BitTorrent crackdown by FBI, Customs: readers respond

Following up on yesterday's Boing Boing post on the first-ever BitTorrent criminal bust by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, reader Breon Halling says:

I just took a peek at the site, elitetorrents.org . It's a just a frame for a page sitting here. A couple of things about that page:

1) The feds use MS Word for their page designs. Silly.
2) This one is kind of interesting. Right at the bottom of that page, in red text on a red background -- making it effectively invisible (but if you view the source or select everything on the page, you can see it) -- are the following characters: RTJKJA

I'd be interested in knowing what those letters signify. Maybe with Boing Boing power, we can figure it out!

Regarding that MS Office "code stamp," reader mediamelt asks, "Any way to check whether it was made with legally purchased software?"

Tim Bennett says,

WHOIS.NET says that the EliteTorrents registration expires on the 7th of July 2005. Given that the feds say it's been "permanently shut down", I wonder if they'll take an interest in anybody who subsequently re-registers it?

And over on the politech discussion list, CNET's Declan McCullagh writes about the DHS' seizure of elitetorrents.org:

This isn't the first time domain names have been seized. See this [article], from 2003:

WASHINGTON--Federal police have adopted a novel crime-fighting tactic: seizing control of domain names for Web sites that allegedly violate the law. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday that the domain names for several Web sites allegedly set up to sell illegal "drug paraphernalia" would be pointed at servers located at the Drug Enforcement Administration. A federal judge in Pittsburgh granted the U.S. Department of Justice permission to do so until a trial can take place, the government said.

The domain name at issue there, iSoNews.com, now redirects to freecellphones.com. Guess DOJ wasn't paying the domain name renewal fees.

Link, and see also this related Politech message.

Previously on Boing Boing: First criminal BitTorrent bust in USA: Elite Torrents

Update: Not sure if this is true, but it's certainly funny. Reader Andreas says,

"RT" (as in "RTFM") means "Read The". "JKJA", as we are reminded these days, means "Jedi Knight Jedi Academy"; there's also a Raven Software / LucasArts game of the same title and commonly referred to by the same acronym. While "Read The Jedi Knight Jedi Academy" doesn't make much sense to me, "Raid The Jedi Knight Jedi Academy" sounds more plausible, especially since the elitetorrents.org site has been blamed for spreading Episode 3 to an interested public.