The very fact that ICE is involved in IP enforcement is itself a pretty shameful anachronism. If the US Government wants to have a department that acts as the enforcement arm of the content industry's copyright battles, then it should create a division whose primary duties are not "chasing down Mexicans". The link between bootlegging and the borders hasn't been germaine in over a decade, and asking ICE to be responsible for enforcement is almost guaranteed to cause the sorts of issues we've seen so far with regards to inappropriate ___domain name seizures and illegal requests made of organizations like Mozilla.
I don't personally believe that the gov't has any business acting as a uniformed proxy for the RIAA and MPAA, but if they're going to take on that role they need to create an organization with the mandate to do so, a clear mission statement, and transparent statements and limitations of power. They need to be independent of the content industry, and operate within well-defined boundaries if they are to have any legitimacy.
Actually, "chasing down Mexicans" was not one of the department's duties until very recently. For a long time, Customs was almost exclusively concerned with illegal imports and counterfeiting. It was only within the last 10 years that Customs got merged with the Immigration & Naturalization Service as part of Homeland Security's organization.
Chasing down mexicans could be either Border Patrol or ICE, depending on whether said mexicans are near the border or are deeper in the interior of the country.
> if they're going to take on that role they need to create an organization with the mandate to do so, a clear mission statement, and transparent statements and limitations of power.
I guess the FBI has too many cumbersome rules to be trusted with criminal investigation.
I don't personally believe that the gov't has any business acting as a uniformed proxy for the RIAA and MPAA, but if they're going to take on that role they need to create an organization with the mandate to do so, a clear mission statement, and transparent statements and limitations of power. They need to be independent of the content industry, and operate within well-defined boundaries if they are to have any legitimacy.