White House to continue copyright crackdown

The Obama administration is just getting started in its mission to shut down rogue websites that illegally share copyrighted content such as movies and music.

The White House's intellectual property czar, Victoria Espinel, said that the Internet community should "expect more of that" pre-emptive action as the administration ramps up its efforts to combat online copyright infringement -- especially the illegal copying and sale of pharmaceutical drugs. "We are going after the piraters and counterfeiters," Espinel said at a Brookings Institution conference on Internet policy, adding that intellectual property infringement is a "direct threat" to consumers and jobs. Espinel's remarks come only a week after the Department of Justice shuttered more than 80 websites believed to be facilitating the sale of counterfeit goods and the sharing of illegally obtained movies, songs and TV shows. That effort, timed for "cyber Monday," was the second leg of the agency's Operation in Our Sites campaign -- which targeted nine websites that offered pirated movies.