Put a Z in ISONews

[Jei]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30180.html

Put a Z in ISONews
By Ashlee Vance in San Francisco
Posted: 09/04/2003 at 23:23 GMT


The people behind ISONEWs are mulling legal action to fight the "illegal
and abusive" seizure of the domain by the US Department of Justice.

The DoJ seized the URL, but not - it turns out- the site, in February,
with the intention of turning it from what was a bible for the discerning
software copier into a repository of anti-piracy propaganda.

ISONews quickly returned to the Internet with the slightest of
modification to its URL at IzoNews.com.

The new domain has a pop-up that explains the shift and surrounding legal
battle, which is printed in full below:

Dear Isonews user,

As you know, the ISONEWS.COM domain was recently seized by the US
Government in accordance with a court case against former owner David
Rocci. A few months prior to the seizure, the domain was sold to a third
party located outside of the USA, and has since been under the control of
new ownewship, which makes the seizure of the domain illegal and abusive.

At the present time, we are in contact with our lawyers to see what our
legal options may be. We are fully aware of the fact that taking legal
action will be very expensive and time consuming.

For the moment we have decided to temporarily move the website to a new
domain, so that all users can remain in contact and we may continue
building a strong website for future users to distribute information
freely. IZONEWS.COM will be the new location of the website, where you
will find the same forums and information as before.

Please help us win this battle against Goliath and spread the word on our
domain name!

Thanks for sticking with us, and Long live the freedom of information!

Sincerely,

The IZONEWS Team
www.izonews.com

A note on the original ISONews domain makes it quite clear that the
address belongs to the U.S. government. The Feds seized the domain, when
David Rocci, 22, pleaded guilty to "conspiring to import, market and sell
circumvention devices known as modification (or "mod") chips in violation
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act".

Rocci was sentenced to five months in prison, five months of home
detention, three years of probation and a $28,500 fine. .