BREAKING: RapGodFathers, OnSmash 'Raided' by Homeland Security & Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- Sites Closed Down (Behind the Copyright Infringement Controversy)

As written by enigmax for TorrentFreak...

Following raids earlier in the year which took out several sites and domain names connected to the streaming of Hollywood movies, we can now report fresh Department of Homeland Security / Immigration and Customs Enforcement action against a site in the music sector.

Acting on a search warrant issued on 23rd November and signed by United States Magistrate Judge Jeff Kaplan, DHS and ICE agents arrived at a Dallas datacenter Tuesday with orders to take down the 146,500 member RapGodFathers site (RGF), seize its servers and gather evidence on its owners, administrators and moderators.

The same, apparently, has also happened to OnSmash, another major hip hop site.




And — no shock here — the OnSmash team wasn't warned or provided with an explanation.



Interestingly, as pointed out by John Gotty of The Smoking Section, this Federal action occurred less than a week after a Senate panel approved a controversial domain name seizure bill.



enigmax continues:

[RapGodFathers] had been in operation since 2005 and the authorities were authorized to take evidence relating to all activities right back to April 1st of that year.

"We only link to mixtapes, albums in the hiphop/rap genre," a senior staff member told TorrentFreak this morning.

"Lots of those mixtapes help new artists become much bigger for example Drake, Chamillionaire, Wiz Khalifa. It also gives the users to listen to an album before buying it to judge the quality. Almost 99% of the time if people on RGF liked the album and posted positive comments, that given artist had a big success."

The same can certainly be said for OnSmash, as well as all the other sites devoted to preserving Hip Hop, promoting dedicated artists and getting music out to the fans — and we got proof:

• Our GYMR Resident Emcee AWKWORD has expanded his fan base significantly since beginning in late 2009 to submit to — and receive support from — 2DopeBoyz, XXL, Kevin Nottingham, Hip Hop Chronicle and other leading sites.
• Here at GYMR, we don't post as much music as the aforementioned sites, as we focus equally on street culture, art, fashion and politics; however, when we do post music, we do so WITH THE ARTIST'S PERMISSION (as we imagine the other sites do too).

So, Feds, before you start busting down our doors, do your research. And GTFOH!