The U.S. government executed seizure warrants against three U.S.-registered internet domains of commercial websites allegedly engaged in the illegal distribution of copyrighted works.
The coordinated law enforcement operation targeted online services that offered illegal copies of copyrighted works, many of which were owned by U.S. companies and individuals, including movies, television shows, video games, software, e-books, and other content.
According to the affidavits in support of the seizure warrants, the three domains receive tens of millions of visits a year, offer thousands of infringed works, and result in millions of downloads of those works, the retail value totalling millions of dollars.
The three domains are among the most popular in Bulgaria; one is often ranked among the top 10 most visited domains, and, given the huge internet traffic they receive every day, they seem to make considerable money from advertising.
The seized domains are in the custody of the United States government. Visitors to the sites will now find a seizure banner that notifies them that federal authorities have seized the domain names and that willful copyright infringement is a crime. The domains are zamunda.net, arenabg.com and zelka.org.
“The Justice Department is grateful for its Bulgarian partners at the National Investigative Service, the Ministry of the Interior’s General Directorate Combating Organized Crime, the State Agency for National Security, and the Prosecutor’s Office, and its domestic partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) New Orleans Field Office, and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center).
“The Justice Department also acknowledges the critical role of Europol, the HSI Athens office, and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Sofia office in coordinating efforts and providing technical assistance,” a statement by the DOJ said.
The Justice Department is providing technical assistance on intellectual property and cybercrime to foreign law enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial partners in other countries, including Bulgaria, through the International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) programme.
The IPR Centre is one of the U.S. government’s key weapons in the fight against criminal counterfeiting and piracy.
The IPR Centre uses the expertise of its member agencies to share information, develop initiatives, coordinate enforcement actions, and conduct investigations into IP theft.
