82 domain names of websites “engaged in the illegal sale and
distribution of counterfeit goods and copyright works.”
The illegal goods include sports equipment, shoes,
handbags and sunglasses, as well as the usual merchandise: illegal
copies of copyrighted DVD boxed sets, music and software.
Federal law enforcement agents made undercover
purchases from online retailers suspected of selling counterfeit goods,
which in many cases were shipped to the U.S. directly from suppliers in
other countries using international express mail.
“Intellectual property crimes are not victimless,” said Attorney General
threaten economic opportunities and financial stability, suppress
innovation and destroy jobs.”
The operation, which involved several federal
agencies, comes six months after authorities seized domain names of
eight websites offering pirated copies of first-run movies. One of
those sites, TVShack.net, shut down only to pop up under a similar
name, TVShack.cc.
That
“We are not going to go away,” Morton said.
The film industry’s leading trade group was happy with the crackdown.
called the Internet sites ” ‘the worst of the worst’ rogue websites,
which cloak themselves in respectability and yet traffic in counterfeit
and stolen goods.”
———
(c) 2010,
Visit the
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
