GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Did Feds Shut Down 73,000 Blogs, and Why?

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07...blogs-and-why/

"A Web-hosting firm says it was ordered by a law enforcement agency to shut down Blogetry.com, a free platform used by more than 70,000 bloggers, but a company spokesman won't say why or who is responsible for the termination of service.

CNET reported that BurstNet, the hosting company, informed Blogetery's operator that it was required to end its service at the request of law enforcement, but it wouldn't say which agency. No reason was given for the shutdown, but BurstNet did cite "a history of abuse" on many blogs.

As a result, 73,000 blogs were wiped off the Web.

"Please note that this was not a typical case in which suspension and notification would be the norm," BurstNet wrote. "This was a critical matter brought to our attention by law enforcement officials. We had to immediately remove the server."

When the story broke last week on the TorrentFreak blog, there was speculation that the termination was part of a government crackdown on illegal file sharing.

According to CNET:

Though BurstNet never indicated Blogetery's problems were caused by copyright violations, TorrentFreak, a blog that covers Web file-sharing issues and broke the story, wrote that the U.S. government may be involved as part of stepped-up antipiracy operations. Nearly three weeks ago, a group of federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a unit of the Department of Homeland Security -- seized assets and Web sites belonging to people authorities say operated illegal file-sharing sites. President Obama has said his administration is going to get tough on piracy and counterfeiting.

But on Sunday, a BurstNet spokesman told CNET the shutdown had nothing to do with copyright violations. And a spokeswoman for ICE said "while ICE's Internet piracy enforcement efforts are still very much ongoing, we were not involved with the action."

In addition, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America each said they were not involved.

For its part, Blogetry's operator said he has always run the platform according to the rules and has no idea why he has been shut down."