A large batch of domain names used with former pirate websites are available for grabs on the free market

Jul 7, 2015 13:56 GMT  ·  By
The PIPCU banner that shows up on domain names seized by the UK police force
   The PIPCU banner that shows up on domain names seized by the UK police force

After bragging on Twitter that it received more than 11 million views on its banners displayed on domains seized for piracy-related infractions, the UK's PIPCU (Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit) has apparently forgotten to renew some of them.

The situation is similar to what the FBI went through at the end of May when it apparently forgot to renew many domains it has seized for various offenses.

Amongst the most notable domains in that batch were Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com, which at one point were also showing ads redirecting people to malware-infested Web pages.

Now the UK's PIPCU is going through the same process, with many of its seized domains showing up for sale, or just presenting random, generic ads.

According to TorrentFreak, some of the domains showing up for sales are torrenticity.com, piratereverse.info, and h33tunblock.info.

mp3lemon.org, boxinggureu.tv, katunblock.com, fenopyreverse.info, and Potlocker.re are currently showing ads, while the following domains have simply expired, and can be claimed by anyone: movie2kproxy.com, movie4kproxy.com, eztvproxy.net, metricity.org, yifiproxy.net, and torrentproxies.com.

The freed up domains can be claimed again

A possible reason why these domains have been left to expire may be financial, PIPCU having to pay the yearly renewal fee for each domain after it legally gains control over it.

As you can imagine, this can mount up pretty quickly to thousands or tens of thousands of pounds per year, money most police departments don't have.

This also seems to be the faith of other similarly seized domains, and some of their owners, if not in jail, can claim them back at future points.

It is worth mentioning that PIPCU cannot re-seize a domain from the new owner if he doesn't carry out piracy-related activity on his new site, so the domains are also legally free of any wrong-doing their former owner committed.