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It's part of a crackdown on Web operations that were used to distribute counterfeit merchandise and illegal copies of music and software. The seizures were timed to coincide with the start of the post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping season. Nationwide, a total of 82 sites were seized. From the Washington Post:
The investigation, coordinated by an ICE-led intellectual property rights center in Crystal City, is the latest step in a crackdown on trafficking in counterfeit goods. That response has been controversial among some who make their living via the Web. But experts say it is necessary to address a counterfeiting problem that has mushroomed with globalization and lower trade barriers. "Counterfeiters are prowling in the back alleys of the Internet, masquerading, duping and stealing," ICE Director John Morton said at a news conference announcing the seizures, which was timed for Cyber Monday and the holiday shopping season.
From KPCC wires:
The five Internet domain names disabled as the result of the locally issued seizure warrants are torrent-finder.com; RapGodFathers.com; RMX4U.COM; dajaz1.com; and onsmash.com. In addition to seizing the domain names of the websites, in the case of RapGodFathers.com, authorities also seized the website's server and all of its digital content, making it unique among the 82 websites targeted. Collectively, the five websites seized locally accounted for more than 185,000 daily page views. Some of the music and movies offered by those sites had not yet been made available for purchase or home viewing by the general public. The most widely viewed, torrent-finder.com, was ranked among the 5,000 most popular websites in the United States. In late October, this site offered users access to first run movies such as "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," "The Social Network" and "Red."
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.