US government agencies, media industry advocacy groups and the US Chamber of Commerce have teamed up with the US National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) and the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which oversees the IPR Center; to launch Operation Intangibles, a multi-purpose partnership aimed at fighting piracy.
The initiative has strong media industry support.
Media industry advocates participating in Operation Intangibles include the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and ACE, the Alliance for Creativity in Entertainment; which represent the movie industry.
CTAM, an industry marketing organization, will champion these efforts to consumers through its StreamSafely initiative. CTAM’s goal to reduce the financial impact of piracy by identifying consumer behavioral drivers will begin with a hyper-targeted communications plan to inform and educate unwitting consumers on the risks associated with accessing pirated content.
As noted, the Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) of the US Chamber of Commerce, which published a widely cited study in 2019, is also a participant.
Read the National IPR Coordination Center Press Release
Also, HSI posted a video Public Service Announcement (PSA) on its Web site, which is aimed to consumers.
Watch HSI PSA
Why it matters
The overall mission of Operation Intangibles is to supplement HSI’s digital piracy investigations and other intellectual property rights investigations related to the mission of the IPR Center. These include connecting resources and sharing information within the anti-piracy community.
This high-profile collaboration is similar in spirit and scope to coordination efforts between intellectual property and law enforcement agencies, regional and country-level law enforcement, local police and media companies in the European Union, the UK and elsewhere.
It “will implement an aggressive multi-layered strategy to restore the digital ecosystem, educate consumers on the dangers of illegal streaming, enforce the nation’s intellectual property rights laws, and dismantle criminal enterprises that operate on the internet – thinking they are untouchable and above the law,” said Derek Benner, Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
