Immigration & Customs Enforcement

BlackBerry 10 revives RIM's chances at federal agency

Research In Motion's upcoming BlackBerry 10 is being eyed by one government agency that had already planned to switch to iPhones.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will take a look at BB10 starting in January. The agency plans to launch a pilot program to test BlackBerry 10 devices and the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 to see if the new operating system can meet its needs for security and mobility. ICE will be among the first government agencies to give BB10 a spin, according to Research In Motion.

"ICE has been a valued BlackBerry customer … Read more

DHS abruptly abandons copyright seizure of hip-hop blog

A bizarre attempt by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to seize the domain name of a hip-hop blog accused of copyright infringement ended today with the government abruptly abandoning the lawsuit.

Government officials initially trumpeted the seizure of the music blog, DaJaz1.com, and 81 others as an example of the law prevailing over pirates. Attorney General Eric Holder warned at the time that "intellectual property crimes are not victimless," and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director John Morton proclaimed that "today, we turn the tables on these Internet thieves."

The only problem? It … Read more

U.S. calls blitz on alleged pirated-sports sites

With the Super Bowl less than a week away, U.S. law enforcement officials have seized the domain names of 10 sites accused of illegally streaming live sports events.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in New York said today that it worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to shut down such sites as Firstrow.net, HQ-Streams.com, Rojadirecta.com, HQ-Streams.net, Ilemi.com, and Iilemii.com. The seizures were made Tuesday.

The Department of Justice and ICE said that streaming live events without authorization is harmful to sports leagues and broadcasters.

"The illegal streaming of professional sporting events … Read more

Why Web host shut down 73,000 blogs a mystery

Note: For more recent news on this issue, read "Web host to return Blogetery's blogs."

Blogetery.com, a little-known WordPress platform used by more than 70,000 blogs, was shut down by its Web hosting company more than a week ago and nobody seems willing to say why or who is responsible.

BurstNet, the Web-hosting company, informed Blogetery's operator that service was terminated at the request of some law enforcement agency but wouldn't say which one. As for the reason, BurstNet hasn't made that clear either. In an e-mail to Blogetery's operator, BurstNet … Read more

Feds seize cash, Web sites of alleged film pirates

A week after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that the government would start cracking down on illegal file sharing, the feds swooped in and seized assets belonging to operators of accused movie-pirating sites.

The government on Wednesday also took control of at least seven of the sites in question: Movies-Links.tv, Now-Movies.com, TVShack.net, Filespump.com, Planetmoviez.com, ZML.com, ThePirateCity.org, Ninjavideo.net, and NinjaThis.net. More than a dozen bank, investment, and advertising accounts were seized, and authorities served search warrants on residences in several different states.

Authorities are searching for operators of the sites … Read more

Homeland Security: The reality show

Queue the music: the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is about to get its own reality show.

On Thursday, ABC announced a mid-season replacement show called "Homeland Security USA." From Arnold Shapiro, the Emmy-winning producer of such documentaries as Scared Straight," the network said the series will give viewers an unprecedented look at the work of the men and women at the DHS "while they use the newest technology to safeguard our country and enforce our law."

The 13 hour-long episodes were shot entirely on location throughout the United States.

ABC says the producers … Read more