Operation In Our Sites

Operation In Our Sites is an ongoing effort by the U.S. government's National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center to detect and hinder intellectual property violations on the Internet. Pursuant to this operation, governmental agencies arrest suspects affiliated with the targeted websites and seize their assets including websites' domain names. Web users intending to access targeted websites are directed to the server operated by the U.S. government, and greeted with a graphic bearing the seals of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (NIPRCC), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In 2008, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 (PRO-IP Act of 2008, H.R. 4279) was established to increase civil and criminal penalties for trademark, patent and copyright infringement. The civil forfeiture provision of 18 U.S.C. § 2323 amended the PRO-IP Act and provided the legal basis of Operation In Our Sites. The provision provides that any property used to commit or facilitate infringement of intellectual property rights would be subject to forfeiture to the United States Government.

To protect their intellectual property, major intellectual property owners and their representatives have strengthened U.S. government enforcement of intellectual property rights. According to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), which was the position at the White House created by the PRO-IP Act through 15 U.S.C. § 8111 to coordinate U.S. governmental agencies that carry out the law's purpose, several policy rationales informed intellectual property enforcement, including:

NIPRCC also reasoned that Operation In Our Sites would protect consumers' health and safety because Operation In Our Sites targets websites that sell counterfeit medicine.

"Operation In Our Sites was the most aggressive federal enforcement effort ever launched against copyright infringement online...the program would use an unprecedented tactic, site domain seizure, to shut down websites offering copyrighted material."

The domain name seizure process used by Operation In Our Sites was codified in 18 U.S.C. § 981(b)(2), which provides a legal framework for property seizures by the government. Before the seizure, government officials are supposed to investigate suspected websites to find out if they actually purchase or access counterfeit items. The government then contacts the copyright holders to confirm ownership of the intellectual property and suspected infringement. Following the investigation, ICE and NIPRCC officials present the resulting evidence to the U.S. Attorneys, and check the domain name registration.
If the domain name was registered in the U.S., the government petitions a magistrate judge to issue a seizure warrant for the domain name. With the warrant, the domain name's title and rights are transferred to the U.S. government. After the seizure, the government is supposed to send a written notice of the forfeiture deadline to the website operator within 60 days from the seizure date. The website owner can file the claim against the government within 35 days after receiving the notice. If the owner files a claim, the government has 90 days to prove that the property is subject to forfeiture. If the owner does not make a claim against the seizure, or the government successfully proves a valid seizure, the domain name is forfeited to the government.

After the seizure the domain name registry alters registered information about the domain name, including the IP address on its domain name server (DNS), as property of the U.S. government. When a user intends to access the website from a domain that has been seized, DNS servers reply with the government server's IP address. Initially a user who attempts to access the targeted website is directed to the governmental server and faced with the agencies' banner; in March 2014 this changed and users are instead redirected to YouTube in order to watch ICE's campaign video.

It is unclear how effective Operation In Our Sites has been in preventing websites that harm the U.S. economy, but agencies have seized a significant amount of funds and counterfeit goods from targeted websites. In April and May 2012, both DOJ and ICE released figures indicating that they had seized more than $896,000 funds and $1,500,000 counterfeit goods on commercial websites as a part of the Operation In Our Sites.