White House launches campaign against IP crimes

The US government launched a campaign last week to raise awareness among the public of intellectual property crimes.

The announcement came hard on the heels of a wide-ranging operation to disrupt the online sale of counterfeit goods - dubbed "In Our Sites" - which resulted in the takedown of 150 domain names of websites engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyrighted works.

The operation was timed to coincide with so-called Cyber Monday, the busiest on-line shopping day of the year, and targets the gamut of counterfeit goods purchased online from fake medicines to illegal movie and music downloads.

The campaign will take the form of TV and radio public service announcements and print advertisements, and will try to mobilise the public to report IP-related crime to thecybercime.gov, fbi.gov and iprcenter.gov websites.

An example of the PSAs can be seen below:



Speaking at an event to publicise the launch, US 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 IP crimes – has never been more urgent. But, in many ways, this work has also never been more difficult."

Holder said there has been an "alarming increase" in IP crimes in recent years, and that it is important for the general public to understand the threat and impact of counterfeit goods and to become "vigilant partners" in fighting the activity.

Public education is required because "the lure of the bargain overcomes the moral compass every time," said Ann Harkins, president and CEO of the National Crime Prevention Council, at the event.