Operation Seizing Our Sites: How the Federal Government Is Taking Domain Names Without Prior Notice

This Note examines the intellectual property enforcement effort by the federal government, named "Operation In Our Site," which seizes and then forfeits domain names suspected of facilitating in copyright or counterfeiting violations. Although this effort is backed by noble policy concerns, the ex parte in rem seizure of a website gives the government the power to seize a domain without any prior notice to the website owner, thus raising due process and free speech concerns.