📰 New article from TorrentFreak
Judge: GoDaddy Must Unmask Owners of 100+ “Copyright-Infringing” Domains
Here’s your punchy, newsletter-ready summary:
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Judge says GoDaddy must out 100+ “copyright clone” site owners — and no, anonymity isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card
Let’s be real: if you’re running 104 copies of a gaming platform, complete with stolen logos and code, calling it “free speech” is like calling a bank heist “performance art.”
Tamaris (aka Pragmatic Play) flagged these sites to GoDaddy, got a $52 DMCA subpoena, and asked for the owners’ info. One anonymous operator — let’s call him “John Doe Jr.” — tried to block it, claiming overreach, privacy violations, and First Amendment rights. Cute. But the court wasn’t buying it.
Judge Sullivan laid down the law:
- DMCA subpoenas don’t need individual proof for each domain — mass unmasking is legal.
- “Commercial” speech (like selling pirated games) gets zero First Amendment love.
- Your IP address and payment info? Not sacred. Especially when you’re running knockoff casino software.
- And no, waiting a month to file your motion doesn’t count as “timely”… unless GoDaddy was slow to notify you. (They were.)
Bottom line: If your website looks like a copy-paste job of someone else’s billion-dollar product, don’t hide behind “anonymous speech.” The law doesn’t protect pirates. It just gives them a subpoena.
And yes — GoDaddy’s now got to hand over 104 sets of personal details. The internet just got a little less anonymous.