Homeland Security Request Mozilla to Take Down Add-on

[lovinglinux]

From time to time, we receive government requests for information, usually market information and occasionally subpoenas. Recently the US Department of Homeland Security contacted Mozilla and requested that we remove the MafiaaFire add-on. The ICE Homeland Security Investigations unit alleged that the add-on circumvented a seizure order DHS had obtained against a number of domain names. Mafiaafire, like several other similar add-ons already available through AMO, redirects the user from one domain name to another similar to a mail forwarding service. In this case, Mafiaafire redirects traffic from seized domains to other domains. Here the seized domain names allegedly were used to stream content protected by copyrights of professional sports franchises and other media concerns.

Our approach is to comply with valid court orders, warrants, and legal mandates, but in this case...

Read more... (http://lockshot.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/homeland-security-request-to-take-down-mafiaafire-add-on/)

BTW, the add-on that is the center of the dispute is not mine, but this kind of thing really worries me.

[Melaena]

We can probably expect to see more of these incidents occurring until some sort of legislature is passed.

[Spice Weasel]

Why are they even bothering to go after Mozilla? The add-ons will just be distributed through other websites...

[Thewhistlingwind]

Legal battles never cease in the tech industry, so I'm not surprised. However, points go to mozilla for not following the "Takedown first ask later" approach that some organisations have. (Weather that approach is justified by substantiating (Wrong word) circumstances or not.)

EDIT: Seriously, if someone could correct that and give me the word I'm looking for. (Starts with an ex I think.) I would be grateful.

[Rasa1111]

Another story involving Mozilla and take down requests, from 2009:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/its-my-browser-and-ill-auto-click-if-i-want

ahh yes, I do remember that now.

I may to go back to using FF full time..
In my 10.04 and my 10.10 installs..
FF is a bit slower than chromium, So I used chromium mostly..
But since I installed 11.04 5 or 6 days ago..
I don't really see much difference in the speeds of FF and chromium..
So Ive been using only FF, and it's felt good to use it again!

i never much cared for moving away from FF for some google rubbish..
but now that they both seem pretty equal in snappiness..
I might be able to remove the little weight from my chest that was "using something from google". :lol:

FF4 is awesome.
<3

[Gremlinzzz]

Mozilla lawyer Harvey Anderson announced on his blog today that the DHS has asked Mozilla to remove the MafiaaFire add-on from Mozilla's official online catalogue. The government claimed that the add-on violated the seizure orders it has obtained over the last year against a few hundred domain names accused of copyright and trademark infringement.

Because the government seizes only the site name and not the actual servers, it's a simple matter for the affected sites to buy a new domain name with a non-US registrar and be back in business within hours. Many have done so. The MafiaaFire add-on automatically redirects Firefox users who enter the old site names to the new site names, making the seizure process even less effective.
[i get now.]
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/mozilla-resists-us-govt-request-to-nuke-mafiaafire-add-on.ars

[el_koraco]

FF is a bit slower than chromium,
<3

Try the nightly builds from the mozilla daily PPA. FF6 is blazing fast.

[Rasa1111]

Try the nightly builds from the mozilla daily PPA. FF6 is blazing fast.

Want to point me in the right direction? :) <3

[Irihapeti]

Legal battles never cease in the tech industry, so I'm not surprised. However, points go to mozilla for not following the "Takedown first ask later" approach that some organisations have. (Weather that approach is justified by substantiating (Wrong word) circumstances or not.)

EDIT: Seriously, if someone could correct that and give me the word I'm looking for. (Starts with an ex I think.) I would be grateful.

I think the word you are looking for is "extenuating".

[Exodist]

We can probably expect to see more of these incidents occurring until some sort of legislature is passed.

Stuff of this nature is hard to enforce. Reason being is the web is world wide and there is no physical boundary labeling one countries jurisdiction from another.

Which is also why you see congress passing something one day, then hardly ever enforcing it. ;-)

[Quadunit404]

It's not like the domain seizures were useful anyway, as they only touched the domain and not the actual files on the server. It was found within hours that the rightful domain owners simply bought new domains or already had alternate domains and continued business as normal.

I congratulate Mozilla for not pulling an Amazon or PayPal by questioning BEFORE removing something. It's always a nice thing to see sanity in this world.

[Zomby Woof]

I don't condone trademark violations and such but WTF does that have to do with Homeland Security?
These guys are sounding more and more like a Federal Police force, SS!!!

[Timmer1240]

http://tech-buzz.net/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-toolbar/toolbar.php?wptbto=http://nightly.mozilla.org/&wptbhash=aHR0cDovL3RlY2gtYnV6ei5uZXQvMjAxMS8wNC8xN S9maXJlZm94LTYtbmlnaHQtYnVpbGQtYXZhaWxhYmxlLWZvci1 kb3dubG9hZC88d3B0Yj5GaXJlZm94IDYgTmlnaHRseSBCdWlsZ CBBdmFpbGFibGUgZm9yIERvd25sb2FkPHdwdGI%2BaHR0cDovL 3RlY2gtYnV6ei5

[Frogs Hair]

Want to point me in the right direction? :) <3

Install compatibility reporter first so your add-ons work .

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install firefox

sudo apt-get install firefox-trunk

[tjeremiah]

:popcorn:
Mozilla declared that it will not agree to a US Department of Homeland Security request to get rid of a Firefox extension yesterday. The extension in question is MAFIAA Fire.

What this particular extension does is redirect users to working sites set up to replace domains seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It is believed that an antipiracy campaign by the DHS has seen reduced effectiveness due to this.

Harvey Anderson, vice president and general counsel for Mozilla, noted that this is a problem for the DHS as it is trying to get rid of these sites for good.

The ICE Homeland Security Investigations unit alleged that the add-on circumvented a seizure order DHS had already obtained against a number of domains.

Experts in the field of free speech deem these seizures as a possible violation of freedom of speech protections in the US Constitution. Nevertheless, ICE has managed to close down a considerable number of websites in recent months under the suspicion of them illegally distributing movies, music, or counterfeit products.

Anderson continued to note the following:

To date we’ve received no response from Homeland Security nor any court order. While content companies see obvious reasons to keep these sites offline, Mozilla sees it as a question of government censorship, and whether agreeing to these informal requests might somehow “threaten the open Internet”.
http://www.favbrowser.com/mozilla-defies-the-department-of-homeland-security/

[lovinglinux]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1750662

[Lucradia]

Install compatibility reporter first so your add-ons work .

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install firefox

sudo apt-get install firefox-trunk

As for windows users: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20059839-12.html

[Sef]

Merged threads.

[aguafina]

Holy smoke, don't those suits have anything better to do?

[An Sanct]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1750662

I've read the post you gave ... In what way do people think this is related to you???:confused:

[lovinglinux]

I've read the post you gave ... In what way do people think this is related to you???:confused:

I don't understand the question. If it is because I posted the link then is because is a duplicated thread. If it is because of my comment, then I just wanted to make it clear the case is not related to me, since many forum members use my add-ons.

[Chronon]

I don't condone trademark violations and such but WTF does that have to do with Homeland Security?
These guys are sounding more and more like a Federal Police force, SS!!!

Remember when they ordered a toy store owner to remove a Rubik's cube clone from her shelves?

[jramshu]

I'm sick and tired of my government continuously trying to regulate the internet. It's getting quite old. That's about all I can say without going into a political rant.

I hope Mozilla keeps fighting this, maybe start an online petition that can be sent to Congress expressing how sick and tired we are of them butting in where they don't belong. Re-directing you from a site that no longer exists to a site that does exist shouldn't be wrong. They can always use the same damn plugin to find them, so the plugin is actually helpful to them too. WTF does this stuff have to do with DHS and ICE anyway, are they trying to use the "customs" part? Who knows.

[fdrake]

Are these guys supposed to protect us or the MPAA? Waste of precius tax money... send them all home....... no more money to these clowns...

[The Cog]

This discussion id very old now. Thread closed.