Following last week’s threats from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel directed at those offering unauthorized movies and music, yesterday saw indications of the first clear action.

Under the banner “Operation In Our Sites”, authorities targeted nine domains that are claimed to have offered first-run movies without consent from the copyright holders, a serious criminal offense under U.S. law.

“Criminal copyright infringement occurs on a massive scale over the Internet, reportedly resulting in billions of dollars in losses to the U.S. economy,” said Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office handled the warrants authorizing the seizures of seven of the domains.

The seven seized domains are TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and ZML.com.

The feds left the following message:

Screener Distros Seized By ICE

"Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine... Wachovia admitted it didn’t do enough to spot illicit funds in handling $378B for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. That’s the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in U.S. history."

Wachovia Helped Launder Narco Cash

"A Salinas couple is expected to appear in court afternoon for arraignment on charges they tried to sell their 6-month-old baby for $25 Tuesday night outside of Walmart."

Those Clumsy Amateur Baby Salesmen

A woman who admitted smoking marijuana daily with her 13-year-old son to reward him for completing his homework was sentenced to three months in prison.

The article fails to mention how well he was doing in school.

Will You Be My Mommy?

Utah Supreme Court justices acknowledged Tuesday that they were struggling to wrap their minds around the concept that a 13-year-old Ogden girl could be both an offender and a victim for the same act - in this case, having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. The girl was put in this odd position because she was found guilty of violating a state law that prohibits sex with someone under age 14. She also was the victim in the case against her boyfriend, who was found guilty of the same violation by engaging in sexual activity with her.

This is the inevitable result of a political climate which makes it impossible for lawmakers to oppose any legislation designed to punish "sex offenders," and where prosecutors are allowed to charge minors as adults.

Teen Both Perpetrator and Victim of Sex Offense

For nearly 20 years - ever since Pete Costello was 8 - his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf. In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn't read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car. But...

This guy got $111,000 for faking mental retardation, but Bush gets $400,000 per year for faking competence. They both owe the American taxpayer full refunds.

Man Accused of Faking Retardation

One of the teenagers responsible for beating a Holly Hill homeless man to death asked a judge to reduce his 22-year prison sentence Monday. Warren Messner and three other teens pled guilty to killing the man because they were bored, but Messner said prison is too hard.

Yeah, they're right. Prison's too hard on a 15 year old boy. They should commute the sentence of 22 years in prison to the mother and give him death.

I don't care what sort of crap they give you about the biology of adolescent children and how their thought processes work. Any child over the age of 2 can learn that hurting other people physically is about one of the most seriously wrong things you can do, even if they don't "fully grasp the concept of mortality."

Well the kid failed one of those life lessons that even a three year old can grasp, and judging by the responses by the mother, there's a high likelihood that bad parenting is partially to blame. Not only did that little cretin kill someone, he showed absolutely no remorse and no fear of any consequences, which to me means that there's been a deplorable lack of discipline. And WORSE, the mother moaning over how a prison sentence for KILLING a man is so unfair to her poor little lump of lard...

When I was a kid, and YOUNGER than this kid at that, even if I couldn't fully grasp ALL the rammifications of whatever bad behavior I might do, connecting the dots to what sort of behavior might get my ass beat was pretty easy. This sort of self-preserving logic works independently of whether or not a kid is a fat pud, as long as the kid is taught to respect the fact that every action has a consequence, good or bad, and that they will have to face up to those consequences. But this kid never got taught. Now society has to make up for her lack of discipline and punish her son in her stead at our expense.

By the way, good on the judges for saying deprivation of services is the point of prison. Now if only they pulled cable TV out of the prisons, I might believe it.

Teen Murderer Says Jail Is Too Hard, Appeals Sentence

"City leaders have apologized after a program on Tempe's cable channel showed a white police officer telling two black men they could get out of a littering ticket by performing a rap. The officer then tells the men that they can avoid getting a littering ticket "if the two of you just do a little rap about - what do you want to do a rap about? Littering? About the dangers of littering." The two men agree, and each performs a short rap, laughing afterward. Leaders of chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Action Network expressed outrage and demanded that the city act."

Now I'm not one for stereotypes, yada yada, but that is seriously some funny stuff!

Arizona Cop Had Black Men Rap Away Ticket