US Government Launches Crackdown on Internet Piracy

Recently there has been a big crackdown on internet piracy from the US government. The government is trying to cut back on websites that show pirated copies of newly released movies such as Sex in the City 2, Prince of Persia, and The Karate Kid. These sites thrive off of illegally obtained copies of the newly released movies which they display links to on their site. The companies profit off of the ad revenue from the large amount of traffic these pirated videos give.

Among the sites that have been seized by the federal government are tvshack.net, Now-Movies.com, Thepiratecity.org, filespump.com, planetmoviez.com and zml.com. The biggest site that has been seized is Movies-links.tv. This site is said to be one of the most popular places in the world for people to view pirated movies and tv-shows with millions of people visiting the site every day from around the world. The reason for the crackdown from the government is response in order to attempt to enforce copyright laws. Another problem the government has with sites, like the ones listed above in the recent crackdown, is that they cost the US economy billions upon billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The recent crackdown shows an interesting development in the way our government has control over the internet. The internet is an interesting place to try to govern however as it is an intangible thing. Another factor that makes the internet a hard place to enforce law is that many of the sites are global. They can be accessed from around the world and in some cases the servers that run the sites are located all around the world. The future of internet prosecution will be interesting to see develop as it seems a world wide universal law is needed in order to effectively prosecute sites on the internet.

It is still unclear just how effective the latest crackdown will be in stopping piracy. The internet is a giant place that is growing bigger everyday and it moves much faster than laws do. Having said this there will always be sites on the internet that will host this illegal material. Just a few hours after the site tvshack.net was shut down another site that is the exact replica of the last was created. Stopping internet piracy is a battle that will never end and can never be fully won. As of now Governments, as well as individuals on the internet, will continue to struggle to find the equilibrium between freedom of choice and piracy.