[Kieri]

I hope Mike Masnick doesn't mind that I've posted his article without excerpting, but this is so important I think he'd prefer the word getting out.

[Kieri]

Can you please fix the headline to read “Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details...” My computer must’ve had a hiccup! Thanks.

[rarestia]

If this is government by the People, then the People have gone mad! And of course none of our Representatives, Senators, Joint Chiefs, law enforcement, CIA, FBI, NSA, FDA, EPA, HHS, Homeland Security, or an other officials will ever face any sort of court grilling or prison time.

Obama and every single member of his cabinet, every judge, every appointed head of anything, and every czar should be perp-walked out of their respective homes and throw in jail for the rest of their lives.

[frogjerk]

I would sue the government. Call your Senator or Congressman. Make a ruckus

[PapaBear3625]

Even worse, about the only evidence that ICE had that these songs were infringing was the word of the "VP of Anti-Piracy Legal Affairs for the RIAA," Carlos Linares, who was simply not in a position to know if the songs were infringing or authorized. In fact, one of the songs involved an artist not even represented by an RIAA label, and Linares clearly had absolutely no right to speak on behalf of that artist.

It seems like the federal anti-piracy unit has been effectively co-opted by the RIAA, which may feel threatened by the way technology is starting to bypass old methods of doing business.

[Paladin2]

You know there is a problem when the Dept. of Education has at least one SWAT Team.

[6SJ7]

The RIAA, with I’m sure a few strategic political donations, now had the government acting like the Stasi of not so long ago. This behavior on the part of the government, at the behest of the RIAA, is only a few degrees of separation from having the power to disappear people in the middle of the night.

[zeugma]

Anyone who thinks that this kind of thing isn’t SOP for FedGov these days is smoking crack.

[catbertz]

Thanks for the post. I’ve been loosely following some of these seizures. This nonsense really does remind me of the movie Brazil, as mentioned by Mike. A few phrases come to mind: Insane, nightmarish big-government, bumbling, meat grinder, ready to chew you up at the drop of a hat”

I have some reasonable expectation that the internet will, for the most part, be a walled garden in the coming years.