As Attorney General, Eric Holder could help war on piracy

Apparently, President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of Attorney General to Eric H. Holder Jr., a former US Attorney as well as top Justice Department official in the Clinton administration. Holder could be a strong ally in the entertainment industry's ongoing war on piracy. As deputy attorney general under Clinton, Holder oversaw federal efforts to combat what officials then referred to as "high-tech crime." In a January 2000 speech, Holder described high-tech crimes "and the challenges they pose as among the highest priorities for the Dept. of Justice and for me personally." Six months earlier, Holder had declared IP crime a priority and announced the launch of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Initiative, a joint operation between the Justice Dept., the FBI and U.S. Customs targeting various forms of piracy. The initiative's first bust was in Los Angeles, netting more than $13 million in bootlegged software and music. "Under a plea agreement, the defendant and his accomplice agreed to forfeit 387,000 counterfeit music and computer CDs and manufacturing equipment worth more than $1.5 million," Holder said in his speech. Shortly afterward, officials arrested 10 people in Manhattan and charged them with operating a counterfeit motion picture ring. Agents seized more than 300 video cassette recorders and tens of thousands of video cassettes, Holder said.