espinel It is no surprise that illicit peer-to-peer circulation of e-books has been getting more attention lately. Along with movies, TV shows, and music, e-books have been traded via peer-to-peer for as long as peer-to-peer has existed. All this file-trading is part of why the PRO-IP act appointed an Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, or “copyright czar” (though counterfeit goods seem to be the most pressing reason).

BoingBoing and Ars Technica point to an introductory blog post made by this czar, Victoria Espinel, in which she talks about the duties of her office and how she plans to carry them out. The blog post seems to emphasize commercial piracy and counterfeiting operations; I can find hardly any direct references to peer-to-peer.

We want to be able to reduce the number of infringing goods in the United States and abroad.  The examples are almost endless: counterfeit car parts, illegal software, pirated video games, knockoff consumer goods, dangerous counterfeit medicines, and many other types of products – including very sophisticated technology.

Ms. Espinel goes on to state that in order to find out how to measure those threats, her office is asking for public input (PDF file link) on the issues at hand. The submission deadline is March 24, 2010.

It should go without saying that the various “MAFIAA” interest groups and associated big businesses are making themselves heard on what they want in the way of copyright enforcement. But this request is open to the general public.

If you are concerned about what types of actions the government should take to combat intellectual property violation (up to and including, as BoingBoing commenters suggest, redefining intellectual property violation), you should make yourself heard.

This is a really important time in the era of copyright and counterfeit enforcement. World governments are colluding to write the ACTA IP treaty in secret, and document leaks suggest that there will be a lot of reason to be unhappy with the result. It would be a good idea to take advantage of this opportunity to influence the government’s treatment of IP, because you can be sure the groups you disagree with already are.

Related: US Justice Department creates intellectual property taskforce

2 COMMENTS

  1. Espinel’s mention of “illegal software” may be considered to include e-books, as many groups define them as software… and as software is often distributed via P2P networks, there’s the connection.

    I do think e-books are low on the govt’s radar, though… an incidental issue at best, given its relatively low financial impact compared to the other counterfeit products.

    Even so… comment may raise the issue with them to a considerable extent, and we e-book parties may still be able to provide some insight to the process. (You’d hope some of us readers are that smart…)

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