In preparation for a Double Dragon-style back alley knife fight with the steadily-growing menace of intellectual property theft in the United States, the US Department of Justice announced the formation of its Task Force on Intellectual Property late last week. As Digital Music News reports, the Task Force was detailed by Attorney General Eric Holder, possibly via a blog he posted in his underwear, because I can’t imagine any press fighting through the blizzards last week to cover this. “The rise in intellectual property crime in the United States and abroad threatens not only our public safety but also our economic well being,” Holder typed in between sips of a hot Roy Rogers (Gross, right? But that’s the way he likes them.)
At this stage, it remains unclear exactly what kinds of “egg-sucking gutter-trash” the Task Force will attempt to carve-up after quipping 90s Woverine-isms, and the potential future-implications for ISPs haven’t been spelled out either. But the whole Task Force thing comes close on the heels of an IP-related meeting with Vice President Joe Biden in December that featured top executives from the film, software, and music industries. That assemblage was heavily tilted towards intellectual property owners, however, with consumer advocates and technology industries conspicuously absent. “This administration is committed to stronger and stricter enforcement of intellectual property rights, and this new task force is a step in the right direction,” Biden stated.
So there you go. There IS a special task force on the way. And it might do some stuff that might have some implications down the road. And it’s coming for your illegal, same sex marriage-supporting Katy Perry downloads.
