The UK’s new intellectual property crime unit (PIPCU) is seemingly in full gear. Even before the department’s formal formation in June of this year, the UK police launched a fairly successful campaign targeting piracy websites. So far, PIPCU has taken a slightly different approach from its predecessors, instead of targeting website directly they are targeting the domain registrars of piracy (mainly torrenting) websites.
The letter states:
“The owners of the aforementioned domains are suspected to be involved in the criminal distribution of copyrighted material either directly or indirectly and are liable to prosecution under UK law for the following offences: Conspiracy to Defraud, Offences under the Fraud Act 2006, Copyright, Design & Patents Act 1988”
The letter then goes on to request that the domain registrar forward the suspected domain(s) to the PIPCU warning website.
This is slightly worrying. While there is no obligation in law for a domain register to control what their consumers do with their domain, it is unsettling to see the PIPCU pushing the domain registers around. Technically, as Torrentfreak reports, if the domain registers do not circumvent the websites to the PIPCU warning page they may be in breach of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers policy (ICANN) as well as their own terms and conditions.
A number of torrent websites have already been suspended, although this can easily be solved by simply registering a new domain name. For example, a website can simply go from .com to .uk. and they should be able to circumvent the redirection… until the PIPCU issues another letter.
Source:
http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-orders-registrars-to-suspend-domains-of-major-torrent-sites-131009/
