Feds Seize 16 More Domains as Part of "Operation Fake Sweep"

A 28-year-old Michigan man named Yonjo Quiroa has been arrested and charged with criminal copyright infringement for running nine websites that streamed, among other things, licensed content from the NFL. Quiroa is the lastest in a string of highly public copyright-related arrests, following the extradition of Megaupload founder Kim Schmitz and six of his coworkers from New Zealand earlier this month.

Quiroa's arrest took place in the tenth round of domain address seizures, part of a larger effort called "Operation Fake Sweep." All in all, the DOJ has taken over 669 domains (including one by mistake), since the beginning of 2010.

The latest 307 domains were seized in the run-up to this Sunday's Superbowl showdown. Most of them were responsible for selling counterfeit NFL merchandise.

Speaking about the seizures, ICE Director John MortonJohn Morton told TorrentFreak:

"While most people are focusing on whether the Patriots or Giants will win on Sunday, we at ICE have our sights on a different type of victory: defeating the international counterfeiting rings that illegally profit off of this event, the NFL, its players and sports fans."

Obviously, the NFL is more than pleased about the results, and the Feds show no signs of stopping copyright-related arrests and domain seizures any time soon. Kind of makes you wonder why the government needed SOPA at all, doesn't it?

[keyana.stevens | @keyanastevens]

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