[Mad Dawgg]

"So the sites were closed down only after the case went to trial and the appeal process RIGHT??????????????????????"

I would venture "the trial" was held in a smokey backroom after a large sum of money changed hands then the FEDs shut down the site.

easy peasy Japaneasy...

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Here’s an interesting tidbit;

Yet after being shown the affidavit, the operator of dajaz1.com — a widely read hip-hop blog that posts new songs and videos — disputed many of the warrant’s examples of what it called copyright infringement. He said that, like much of the material on his site, the songs had been sent to him for promotional purposes by record labels and the artists.
As proof, the operator, a Queens man who declined to give his real name but is known online as Splash, showed The New York Times several e-mails from record label employees and third-party marketers offering songs mentioned in the affidavit.
“It’s not my fault if someone at a record label is sending me the song,” Splash said.