Earlier this month the Intellectual Property Crime Unit of the City of London Police (PIPCU) issued urgent requests to registrars demanding that they suspend domain names that are alleged to be involved in the criminal distribution of copyrighted material.
However, one registrar at least has refused to comply with the requests, saying that the demands are an abuse of power and that the division is acting without the legal authority to do so.
So far, two websites, SumoTorrent and MisterTorrent, have lost control over their domain names after the police issued warnings that the sites were breaching copyright law and the UK’s Serious Crime Act. Strongly-worded letters were also sent to registrars of other “pirate” sites, including emp3world.com, full-albums.net and maxalbums.com.
The letters stated that 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 letters go on to say that, should a conviction be brought for the above offences, UK courts may impose sentences of imprisonment and/or fines, adding that the PIPCU has criminal and civil powers in UK law to seize money, belongings and any property in connection with these offences.
The registrars were also asked to send traffic from the torrent sites to a landing page with the City of London Police logo, as well as the logos of their entertainment industry partners.