Seized: Bareback.com, et al (U.S.C. 2257???)

[neags78805]

I recieved this e-mail today from one of my Yahoo! Groups. I think the Feds have started in on their enforcement of the new 2257 regs. There goes the industry because of irresponsible parents! Comments? Did the feds really seize these names due to 2257 violations or is this company just trying to generate interest for selling their domains?

http://www.bareback.com index page reads as such:

THE FOLLOWING DOMAIN NAMES HAVE BEEN SEIZED BY THE
UNITED STATES MARSHAL AND WILL BE SOLD AT PUBLIC AUCTION!



NOTICE OF INTENDED SALE
Case No. C 04-2823 SBA
Brief Description of Property to Sold: Domain name registrations for the following domain names:

aworkshop.com

bareback.com

barebackvideo.com

bearsnextdoor.com

boysfetish.com

boysnextdoor.com

houseboy.com

latinuncut.com

malenation.com

militarymen.com

troff.com

and any other domain name in which Bareback.com, Inc. or A Workshop have rights or a possessory interests.

Date of Auction: Commencing on November 1, 2005

Time of Auction: Commencing at 9 a.m.

Place of Sale : Electronically by and through www.afternic.com

Pursuant to a Writ of Execution, dated June 16, 2005, issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on an judgment rendered against A Workshop and Bareback.com, Inc., in that Court on January 26, 2005, under case number C 04-2823 SBA, the United States Marshal, concurrently with the service of this motion, levied upon, A Workshop and Bareback.com, Inc.’s interest in the domain registrations for aworkshop.com, bareback.com, barebackvideo.com, bearsnextdoor.com, boysfetish.com, boysnextdoor.com, houseboy.com, latinuncut.com, malenation.com, militarymen.com, troff.com and any other domain name in which Bareback.com, Inc. or A Workshop have rights or a possessory interests.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that, pursuant to the Writ of Execution, the United States Marshal will oversee the sale of the domain name registrations identified above at public auction to be held electronically by and through the domain auction website www.afternic.com commencing on November 1, 2005 at 9:00 a.m. PST, subject to the following conditions:

1. All purchases are subject to the rules and conditions of www.afternic.com as set forth in further detail at http://www.afternic.com/agreement.php.

2. Each auction shall run for thirty days, unless a bidder makes an offer equal to or above the reserve price, in which case the auction will continue for seven days with the sale being made to the highest bidder at the end of those seven days.

3. If there is no successful bidder at the end of thirty (30) days, the judgment debtor shall make a credit purchase in the amount of the reserve.

4. The successful bidder shall pay via check, money order, wire transfer or PayPal (eChecks) following the escrow policies of afternic.com as further explained at http://www.afternic.com/help/index.php?c=6. Once Afternic has received funds and the funds have cleared, Afternic will instruct the seller to transfer the domain name registration to the successful bidder.

5. The execution sale will be made without any express or implied covenant or warranty.

6. The United States Marshal reserves the right to reject any bids not in conformance with the above requirements and to postpone the sale at any time.

7. No convicted felons and no one related to judgment debtors A Workshop, Bareback.com, Inc. or Michael Purser will be allowed to purchase the domain names. Each successful bidder must submit proof of identification and must participate in a short telephone interview with the U.S. Marshal before the sale is finalized.


For additional information please contact:
Gill Sperlein- General Counsel, Io Group, Inc. dba Titan Media
Legal@TitanMedia.com

[tombarr]

I think if the feds sieze your domains they just lock your site or shut you down, they don't put up notices of auctions....but then again, I could be wrong..

I could not see this notice on the site at this time......i checked the index page, as well as a few pages into the site and did not see it.

[citiboyz]

Did you notice the email addy at the bottom was for Titan's attorney, and the case was referred to the Northern District of California (San Francisco?). Maybe this is someone that Titan went after. They're notorious for pursuing and prosecuting copyright infringment cases. Didn't the webmaster for the sites in question start posting to GWW just a few months ago? This doesn't look like a 2257 case; it looks more like a Titan legal action.

[HotMaleVideos]

Most of the domains mask-forward to a page on Titan's site. It's apparently a notice of their own.

[gaybucks_chip]

If I won a judgement against you and you didn't pay the judgement, I would use the legal system to enforce the judgement against you and gain control of whatever property you had that could be sold to satisfy my judgement.

So in this case, "seized by the US marshall" means just that... the US marshall took the property, most likely because somebody (Titan) got a judgement against the owner of the domain names and those were the only assets available to satisfy the judgements.

You can bet your ass that if it was a 2257 seizure, the Feds would be issuing press releases all over Creation to make sure that the Christian right knew that they were doing something to protect their phony-baloney jobs.

[neags78805]

Hmmm... I just checked bareback.com and didn't find the "seizure" message on the main page like it was an hour ago. Apparently it's just their way to attract buyers for selling the domain names.

I could foresee a "seizure," but the U.S. Marshal conducting an auction for the sale of an adult domains??? I think not. You'd simply get a 404 error message when you clicked on the site. Ah well, I was suckered into the drama again, Yikes!

Kevin

[gaystoryman]

Think I agree with boyfunk ...sounds like a civil matter and somehow i don't see the feds not ramping up the press machine for any 2257 charge...


just my opinion though
Ian

[Xstr8guy]

Whois for bareback.com is now Titan Media...

Domain Name: BAREBACK.COM

Administrative Contact:
Io Group, Inc
Keith Webb
69 Converse Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
US
(415)252-7747
keith@titanmedia.com

[Slade]

Hmmm... I just checked bareback.com and didn't find the "seizure" message on the main page like it was an hour ago. Apparently it's just their way to attract buyers for selling the domain names.

I could foresee a "seizure," but the U.S. Marshal conducting an auction for the sale of an adult domains??? I think not. You'd simply get a 404 error message when you clicked on the site. Ah well, I was suckered into the drama again, Yikes!

Kevin

It may have just been some hacker who left that message. I've been seeing a lot of that lately.

[Xstr8guy]

This is obviously not a hack. It is most likely a seizure of assets by Titan probably because of copyright infringement. Titan did not previously own these domains/sites. Titan would never voluntarily own any bareback domains... they are vehemently opposed to the promotion of bareback sex.

[Xstr8guy]

Some of the domains have the notice on the index page. Other domains have a pop-up with the notice.

[Lee]

Good

The quicker we get rid of content theives from the industry the quicker we can start to get cleaned up.

At least some companies (Titan) take content theft very seriously, in the past Titan have literally made people homeless because they won judgements in court where webmasters stole their content and used it on their sites.

The sooner more companies start taking the same stance as Titan on issues like this the better.

I beleive, the minimum damages to be collected for a content theft reward is around $1500, per image.

Regards,

Lee

[neags78805]

Stealing content is a big no-no, but a lot of webmasters still and will do it. The shame of the matter is that the good (Big Bois) will get shut down for some reason or other. The guys on freehosting (banner farms; et al) will probably never ever get caught or prosecuted. This is just another example of laws/regs that can't possibly be enforced or policed. It just amazes me :whip:

[Slade]

This is obviously not a hack. It is most likely a seizure of assets by Titan probably because of copyright infringement. Titan did not previously own these domains/sites. Titan would never voluntarily own any bareback domains... they are vehemently opposed to the promotion of bareback sex.

Hmm..I must be missing something very obvious as I do not see any of these notices ya'll have been referring to.

[Xstr8guy]

This should be a wake up call for all cruise sites... you'd better diligently police your user submitted pics. If a pic looks professional, someone probably owns the copyright!