The Department of Justice has obtained seizure orders against a slew of commercial websites accused of selling a wide variety of counterfeit commodities, including DVD box sets, music, software, sports equipment and handbags—82 sites all told.

"By seizing these domain names, we have disrupted the sale of thousands of counterfeit items, while also cutting off funds to those willing to exploit the ingenuity of others for their own personal gain," declared Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement released on Monday.

The action is part of "Operation In Our Sites v. 2.0"—a joint effort launched by the DoJ and the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customers Enforcement. Over the summer, version 1.0 kicked the door down on just nine sites selling pirated first-run movies. In this latest campaign, Federal agents purchased all sorts of suspect offerings online (sunglasses too), then evaluated them for authenticity.

"If the goods were confirmed as counterfeit or otherwise illegal, seizure orders for the domain names of the websites that sold the goods were obtained from U.S. magistrate judges," the statement continues. "Individuals attempting to access the websites will now find a banner notifying them that the domain name of that website has been seized by federal authorities."

"It's nothing but theft..."

The disclosure didn't come with a list of the seized domains, but this is definitely a second shoe dropping on the DoJ's promise, made earlier this year, that a new intellectual property task force will soon bring together a host of federal enforcement agencies in an effort to "confront the growing number of domestic and international intellectual property (IP) crimes."

"Look, we used to avoid saying this in this town... Piracy is theft," Vice President Joe Biden declared as the White House released its Joint Strategic Plan on IP enforcement over the summer. "Clean and simple. It's nothing but theft."

So don't hold your breath following the number of departments taking credit for this bust. They include National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) led by ICE's Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The IPR includes partners from U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the FBI; the Department of Commerce; the Food and Drug Administration; the Postal Inspection Service; and five other government agencies.

Plus nine U.S. Attorneys' Offices were in on the action, from New York, District of Columbia, Florida, Colorado, Texas, California, Ohio, New Jersey, and Washington State.

No silver bullets

No surprise that Big Content is tickled pink about this move.

"No anti-piracy initiative is a silver bullet," proclaimed the Recording Industry Association of America in a release sent to us shortly after the bust announcement, "but targeted government enforcement against the worst of the worst rogue sites sends a strong message that illegally trafficking in creative works carries real consequences and won't be tolerated."

Ditto declared the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).

"Given the state of the music industry economy, and the limited resources of our members to fight piracy, we applaud government support to ensure the rights of our community are protected from the criminal actions of those who are creating websites to illegally distribute our music," A2IM's statement concluded.