U.S. Shuts Down Alleged Online Pirates

Seizes 132 domain names in Cyber Monday initiative

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/26/2012 3:55:34 PM

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized 132 domain names in a Cyber Monday crackdown on online sales of pirated goods.

The sites were selling a host of counterfeit goods, including videos. It was the third year that ICE has timed the seizures with Cyber Monday, the online version of Black Friday.

The sites included a number of top-level foreign domains including .uk and .eu.

Leads provided by trademark holders were investigated by field offices in Baltimore; Buffalo; Denver; El Paso; Newark; San Antonio; San Diego and Ventura, Calif., as well as Europol member countries including Belgium, Denmark, France and the UK. Europol joined the U.S.-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) earlier this year.

The crackdown extended to Paypal accounts used by the offending sites.