But after reading reports from the FBI and Department of Justice about efforts to protect the nation's intellectual property, I was stunned to find so few cases involving online file sharing. Among the "significant" prosecutions the DOJ listed in 2010, only one involved the illegal distribution of digital media over the Web. In April, the DOJ won a conviction against the operator of USAwarez.com, a site that the feds claim used the Web to distribute pirated movies, games, and software. The man was sentenced to more than two years in jail. Contrast this one conviction with the scores of sites that stream pirated movies and the millions of people around the world who use peer-to-peer networks to access unauthorized copies of films, TV shows, e-books, and games. Media companies say piracy costs the U.S. economy billions and kills jobs, harming actors and musicians as well as caterers and truck drivers. Entertainment companies spend millions on lobbying efforts and all the government can muster is one "significant' digital-media prosecution. A DOJ representative did not respond to an interview request. The DOJ's 28-page report raises all kinds of questions for me. Is the commercial pirating of films and music online harder to prosecute? Are media companies hurt by this as much as they say? (The credibility of the studies that film and music sectors have cited on the impacts of piracy were called into question by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last year.) How much support in Washington do entertainment companies possess?
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