Feds Seize Korean Movie Download Portals 215
SharkLaser writes "Homeland Security's ICE unit has just started another phase of Operation In Our Sites. Last week the seized sites were selling counterfeit goods, but this time the list consists solely of movie download sites. ICE has now seized the domains of 11 Korean movie download portals. This is first time Operation In Our Sites has been expanded to include sites targeting non-U.S. nationals and non-English sites. ICE has since added a message in Korean to the seized sites. Interestingly, while the sites were in Korean, the domain names are all connected to a Seattle-based company World Multimedia Group, Inc."
Re:It is only a matter of time... (Score:4, Informative)
However, it was originally administered by the US DoD and is currently run by Verisign, whom you will note is a US based company and is therefore required to obey US laws. And TFS points out that the domains were "connected" (whatever the hell that means) to another US based company. So, everything about this was entirely US based, despite the sites being in Korean.
Not that that justifies ICE in any way shape or form, but they do have legal authority, or so it would appear.
Re:It is only a matter of time... (Score:1, Informative)
Wrong. .com, .net, .org, .mil, .edu are all US domains. That's one of the perks of coming up with the Internet.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:First (I think) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:First (I think) (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
You talk of products and of counterfeiting. You are once again conflating the material with the immaterial. Although the term "product" does apply to a movie, there are better terms, such as "data". Nor is piracy is the same as counterfeiting. Counterfeiting also means that the origin of a product is being misrepresented, similar to plagiarism. Pirates aren't claiming to be the authors of a Beatles' song.
You speak of "allowing", as if the default is that copying is hard, and as if some human agency has the power to grant people the ability to make copies, and can take that privilege away anytime. And as if the US has authority over Korea.
Nor do you know what effect it all has on jobs. For all you know, your way would kill jobs, not create them. Your way certainly would hurt the economy, benefiting a few monopolies a little in exchange for a lot of expense for everyone.
Re:FAIL! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It is only a matter of time... (Score:5, Informative)
RFC 1591 [ietf.org]:
Each of the generic TLDs was created for a general category of
organizations. The country code domains (for example, FR, NL, KR,
US) are each organized by an administrator for that country. These
administrators may further delegate the management of portions of the
naming tree. These administrators are performing a public service on
behalf of the Internet community. Descriptions of the generic
domains and the US country domain follow.
Of these generic domains, five are international in nature, and two
are restricted to use by entities in the United States.
World Wide Generic Domains:
COM - This domain is intended for commercial entities, that is
companies. This domain has grown very large and there is
concern about the administrative load and system performance if
the current growth pattern is continued. Consideration is
being taken to subdivide the COM domain and only allow future
commercial registrations in the subdomains.
EDU - This domain was originally intended for all educational
institutions. Many Universities, colleges, schools,
educational service organizations, and educational consortia
have registered here. More recently a decision has been taken
to limit further registrations to 4 year colleges and
universities. Schools and 2-year colleges will be registered
in the country domains (see US Domain, especially K12 and CC,
below).
NET - This domain is intended to hold only the computers of network
providers, that is the NIC and NOC computers, the
administrative computers, and the network node computers. The
customers of the network provider would have domain names of
their own (not in the NET TLD).
ORG - This domain is intended as the miscellaneous TLD for
organizations that didn't fit anywhere else. Some non-
government organizations may fit here.
INT - This domain is for organizations established by international
treaties, or international databases.
United States Only Generic Domains:
GOV - This domain was originally intended for any kind of government
office or agency. More recently a decision was taken to
register only agencies of the US Federal government in this
Re:First (I think) (Score:4, Informative)
Until there is some form of international minimum wage established...
Be careful what you wish for. Many western countries have a minimum wage substantially higher than the US, e.g UK at about USD 9.50/hr, Australia at about USD 15, and US around USD 7.25, and most developing countries have a minimum wage that is essentially zero. Which way do you want to move your US minimum wage, who will oppose it, and what will happen when the bean counters see? If you raise it, US businesses will oppose in force and the bean counters will lay people off to keep the profit margin the same. If you drop it everybody's wage will follow. Which political party will back either option overtly? Ultimately the US doesn't want to move their minimum wage, or even obtain a uniform one, just raise the lower ones to the same level for US benefit.
Badly moderated (Score:5, Informative)
1. Read the article. They are counterfeiting in some cases. In other cases, they're charging a fee for access to the pirated movies. Most people here on Slashdot, even if they support piracy, argue that charging for the pirated goods is wrong.
2. What would you suggest instead of "allowing"? As far as your comment about the US having authority over Korea, again, you should read the article.
So despite the fact that the sites were targeted at Korean speaking visitors, the websites appear to belong to a Seattle-based company.
3. I suppose the poster doesn't know for sure what effect it has on jobs, but I posit that you don't either. I could just as easily say for all you know, not doing this and instead allowing the U.S. based piracy that is aimed at Korean audiences will kill jobs.