With reports of digital piracy increasing by more than 60 percent in some countries during the past 12 months, INTERPOL is launching a new project to tackle this fast-growing crime area. With 2.7 million euro funding from the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, the five-year INTERPOL Stop Online Piracy (I-SOP) initiative will counter online piracy and crimes involving intellectual property rights infringement, identifying and dismantling linked illicit online marketplaces, as well as targeting the criminal networks and confiscating their assets. The Korean National Police Agency will play an important role in collaborating with INTERPOL to build partnerships with industry, international organizations, and academia. The initiative will coordinate the global law enforcement response to digital piracy which can be highly lucrative for criminals with very low risk. It also has a negative impact on the creative sector and economies, ultimately affecting consumers. In a virtual ceremony, INTERPOL Secretary General Jurgen Stock, Hwang Hee, Korea's Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Kim Chang-Yong, Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency, signed the agreement in support of I-SOP. The project is also aimed at raising public awareness of the risks linked to digital piracy. Pirated content can be used to spread malware, trojans, and viruses which can result in firewalls and updates being disabled resulting in enhanced security risks. Although INTERPOL has a long history in combating intellectual property crime, this will be the first project dedicated to the fight against digital piracy. — Agencies
