In recent years they have focused more on getting Internet providers to take responsibility, and behind the scenes copyright groups have lobbied governments to kick them into action.

This has resulted in mandatory “strikes” legislation in France, New Zealand and South Korea, but copyright groups want more.

In Australia, for example, there have long been talks to set up a voluntary strikes program but according to IFPI CEO Frances Moore some government pressure is needed to get the ball rolling.
“There comes a point where the government has got to intervene. How long have those talks been going on in one form or another? When government intervenes, you get action,” Moore says in an interview with Music Network.

Interestingly, the music group boss mentioned the U.S. Copyright Alert System as a prime example where government intervention paid off. While it’s not a secret that the U.S. Government took part in the negotiations, the involvement of Vice President Joe Biden was never made concrete until now.

“If you look at the U.S., you could say the new U.S. Copyright Alert System was voluntary. But one shouldn’t forget that behind it was (U.S. Vice President) Joe Biden. And Victoria Espinel, the U.S. ‘Copyright Tsar’. They were always pushing the parties to come to some type of agreement,” Moore says.

“People need to know if they don’t (reach an agreement) there will be some type of intervention,” she adds.

So judging from Moore’s comments the Vice President was personally involved in the formation of the voluntary deal. Perhaps this is also one of the reasons why the Government refuses to comply with some Freedom of Information requests regarding the copyright alert system?

It’s of course no secret that Vice President Biden is a strong anti-piracy advocate. “Piracy is theft, clean and simple,” Biden said when he announced the Joint Strategic Plan to combat intellectual property theft in 2010.

Biden is also believed to be behind the shutdown of Megaupload, according to Kim Dotcom.

The exact role of the Vice President in the formation of the Copyright Alert System will probably remain unknown. However, IFPI’s comments do show that the entire process might not have been as voluntary and transparent as the public is now led to believe.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

“Piracy hurts, it hurts our economy,” was one of the first lines Vice President Joe Biden spoke today, setting the tone for his grim speech. According to the new plan, piracy is a major threat to the US economy and a global crackdown is needed to save businesses from going bankrupt.

Interestingly, Biden’s statement stands in contrast with what the Government Accountability Office told US congress earlier this year, as it concluded that there is virtually no evidence for the claimed million dollar losses by the entertainment industry.

“Lack of data hinders efforts to quantify impacts of counterfeiting and piracy,” was one of the main conclusions from their report. In fact, copyright infringements may also benefit the entertainment industries and third parties, the Government Accountability said, adding that piracy could actually benefit the economy.

Nevertheless, Biden said that the US was going to “lead by example” and crack down on websites that allow the public to download and share copyrighted works. In addition, the US will ‘push’ foreign governments to do the same in their countries. Whether this ‘push’ would include threats similar to the ones the US made against Sweden over The Pirate Bay was left in the dark.

To top it off the Vice President reiterated the words commonly uttered by pro-copyright lobbyists such as the RIAA and MPAA. “Piracy is theft, clean and simple, it’s smash and grab,” Biden said, comparing unauthorized downloading to robbing a jewelry store. Although semantically incorrect, since ‘theft’ implies that something is taken away and not copied, the message is clear.

Aside from digital goods the US is also going to crack down on counterfeit products. According to Biden these may even be a threat to public health or national security, referring to the dramas that could come from soldiers wearing fake Kevlar vests.

On the digital side no websites or file-sharing applications were specifically named by Biden, nor are any listed in the Joint Strategic Plan. However, we expect that quite a few BitTorrent sites will be targeted, directly or indirectly.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.