Don?t Stop at SOPA

It would be one thing if these seizures or the injunctions entered by courts in cases of private enforcement really were limited to the most egregious cases?those involving only ?rogue? sites ?dedicated to infringing activities.? But they often have not been. In some cases, ICE has seized domain names, held them for many months without any notice to the owner, and then never filed charges. Why not? Because it turns out the domain name owner had, in fact, done nothing wrong. Oops. Even when it?s not making mistakes?mistakes, by the way, that can be avoided with a little due process?ICE has acted aggressively toward websites that are far from the core of copyright infringement. For example, ICE has seized domain names on the basis that the websites at the seized domain names linked to other sites that contained infringing material. Courts have generally not considered mere linking sufficient to constitute direct copyright infringement even on the civil side. Under certain circumstances, linking could give rise to contributory infringement. But contributory copyright infringement has never been thought to give rise to criminal liability, and criminal conduct is necessary for the proper use of civil forfeiture statutes. ICE has smuggled in a significant expansion of criminal liability under cover of enforcement against the ?worst of the worst.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5e67fd2f72fa87463de329124e9467c5

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