Rojadirecta Sues the US Government

[MannyIsGod]

Rojadirecta Takes Legal Action To Reclaim Domains

Written by
Michael Ide
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Michael Ide was a university graduate working toward a PhD in physics when a change of plans took him to South Africa to teach. Since then he...
14 June, 2011rojadirecta domain name law us immigration and customs enforcement copyright

The owner of two popular Spanish sports domains which were seized by the US government has taken legal action to get them back.

The Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org domains were seized by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Department of Homeland Security in its drive to seize domains that infringe on copyrights.

According to an article on Torrent Freak, Puerto 80, the owner of the domains in question, has filed a complaint with the Southern District of New York and has hired the law firm Durie Tangri.

The complaint claimed that Rojadirecta was a discussion forum for sports fan which happened to have an index of streaming websites that allowed members to watch sports online. Puerto 80 said that the website is not responsible for the content uploaded by the users.

“Contrary to the grounds on which the domain names were seized, the Rojadirecta site is not violating copyright law, let alone criminal copyright law,” the court filing read.

The company also claimed that the seizure of its domain resulted in a loss of 30 percent of its web traffic. The legal complaint also pointed out that the domains were seized by the US government without prior notification and without giving the owners a chance to defend themselves in court.



Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/06/14/rojadirecta-takes-legal-action-reclaim-domains/#ixzz1POca66fn

It would seem they have grounds - if nothing else - on the lack of due process. I hope they win.

[ElNono]

We'll see. They're suing in the US, so US law applies. It will be interesting to see how the government defends this case. I'm mostly interested in finding out if there was a court order behind the domain hijacks.

[MannyIsGod]

There's no court order or else it would be public information. It really does appear as though the DHS really overstepped their bounds here.

[ElNono]

That's what I suspect. But there's some technicalities the government is using for this. For example, I believe the hijacks are attributed to the ICE branch of DHS. Customs Enforcement is allowed by law to seizure property (under certain circumstances). So I suspect that's what the case might end up circling about. That's why I want to hear what the government argument is for the seizures. I wouldn't doubt for a second that a bunch of hoops were jumped to get that stuff done.

[Nbadan]

:sleep

[Wild Cobra]

It would seem they have grounds - if nothing else - on the lack of due process. I hope they win.
They were helping other commit a crime. It depends on how that pans out.

[MannyIsGod]

They were helping other commit a crime. It depends on how that pans out.

I'm sorry when were they found guilty of that? You do know what due process is, right?

[MannyIsGod]

Also, is merely linking to a site that does something criminal is a crime in itself you're setting a really chilling precedent for the internet.