There’s a new widespread domain crackdown taking place in Italy. Prosecutors have focused on BitTorrent (News - Alert), cyberlocker and file-sharing sites.
Among the 27 sites to be blocked are Rapidgator, Uploaded, BitShare, NowVideo, and VideoPremium.
In addition, Rome’s prosecutor’s office said he “will progress the action internationally in order to properly seize their domains,” according to a report from TorrentFreak.com.
As of first reports, the domains were “blocked at the ISP level” and were “inaccessible in Italy.” But more recent reports from TorrentFreak suggest, “The domains are currently blocked only on the DNS level which means that if users switch to OpenDNS or Google (News - Alert) DNS they can access the sites again.”
One of these sites, Rapidgator, has been the subject of complaint by the music industry and film studios.
The action is a result of a criminal investigation in Italy.
“The domains of sites linking to torrent files, in order to download illegal copies of music and movies, have been seized [blocked] this week as ordered by Preliminary investigation of the Judge of Rome, at the request of the public prosecutor, following an investigation of the Italian Cybercrime Police,” according to an official statement.
Not everyone was supportive of the move by legal officials in Rome, however. Attorney Fulvio Sarzana, for instance, told TorrentFreak, “I think that operations like this one could jeopardize freedom of speech, and endanger legitimate web sites, being also a risk for the civil liberties. Copyright cannot be considered as a more essential right than freedom of expression, or a more important matter than a free and open Internet.”
The source of the complaint against the websites was a relatively small Italian movie distributor, he adds. It apparently relates to a cartoon.
Here is one list of the domains: bitshare.com, cineblog01.org, clipshouse.com, cyberlocker.ch, ddl-fantasy.org, filmfreestream.org, filmnuovistreaming.com, filmpertutti.tv, flashdrive.it, flashstream.in, freakshare.com, gatestreaming.com, italiafilm2.com, likeupload.net, and megaload.it.
Others include: nowdownload.co, nowvideo.co, panicmovie.altervista.org, queenshare.com, rapidgator.net, robin-film.net, speedvid.tv, streamingworld.forumcommunity.net, uploaded.net, uploadjet.net, videopremium.net, and yourlifeupdated.it.
Despite the crackdown, as of now many of the websites remain accessible in the United States, according to IB Times.com.
It is believed to be the largest domain crackdown since 2010 when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized over 70 domains. In 2011, seizure orders were executed by the U.S. government against 150 domain names of commercial websites engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyrighted works, TMCnet reported.