In our Sights in an ongoing operation of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to shut down “commercial websites engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyrighted works.” On 31 January 2011 it seized the Rojadirecta.com and .org domains and replaced the landing pages with its standard ‘seized’ display of DoJ, IPR Coordination Center and Special Agent stamps. As of commencing this report, both seizures still stand.
Rojadirecta, a popular Spanish sports streaming and download site, has continued operating through its .es and .me domains. However, it never accepted the .com and .org seizures. In a blog announcement today it explains that it immediately initiated discussions with ICE via its US legal representatives, but that, “Since it is impossible at this stage to recover domains amicably, we filed a complaint against the Government, the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the United States of America.” This forced the government to file proceedings against Rojadirecta in order to maintain the seizure.
Now, however, the US has withdrawn its complaint, the case has collapsed and a New York court has ordered the return of the domains. US Attorney Preet Bahrara told the judge yesterday, “...in light of the particular circumstances of this litigation, the Government now seeks to dismiss its amended forfeiture complaint. The decision to seek dismissal of this case will best promote judicial economy and serve the interests of justice.”
Rojadirecta immediately contacted the domain registrars (Verisign and PIR) to restore them. “In the coming hours Rojadirecta will again be accessible from rojadirecta.com and rojadirecta.org, that is from the domains that never should have been censored,” says the company.
TorrentFreak comments, “This is not the first time the authorities have been forced to return a seized domain. Last year music blog Dajaz1 had its domain name returned after more than 12 months. It turned out that the seizure, initiated by the RIAA, was a mistake.”