Homeland Security seizes domain names

[E.J.]

The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak.

more HERE and HERE

I'm not sure what copyright infringement has to do with homeland security.

[The Pecman]

For some reason "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" got lumped under Homeland Security, which makes no sense. Customs Enforcement used to be the arm of the government that protected trademarks, so that if a cheap Chinese knockoff came into a port, the customs guys would say, "hey! This isn't a real Nikon camera," or "wait a minute -- this isn't a real Rolex watch!"

This is just Hollywood, the record labels, and other corporations using legal muscle to protect their interests. I see good and bad in this. The worst is that it's a slippery slope, and they could wind up shutting down certain websites and groups that inadvertently provide a link or use a copyrighted illustration. It seems very heavy-handed to me.