Department of Justice to Crack Down on Copyright-Infringing Websites

According to a recent Politico article, Victoria Espinel, who is the Intellectual Property “Czar” under the Obama Administration, said that the President’s administration will begin to crack down harder on copyright infringement, and that we should expect more pre-emptive action against it. “We can no longer sit on the sidelines while American intellectual property is stolen and sold online using our own infrastructure,” Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement. Now the interesting thing here is that it’s not just online copyright infringement, but also the illegal copying and sale of pharmaceutical drugs. Espinel said she has help meetings with Google, GoDaddy, American Express, and Microsoft, among others, on how they can shut down the websites selling illegal drugs. But still, the entertainment industry is rejoicing at this announcement. Just recently the government shut down over 80 websites that were “believed to be facilitating the sale of counterfeit goods and the sharing of illegally obtained movies, songs and TV shows.”