Sales have never been hotter online. One concern many people have with the surge in online retail sales is being hit with counterfeit goods. Online consumers in Syracuse have joined in widespread support of the crackdown on websites trafficking in counterfeit luxury goods by a federal judge. Nate Anderson has reported for Wired "Federal Judge Orders Google, Facebook to Disappear Hundreds of Sites." Luxury goods maker Chanel has won recent court orders against hundreds of websites which have been trafficking in counterfeit luxury goods.
In Nevada a federal judge has agreed that Chanel can seize the domain names in question and transfer them all to US-based registrar GoDaddy. The federal judge has also ordered “all Internet search engines” and “all social media websites”—explicitly naming Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Bing, Yahoo, and Google—to “de-index” the domain names and to remove them from any search results.
Chanel filed a joint suit in Nevada against nearly 700 domain names which appear to have nothing in common. When Chanel finds more names associated with counterfeit luxury goods it simply uses the same case and files new requests for more seizures. Judge Kent Dawson has ordered the names seized and transferred to GoDaddy, where they would all redirect to a page serving notice of the seizure.
In addition, a total ban on search engine indexing has been ordered. Similar domain name seizures have been made by the U.S. government through Operation In Our Sites, leading to the grabbing of US-based domains that end in .com and .net even when the sites are located overseas. Online shopping is convenient, exciting, and cost-effective and so it's good to know action is being taken against counterfeit online goods which can be costly.
Photographer: digitalart
