ICE’s Counterfeit Crackdown

A federal operation recently targeted numerous websites charged with selling pirated copies of copyrighted music, movies and software.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s “In Our Sites” operation issued seizure orders against 82 domain names of online retailers that offered mostly Chinese-made counterfeit goods.

Visitors to the sites are now reportedly met with messages that copyright infringement is a federal crime with penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and trafficking in counterfeit goods carries a 10-year sentence and a $2 million fine.