Top Administration officials today announced a new public education campaign created in partnership with the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) about intellectual property theft and its victims. Attorney General Eric Holder said, “As our country continues to recover from once-in-a-generation economic challenges, the need to safeguard intellectual property rights – and to protect Americans from intellectual [...]

The American Consumer Institute today announced the results of a survey illustrating that a vast majority of American consumers support stronger protection against websites trafficking pirated and counterfeit goods. The survey of 800 consumers found that 82 percent agreed that counterfeit goods, such as knock-off products, pirated software and imitation pharmaceuticals hurt the economy. Consumers [...]

Today is widely known as “Cyber Monday” in homage to the millions of online purchases consumers typically make the first workday after Thanksgiving weekend.  To protect U.S. consumers from the harmful activities of domestically held web sites that illegally sell and distribute counterfeit merchandise, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the National [...]

Opponents of this legislation would have you believe that it would somehow give rightsholders unilateral ability to shut down any site that contains any infringing content. This is incorrect.  Rightsholders do not have the ability to act unilaterally.  They do not have the right to seek to shut a site down or make it inaccessible, [...]

Today in his blog on Politico.com, Ben Smith echoed our concerns regarding a guest column in Wednesday’s New York Times by Rebecca MacKinnon.  In that column she made hyperbolic claims about the Stop Online Piracy Act, but nowhere in the article is it acknowledged that MacKinnon’s New America Foundation is primarily funded by Google and others in [...]

In the midst of the debate over bills intended to preserve jobs in the creative sector, like the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, it is easy to focus purely on the economic contributions and significance of the creative community.   But that misses the bigger picture. Artists and creators are storytellers first [...]

A guest column in today’s New York Times may have set new records for overblown rhetoric about legislative efforts to curb offshore rogue websites profiting from illegal distribution of American intellectual property. In it, Rebecca MacKinnon of the New America Foundation accuses the bipartisan legislation of establishing blacklists, firewalls and censorship. Scary indeed, and who [...]

The Internet’s role in commerce has opened unprecedented opportunities for creators and businesses to connect with fans and consumers, and given fans and consumers formerly unimaginable access to products and services they otherwise wouldn’t have. Unfortunately, the mounting problem of offshore criminal websites is jeopardizing this thriving marketplace and putting consumers at risk. Also known [...]

Efforts in the U.S. House and Senate to crack down on rogue websites trafficking in pirated and counterfeited goods have drawn criticism from voices who claim the legislation would “break the Internet.” From a pure common sense standpoint, this statement just doesn’t pass the smell test. But we have dug into the details to provide, [...]

Copyright Alliance Legal Advisory Board Member, Steve Metalitz of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP participated in the Congressional Internet Caucus panel, “Debating Congressional Anti-Piracy Legislation: What Do PROTECT IP and SOPA Mean For The Internet?” yesterday on Capitol Hill. The Congressional Internet Caucus, Co-Chaired by Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Thune (R-SD) and Reps. Goodlatte (R-CA) [...]