February 2011 U.S. authorities seized several domains belonging to major sports streaming sites. One of the affected domains was Channelsurfing.net, a website where links to external sports streams were listed. The site itself did not host any streams, but linked to those offered by third-party sites. In addition to seizing its domain name, ICE and HSI classified the site as a criminal operation and a month later they arrested the alleged owner, the then 32-year old Brian McCarthy from Texas. The ChannelSurfing operator was charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement for his involvement with the site. The indictment stated that McCarthy “did willfully infringe a copyright for purposes of financial gain.” In the two years that followed there wasn’t much progress in the case. …

See the article here:  
U.S. ‘Pirate’ Streaming Site Operator Gets Amnesty