Interesting developments in the DHS or the Department of Homeland security, who is claiming that merely linking out to copyrighted materials is a crime now. Interestingly enough nearly all materials on the internet are copyrighted in one way or another. DHS, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in tow have now done what we said they’d be doing months ago.

They have seized the domain of Brian McCarthy, channel surfing in the latter portion of January, which has now been replaced with the dire warning: ‘This domain has been seized by ICE ” Homeland

Security Investigations, Special Agent in Charge, New York Office.’

According to SlashDot posts, “The advocacy group Demand Progress has claimed that McCarthy never reproduced copyrighted material, and that his website simply linked to other sites.”

The criminal complaint which was obrained by Demand Progress does seem to allow that the agents in charge of the investigation knew that the site was merely a link site and that at no time did McCarthy engage in hosting content. The Criminal complaint states that “McCarthy did engage in the ‘reproduction

and distribution’ of copyrighted material. It is unclear why since it seems he never reproduced any materials. McCarthy has now been arrested, as of last week.

Torrent Freak offers a list of the reasons why the seizure of domain names is unconstitutional and EFF offers their own commentary on the issues.