73,000 blogs disappear into thin air

As faithful readers of this site know, even blogs that have been dormant for a while can come back to provide you the best in technology, hardware, and industry news.  But what happens to sites that are seemingly shut down for no reason?  73,000 blogs are about to find out.

Blogetery.com was shut down on July 9, and iPBFree.com disappeared in the next week.  No reasons are forthcoming, as everybody who seems to know something claims to be legally restricted from saying anything.  However, both sites have released a few details that match up, claiming that the sites are permanently shut down and that they obeyed copyright law.

The secrecy and lack of warning for both sites has raised some serious questions, such as to what the nature of the offense could be, and whether due process was followed.  Benjamin Arcus, VP of BurstNet (the former web host of Blogotery) says that the issue was not copyright related, but that a law enforcement agency was involved.  What could users have been doing on these sites that prompted such immediate action?

One anonymous cybercrime investigator in particular has questioned the legality of shutting down sites hosting thousands of people without prior legal process.  Generally, this involves obtaining search warrants and IP addresses of offenders.  Clearly, there’s something deeper going on here.

Keep an eye on Tony Talks Tech, as well as other tech news sites like CNET, for more on this story as it develops.  No one can be sure how this’ll all play out, but when it does, it’s likely to be a doozy.