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Tactics for Seizing Rogue Web Sites

By Peter A. Crusco
February 28, 2011

In cyberspace, the activities of ostensible rogue Web sites ' many attacking U.S. commercial interests or preying on our citizens in a variety of endeavors ' include copyright infringement, illegal gambling and pornography, to name a few. Web site domain seizures may be the 21st-century digital equivalent of 20th-Century gang busting police raids on the haunts of criminal organizations. In place of the remnants of destroyed contraband, a subsequent visitor to these targeted Web sites may instead confront a message left by court order, declaring that the site has been “taken down” for certain illegal activities.

Probable Cause

One recent raid that has received notoriety concerns a search warrant issued in November 2010 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret A. Nagle of the Central District of California authorizing the seizure of numerous domain names, based on the application of a federal agent. (See, Case No. 10-2822M. The search warrant and application may be accessed at http://documents.nytimes.com/requestto-seize-web-sites-for-piracy.) In issuing the search warrant and order of seizure targeting numerous domains, the court determined there was probable cause that the domains were subject to seizure and civil forfeiture for allegedly trafficking over the Internet in counterfeit goods, and actively facilitating the distribution of pirated content that included movies, songs, albums and computer software. (See, 18 U.S.C. ”2323, 2319 and 981 and 17 U.S.C. '506a.)

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