Spoiler:
Show
The Obama administration Tuesday brought together more than a dozen top entertainment industry executives for a roundtable discussion about stepping up the government's effort to combat the theft of intellectual property.
Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., among others, met at the White House Conference Center with executives from such IP-dependent companies as Sony, NBC Universal, Viacom and Warner Brothers. White House officials called the Dec. 15 gathering the first of its kind.
"Intellectual piracy is costing this country billions of dollars and thousands of jobs," Biden said in opening remarks. "Unless we better coordinate all the resources of the federal government to deal with this problem, it's likely only to get worse."
Biden called IP theft "flat, unadulterated theft" that must be dealt with. "We are committed to making some real inroads to stop the talking and start the acting," he said.
Holder called the protection of IP rights a top priority at the U.S. Department of Justice. The attorney general said he's already met with several industry executives to discuss the issue. "The Department of Justice is hard at work, but we can do more and we will do more," Holder said.
The department, Holder said, is "reinvigorating" a Justice task force to examine the protection of intellectual property. Greater international cooperation is key, he said. "This is not a problem that the United States can by itself solve."
The discussion followed a Dec. 14 announcement of the results of Operation Holiday Hoax, a law enforcement initiative that targeted the importation and distribution of counterfeit and pirated goods. The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America said the sting resulted in the seizure of nearly 160,000 counterfeit DVDs and CDs. Overall, authorities said they seized goods — including clothing, shoes, handbags, perfume, stationery, phones and pharmaceuticals — valued at more than $26 million.
White House officials allowed the press to attend the roundtable discussion only to hear the opening remarks from Biden, Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.
