DaJaz1 is the poster child for the anti-SOPA campaign

A little over a year ago, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) seized a lot of domains that were linked to counterfeiting and music piracy.  Some sites like handbag9.com, 2009jerseys.com and nfljerseysupply.com were clearly selling counterfeit goods.

Operation in Our Sites was successfully seizing hundreds of web domains and putting the counterfeiters and pirates temporarily out of business until they could purchase more domains and reincarnate themselves as someone else.

One music site, DeJaz1.com was also seized.  Special Agent Andrew Reynolds personally stated that he downloaded pirated music.  This was impossible as the record companies had given the songs to DaJaz1 to share!

DaJaz1.com, did not come back under another name.  They did go out of business.

Their lawyer, Andrew P. Bridges, requested the return of the domain since they were not a pirate site.  His requests fell on deaf ears.  The government actually ignored the requests.

Eventually he was told that the government was starting forfeiture proceedings.  He was waiting for the government to file the forfeiture paperwork so he could contest the seizure.

Andrew never received any paperwork or notice and the deadline passed.  He again asked for the domain back and was told the government had been granted an extension.

Again the case seemed to fall into a black hole until several extensions later, of which he still was never informed of, he was told that the whole case had been sealed by the government and DaJaz1 would not receive any notifications.

After over a year of fighting, DaJaz1 is back in operation.  The government finally released the DaJaz1 domain back to its rightful owner.

No forfeiture complaint was ever filed, as there was never any probable cause.

If SOPA and Protect-IP get passed into law, the government will have even an easier time seizing domains without any hard evidence of wrongdoing.  What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?