U.S. seizes six websites providing illegal access to copyrighted music

The Justice Department announced Monday the seizure of six websites as part of ongoing efforts by the Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to combat copyright infringement.

According to court records, unsealed Monday, the United States obtained court authorization to seize six domain names pending forfeiture. Four of those domains – “Corourbanos.com,” “Corourbano.com,” “Pautamp3.com,” and “SIMP3.com” – were registered with a U.S.-based registry, while two domains – “flowactivo.co” and “Mp3Teca.ws” – were registered through a U.S.-based domain registrar. According to court documents, law enforcement identified these six domains as being used to distribute copyrighted material without the authorization of the copyright holders. A law enforcement investigation confirmed that copyright-protected music content was present and available for streaming or downloading on each of these six websites from the Eastern District of Virginia.

The seizure of these six domains by the government will prevent third parties from streaming and downloading copyright-protected content from these sites. Individuals visiting those sites now will see a message indicating that the site has been seized by the federal government, and visitors will be redirected to another site for additional information.

The seizure of the domain names was announced by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia and Acting Special Agent in Charge Derek W. Gordon of HSI Washington, D.C.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura D. Withers in these matters.

Operation 404.4 is the result of collaborative efforts between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia; the Government of Brazil Ministry of Justice and Public Security Cyber Laboratory; numerous Brazilian State police forces; HSI Washington, D.C.; HSI Attaché Brasilia, Brazil; the Department of Justice’s International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Advisor and Agent in São Paulo, the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT); the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center; the UK Intellectual Property Office; and the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.