Firstrow.tv Down

Firstrow.tv Down But Not For Long!

One of the largest sports streaming site on the internet was taken down by ICE yesterday in a new wave of domain seizures made by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations departments in the US.


The funny twist to the Feds takedown though is within hours the owners of Firstrow restored the site within hours creating a new domain name and boasting that "ICE has far too much time on it's hands".

Firstrowsports.eu returned to the net much to the delight of internet users looking for free sport streams that otherwise they couldn't afford to watch.

The owners thought to be residing in Portugal and India tweeted a simple but powerful statement after the attack:

"ICE have alot free time to lose with this but ok usa dont rule the world but let them fill the ego new domain" Twitter @ Firstrowsports

This latest round of seizures wasn't only restricted to sport streaming sites though, in the 300+ domain takedown included many sites selling counterfeit sporting goods mostly those based around NFL products were a keen target for the American authorities in the build up to the Superbowl.

American does have control over .tv top level domain names, so this was rich pickings for ICE, but how far will they try to push for taking control of domains outside of their jurisdiction?
.eu names in reality can't be touched by the USA but with the recent signing of ACTA that could all change in a heartbeat.

At present Firstrow maintain that with servers based in Sweden that actually they are breaking no laws as Sweden have a very relaxed stance on intellectual property on the net, only time will tell if the US interferes with their laws and kills the internet for good!

Related articles

• Feds Seize Sports Streaming Domains in New Super Bowl Crackdown (torrentfreak.com)
• US shuts 16 sports streaming websites (ibnlive.in.com)

LA Police Arrest Harry Burkhart Over Arson Attacks

Police appealed to public to find this man

53 fires and nearly 5 days later police in LA have arrested a man they believe to be the culprit of the arson attacks that have caused $3 million in damage to cars around the city.

Harry Burkhart a 24 year old male has been arrested and booked on arson charges and is currently being held without bail.

From what the cops are saying about Burkhart, he seems rather disturbed and angry at a current immigration issue which involves his mother. In other reports currently online the man has stated that he "Hates America", if that is the case then maybe he could explain some of his dumb behaviour!

Police had several leads in this case, one of which was of surveillance of a man who had been spotted several times in the facility of the cars that were set alight, mostly these cars were parked unattended when the crimes were committed.

Seems this real life firestarter has come to the end of the line, police are convinced they have their man so hopefully now for the residents of LA this nightmare is finally over!

Related articles

• No new arson fires reported in LA after suspect arrested (abclocal.go.com)
• L.A. arson suspect 'not completely normal,' neighbor says (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

SOPA Straightup Sucks!

As many carry on oblivious to the upcoming proposals the government of the United States of the World are trying to put in place it will soon become an uproar of more people around the world once sites like Youtube and Facebook become policed by a strict American official department.

Many users on Facebook barely care or realise what's trying to be pushed through in the states, SOPA though will most definitely affect a huge amount of the 800,000 Facebook fans when it comes to uploading "copyrighted" content etc etc.

Some understand what this bill would do and are standing up against it, but although this fight may yet go on for a considerable amount of time, it's a bleak outlook when you find organizations like Godaddy.com backing this outrageous idea!

Godaddy is the largest domain registrar on the internet, and have today come out and said that this bill called the SOPA act will be a good thing for the internet and in no way will it affect the internet flourishing in the future.

When you see companies like Godaddy saying that it's a worrying thought that no matter how many of us stand up against it, the fight could easily be lost if a few of these big American companies jump on the bandwagon.

A new site cropped up today appealing to Godaddy customers and webmasters to boycott the famous domain provider by the 29th of this month to show them just how many people are pissed off that they have backed SOPA, godaddyboycott.org sends a simple message saying that we are not happy and we will move elsewhere if you continue to support this cancer. The hope is that Godaddy takes note and removes it's support.

In my view and as many others have expressed, the internet is a free place for free people, police it and we could all be faced with an intranet much like North Korea, where the only information you can find is the stuff that only the US government wants you to see! Imagine that!