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Deutsch: Spanische Webseite bekommt beschlagnahmte Domain zurück. Nach 18 Mona...

After one year and a half battle with the US authorities, the sports streaming and download Spanish site Rojadirecta has succeeded in winning back its domain names, after the authorities dropped the lawsuit against it on 29 August 2012.

The .org and .com domains of Rojadirecta were seized in January 2011 as part of operation “Operation In Our Sites”, on a very questionable basis of intellectual property rights violation, and without any court order. The site had already been considered as legally operating in Spain by two Spanish courts.

After the seizure, Rojadirecta continued its operation as usual under .es and .me domains and decided to fight back and sued the US government. “We immediately initiated talks with the government, through our legal representatives in San Francisco and New York, in order to obtain the return of (our domains). Since it was impossible at that stage to recover domains amicably, we filed a complaint against the Government, the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the United States of America,” said Rojadirecta’s owner, the Spanish company Puerto 80.

This is not the first case of this type. In 2010 music blog Dajaz1 had its domain name seized which was returned after more than 12 months. It turned out that the seizure, initiated by the RIAA, was a mistake.

The concern is that the US government may repeat such abuses without any consequence for them. “I expect that we may see a few more such cases as well. Unfortunately, though, we may not get a clear legal ruling telling the government it can't do this – meaning that they'll be free to continue to abuse their powers in such a manner going forward,” stated Mark Lemley from Puerto 80 legal team.

U.S. Returns Seized Domains to Streaming Links Site (After 18 Months) (30.08.2012)
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-returns-seized-domains-to-streaming-links-...

Oops: After Seizing & Censoring Rojadirecta For 18 Months, Feds Give Up & Drop Case (29.08.2012)
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120829/12370820209/oops-after-seizi...

The U.S. Government withdraws complaint against the Rojadirecta domains and the Court orders their return (up-dated 5.09.2012)
http://blog.rojadirecta.me/2012/08/30/us-government-withdraws-lawsuit-...

Rojadirecta wins the fight with the USA Government and recovers its domains (only in Spanish, 30.08.2012)
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/08/30/navegante/1346315790.html

EDRi-gram 9.3: Spanish sports streaming domain seized by US authorities without warning (9.02.2011)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number9.3/rojadirecta-domain-name-seized-...