Lots of people talk about file-sharing - cut em off or sue em?
America’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator - or Copyright Czar as she is often dubbed - Victoria Espinel, did a spot at the Future Of Music Policy Summit in Washington earlier this week and, according to the Chicago Tribune, confirmed that work was already underway in US government circles to persuade internet service providers Stateside to play a more proactive role in policing piracy. She didn’t talk about three-strikes, but it’s what she meant.
As previously reported, Espinel published a 33 point plan for protecting intellectual property in the digital age back in June, at a press conference where US Vice President Joe Biden said “piracy is theft, clean and simple - it’s smash and grab, it ain’t no different than smashing a window at Tiffany’s”. Of all the things mentioned in her original document, she honed in on three at the Washington music conference this week: pressurising ISPs to act; new measures to block websites that infringe, especially those based outside the US; and a review of American copyright law.