U.S. Customs Authority Targets Pirate Movie Sites

LOS ANGELES: The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authority, in conjunction with U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), has announced a significant crackdown on Internet piracy, shutting down nine websites that offered unauthorized first-run movies as well as TV content.

The "Operation In Our Sites" initiative saw authorities yesterday executing seizure warrants against nine domains: TVShack.net, Movies-Links.tv, Filespump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. Agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also seized assets from 15 bank, Paypal, investment and advertising accounts, and executed four residential search warrants in several states.

"ICE and our partners at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center are targeting pirate websites run by people who have no respect for creativity and innovation," said ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton. "We are dedicated to protecting the jobs, the income and the tax revenue that disappear when organized criminals traffic in stolen movies for their own profit."

"Criminal copyright infringement occurs on a massive scale over the Internet, reportedly resulting in billions of dollars in losses to the U.S. economy," said Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office handled the seizure warrants of seven domain names yesterday. "That translates into lost jobs and real hardships for ordinary working people. That’s why we took the actions we did. If your business model is movie piracy, your story will not have a happy ending."

Mike Robinson, chief of operations, content protection for the MPAA, added: "Content theft online has become increasingly ubiquitous as technology and software improve and access to the Internet increases. We are committed to working with law enforcement to get the illegal choices out of the marketplace and instead focus on continuing to offer more innovative and flexible legal options to consumers to enjoy the movies and TV shows that we all love. The American motion picture and television industry is one of our nation’s most valuable cultural and economic resources. We are grateful to ICE, the Obama Administration, and the federal agencies that have made the protection of intellectual property a priority for the United States."