Leahy praises administration officials for domain seizures

By Gautham Nagesh - 06/22/11 04:49 PM ET

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) highlighted the Obama administration's recent crackdown on digital piracy on Wednesday, crediting officials for seizing domains of sites trafficking in counterfeit goods.

At an Oversight hearing for the administration's intellectual property enforcement efforts Leahy praised White House IP Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel for ramping up the administration's efforts to stop online counterfeiting and piracy.

"You should all know that your work has the support of this committee. While there are many issues in which our members have spirited disagreements, the protection of intellectual property is not one of them," Leahy said.

"There is a long way to go to combat the problem of intellectual property infringement, but you have accomplished a great deal in a short time."

Leahy specifically pointed to "Operation In Our Sites" by the Justice Department and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has targeted sites that distribute counterfeit goods and pirated digital content. The operation has resulted in the seizures of 125 domain names associated with piracy to date.

Visitors to those domains now encounter a notice explaining that willful copyright infringement is a federal crime. ICE Assistant Deputy Director Erik Barnett said the notice has received more than 60 million hits since last June.

"In addition to the domain names that are seized through this operation, evidence suggests that the operation has a deterrent effect," Barnett said in his prepared remarks, noting that 81 of the most popular websites for pirated material voluntarily shut down after the first wave of seizures.

Espinel highlighted other examples of successful enforcement actions in her testimony, such as the seizure of $143 million in counterfeit Cisco hardware, but the domain seizures are of particular interest because of a bill passed unanimously by the committee last month that would likely widen the practice.

The PROTECT IP Act would make it easier for the Justice Department to seize domain names, raising concerns among some critics that the bill would lead to government censorship of the Web.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) placed a hold on the bill last month while negotiations take place over narrowing the authorities conveyed by the legislation.