Rich Fiscus
12 Dec 2011 14:27
At least two US legislators are taking the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to task for the events surrounding the seizure and eventual return of a hip hop blog as part of Operation In Our Sites.
While US Attorney General Eric Holder was testifying before the House Of Representatives' Judiciary Committee regarding a sting operation to catch gun smugglers, Representative Zoe Lofgren took the opportunity to ask for details about the seizure of the Dajaz1.com domain name by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The domain name was seized a year ago by ICE (read the order below), who claimed operators of the popular blog were guilty of criminal copyright infringement. Despite the fact federal seizure laws require the government to either return property after 90 days or take forfeiture action, the domain name was returned a full year later with the agency admitting there was no justification for a criminal complaint.
According to a report from Techdirt, during that time the government repeatedly told lawyers representing the blog's administrator they had filed for extensions to the initial 90 day seizure period, but at no time was the accused given notice of the hearings, and in fact his lawyers weren't even allowed to see the extension orders the government claimed were issued.
Additionally, court documents show the initial seizure was based purely on a statement from a RIAA official, who simply informed an ICE investigator several songs linked to by the blog had not been released. There is no evidence ICE made any attempt to contact the actual copyright holders to determine whether the downloads were authorized or not.
In fact the site operator presented the New York Times with significant evidence they were provided by label and artist representatives. This was less than 30 days after the seizure. Additionally, the copyright to one of the recordings wasn't even owned by any RIAA member.
You can see Rep. Lofgren's exchange with the Attorney General, in which she alleges the seizures are unconstitutional, in this video: