US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel’s Comments at the World Copyright Summit

Last week, “IP Czar” Victoria Espinel was featured as a keynote speaker at the World Copyright Summit, organized by the International  Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.  The Wall Street Journal and Tech Dirt report that she described an expanding the role of internet service providers in IP Enforcement.  She stressed a preference for  voluntary participation by ISPs, rather than more “inappropriate regulations,” and noted that the government is talking to Google about what they can do on a voluntary basis.  She said one option for cutting down on piracy is to “make sure that illegal streaming–a form of ‘distribution’ online–is a felony, in the same way that more traditional forms of distribution are.”

Ms. Espinel also discussed the growing role of cloud-based services, suggesting that the new technologies might give consumers alternatives to illegally downloading content.  She reaffirmed that the U.S. government is committed to taking down “rogue” sites, and described domain name seizures carried out under Operation In Our Sites. 

Regarding the recent G8 declaration on IP Enforcement, Ms. Espinel said:

Two weeks ago the G8 leaders agreed to protect intellectual property rights and to take effective actions against violations of intellectual property rights in the digital arena, including actions that address present and future infringements. The G8 Declaration specifically recognized not just the importance of intellectual property enforcement, but the need to need to have national laws and frameworks for improved intellectual property  enforcement.

World Copyright Summit Resources:

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  • Mike Palmedo

    Mike Palmedo is the admin for infojustice.org, and he manages interdisciplinary research on copyright exceptions at American University College of Law's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property. He has Masters degrees Economics and in International Affairs, and is an economics PhD candidate.

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