February 4, 2012: DOJ Seizes Sports Streaming Domains
On the eve of professional football’s biggest day, the Super Bowl, Department of Justice and immigration agents, shut down dozens of websites that were infringing on NFL copyrights. The raid hit counterfeit jersey sellers, as well as popular streaming sites that show NFL games at no charge – many of which have casino affiliate connections.
In a bit of a twist from their regular method of operations, immigration agents were working under civil, rather than criminal law. This meant that the onus of proving innocence was left with the site operators, rather than prosecutors.