Meet the DoJ's 'Anti-Piracy' Lawyers

This week's Slashdot interview guests are the 'point people' for Federal criminal actions against online file-traders and software misapproprators. They know some Slashdot readers may have little sympathy for what they do all day. Be that as it may, this is a great chance to understand what it's like on the enforcement side of the intellectual property coin. We have a special set of 'ground rules' for this interview (below) supplied by the Department of Justice that we must ask you to read before submitting questions. From the DoJ (verbatim):

Answering your questions will be the attorneys assigned to prosecute intellectual property crimes in the Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). Spearheading this group will be Michael O'Leary, Deputy Chief for Intellectual Property who oversees the day-to-day intellectual property enforcement operations. Here is some background on CCIPS and their intellectual property efforts:

CCIPS began as a small group within DOJ in 1991, with a focus on network crimes (e.g. hacking into machines, destructive worms and viruses, denial of service attacks), intellectual property crimes (e.g. software piracy and counterfeiting), and electronic evidence issues. CCIPS is part of the Criminal Division of DOJ (which, as its name suggests, is primarily responsible for enforcement of federal criminal laws). Today, the section has grown to almost 40 lawyers, of whom about a dozen focus on IP issues. (Please keep in mind that it will be the IP prosecutors answering questions here, so save your non-IP-related hacking or electronic evidence issues for another time.)

What do the attorneys assigned to IP at CCIPS do? The IP prosecutors in the Section are responsible for establishing and enforcing the Department's overall intellectual property rights enforcement program, including the prosecution of federal intellectual property crimes. In some instances, CCIPS handles the prosecution of intellectual property cases. More frequently they work closely with prosecutors in the U.S. Attorneys' Offices around the country who handle the vast majority of federal criminal prosecutions, both IP and non-IP. They also provide training on IP issues for prosecutors and law enforcement, both domestically and internationally. Other responsibilities include reviewing new policy proposals, legislation, or international agreements related to IP, and providing advice to other government agencies or components of DOJ. The prosecutors also work closely with foreign law enforcement counterparts to coordinate IP enforcement activities around the globe.

While they are committed to fully answering your questions, as Department of Justice attorneys, they are subject to various Federal laws, Department of Justice rules, and ethics rules. They are not permitted to provide legal advice to individual private citizens. This means that there is no attorney-client relationship between CCIPS and Slashdot readers, users, or moderators (and answering questions on Slashdot should not be interpreted as creating one). Therefore, they will not answer questions seeking legal advice. Finally, they cannot discuss ongoing cases, investigations or related hypotheticals.

To learn more about the Department of Justice or the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, visit the following web sites, www.usdoj.gov and www.cybercrime.gov.

Comments

Good

[mikeage]

Finally, they cannot discuss ongoing cases, investigations or related hypotheticals.

While this may mean no "let's-get-'em" questions, I look forward to seeing what happens. This will be a chance to actually hear good questions and good answers, as opposed to questions that are really statements and answers that are "no comments".

Re:no hypotheticals?

[Eccles]

Against Bush's tax plan? Then explain to me why people who don't pay income tax deserve a tax refund/credit.

Because the deficit is going up again by $400 million this year, which means the tax cuts are placing an extra burden on the young, not "giving us our money back." To do the latter they'd actually have to cut spending, but we know that's not nearly so popular. Americans are already too good at building up debt on their credit cards, stop borrowing in their name and then say you're giving them something.

Read slashdot

[Romeozulu]

Q1: Do you, or anyone in your office, regularly read slashdot?

Re:Burn My Karma So You Don't Have To Burn Yours

[bofkentucky]

no bullshit party

Re:Here's my goddamned question:

[stripe]

DMCA makes it illegal for you to take a DVD series you bought legally that came in 4 DVD's of 30 min each and compile it into 1 DVD which you burn to watch without having to swap 4 DVD's in/out of the recorder. So sue me for being too lazy to walk up to the dammed DVD player every 30 minutes. FYI, it is also illegal for me to make a copy of that DVD bypassing all the stupid crap they put DVD's now. I just want to plop a DVD into my machine and sit and vegitate for a couple of hours not have to sit and push buttons for the next 5 min through all those crap menu's that pop up.