP and Snuff movies are fine. So long as the seller or publisher has no involvement with the production.

Of course if the product is illegal, the selling of it is illegal, the publishing of it is illegal then is should be stopped.

Just like counterfeit or pirated goods should be stopped.

As a pornographer who worked in the UK during heavy censorship I have first hand experience of it. You don't. So that's why I don't fear it.

If all we were allowed to show was a nipple, we showed that and made a fortune doing it. It won't go back to that, it's an extreme example, but where the line is drawn there's money to be made there.

Should stolen goods be sold on the Internet without it being a crime?

And do you think the US Government will stop at just this law if it doesn't work or do you think they will go further?

People who think this is about "shutting down file-sharing web sites" are just not paying attention. THIS IS ALL ABOUT CENSORSHIP. :2 cents:

Wow spamfreexxx. that's old school I remember Spekie and I used to hate each other and then we became friends. I haven't spoken to him in ages. Good guy.
ds

oh dear...............

Wrong. A website lives in:

- The country it is hosted
- The country the registrar is based out of
- The country the registry is based out of (this is not as important YET but keep in mind all domain registrations of an extension are ultimately OWNED by the registry...the registrar and registrant are both simply leasing it)

AND...its visitors live in the countries they live in and go through an ISP which is based out of the country it's based out of...so ultimately what, 5 steps from visitor to site where a country's laws can come into play?

If one of those countries happens to be the US and that website happens to be doing something that's illegal in the US, they are going to stop it. Easy fix, don't host in the US, or register the domain in a US-based registrar, and for extra protection, register it in an extension owned by an offshore company or controlled by a country that simply doesn't give a shit. And even at that, the US government could still possibly do something to have the site blocked to US visitors.

But hey, forget it...let's just give everything away for free to everyone. Serious business.

Except that the US is shutting down domains even in non-US registrars using its power in ICANN. So the only option would be going to a non-US controlled tld.

If you agree with this obvious abuse of authority then you must be OK with the shutting down of casino sites and of a cuban tourism site operated by a non-US national living outside of the US.

Believe me, I know piracy is hurting us, but this is not a step in the right direction. What happens when they decide to come after porn sites?

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I think that courts should decide if a site should be shut down or not. I approve an action against piracy but I don't like the idea that US government will be the Internet keeper.

All those domains are now hosted at CARONET..

So "ICE - Homeland Security Investigations" uses caronet? Always thought they had their own server in all the GOV offices..

The funny thing is that they added an image and a Google Analytics counter to each domain... Very funny.

.

Courts don't decide if a site should be "shut down".

If you are breaking copyright infringement laws then you are losing your domain. That is what is happening.

They are firing the first barrage now. My feeling is they will now either proceed and do heavy damage next...or decide not to do it.

I doubt they are going to go after porn torrent sites of course. But the precedents that are being set are going to give our business yet another way to get our lawyers involved. As DWB said: A movie is a movie.

If it's copyright infringement to pirate a Hollywood video then it's copyright infringement to pirate one of mine too.

Let's watch and see how it all plays out. Maybe all the negative folks here will be correct and nothing will happen and you can all go broke.

I don't see that happening.

To me, it's obvious that the huge explosion of piracy to unprecedented levels over the last couple of years was leading to the hammer coming down. And in my opinion it will.

I hope I'm right and that you all are wrong. :) And I've been pretty successful in my career by that being the case most of the time. heh-heh

And as is par for course for these type of actions, it usually leads to more decentralized/harder to stop systems rising. This is a LONG battle, and people jumping behind reactionary actions of a Government in the hope it will help them really need to be careful what kind of precedents and laws they back.

http://twitter.com/brokep/status/8779363872935936

Peter Sunde from TPB
As I said, if people are willing to download and utorrent, they will happily adjust their host files. Hell I am sure it will even be bundled with utorrent to do it for you.

People want to go the easiest way, that has not changed since the caveman decided it was easier to knock out his dinner with a rock than his fist lol.

Ok, but give me a down-to-earth, real-world example of how enforcing this law, at this current moment in history, is going to help the US as a whole or any individual American citizen (other then the executives as Nike, Calvin Klein, etc.)? It's not, and if anything, it's going to damage your country even more so.

You could make the argument that the less fake Nike's on the market = more sales for Nike = more new jobs from Nike. That doesn't add up though, especially considering the vast majority of this merchandise is manufactured in China and elsewhere. I guess they may create some extra sales positions, but for every position they create, they're probably wiping out the livelihoods of 25 people who are scratching by to make a living selling $5 Nikes at China Town's throughout the US.

Given the current conditions, I don't see how it's reasonable to be investing government resources into something like this. More than likely, the only reason it's happening is because guys like Nike and Calvin Klein are feeling the pinch of the recession, so decided to send some money to a few select officials, which got the ball rolling for them.

as stated in the ice press release one of the goals of stopping counterfeit goods is to protect tax income. you are seeing these moves because western governments are broke as fuck.

Great point. The goods pirated are mostly Western. That's money lost in taxes, profits and jobs.

The Internet if allowed to continue uncontrolled will kick out most people but those with something that can't be pirated or those who want to work for the least money. For those scared they might lose some free downloads, you might lose your job if there's no control.

WOW!!!!

Nike makes a profit and pays taxes on that profit. They employ people in the US as well. OK production is outside the US. Your argument is let's ship everything outside the US.

It's not just Nike that's being pirated. It's movies, music, programs, gaming, porn and designer goods. Are you saying the US should do nothing to stop the out flow of money?

It's a Government's job to protect industry and finances. Stopping piracy is one of it's job.