Congress looks abroad to curb piracy

[SonsOfLiberty]

The copyright infringers responsible for leaking an incomplete version of the unreleased movie "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" will likely face harsh penalties thanks to strict U.S. intellectual property laws, but copyright enforcement is still woefully inadequate abroad, representatives of the entertainment industry told members of Congress Monday.

One week after the 20th Century Fox film was found on the Internet, the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing in Los Angeles to hear from industry representatives about how to address piracy.

Committee Chair Howard Berman (D-Calif.) said he plans to introduce legislation shortly to bring more attention to intellectual property rights abroad.

The committee plans "to work more closely with other governments to provide the resources, training, legal guidance and tools which they need to alleviate the international piracy that is so devastating to American ingenuity and American jobs," Berman said.

Piracy cost the film industry $6.1 billion in 2005, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, while copyright infringement overall resulted in $18.3 billion in trade losses in 2007, according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance. Copyright infringement also costs the U.S. 750,000 jobs per year, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"We just spent billions of dollars on a stimulus package to provide jobs to millions of unemployed Americans, and if we merely focused on curtailing piracy and counterfeiting we would preserve almost a million jobs," Berman said.

While the U.S. government has cracked down on domestic piracy through legislation like the PRO-IP Act, most other countries are far behind, entertainment executives told Berman.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated that Canada has the highest level of online piracy in the world, Zach Horowitz, the president of Universal Music Group, pointed out in his prepared testimony. He asked the committee to question Canada about its legal deficiencies, such as the lack of authority Canadian customs officials have to seize counterfeit goods.

"Ask them to explain their reputation as a nation unfriendly to the policies at the heart of copyright--and the realities of the borderless digital marketplace," he said.

Many countries also need to enact stronger laws against illegal video recording, said Richard Cook, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios. More than 90 percent of the counterfeit versions of movies recently released to DVD can be traced back to illegal video recording, Cook said. As high-definition camcorders become more easily available and more affordable, he said he expects the problem to increase. Federal legislation in the U.S. had reduced illegal video recording domestically, but it remains a problem in countries such as Ukraine, the Philippines, Thailand, and Mexico.

"The increase in illegal activity in these countries has been dramatic, and there is an urgent need for action," Cook said.

He urged the committee to address this problem in future free trade agreements.

Berman noted in a prepared statement that China has chosen to enforce intellectual property rights selectively. NBC, for instance, successfully worked with Chinese authorities to remove virtually all illegal content from the 2008 Olympics. However, NBC Universal has tracked 250 million views of pirated content on approximately a half dozen Chinese video-sharing sites over the last 15 months.

NBC has been able to tamp down the illegal flow of copyrighted content in the United States as Hulu has grown to become the second most popular online video site in the U.S.

"Our experience has proven that technology can play a major role in addressing intellectual property theft if the people involved are willing to make the effort," Rick Cotton, NBC Universal's general counsel, told CNET News.

According to Horowitz's prepared testimony, getting the right people involved may mean more coordination with Internet service providers. A number of European countries are working with ISPs to prohibit the flow of stolen content.

"Their goal is to combat piracy in a way that is fair to rights holders and fair to consumers," Horowitz said. "We, too, can learn from and benefit from the ideas of our international trading partners."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10213367-38.html

[TheFoX]

The committee plans "to work more closely with other governments to provide the resources, training, legal guidance and tools which they need to alleviate the international piracy that is so devastating to American ingenuity and American jobs," Berman said.

What a load of crap.

Firstly, there are far more developed nations than the US. It may be the biggest and most wealthy, but most of Europe is way more sophisticated than the ex British colony.

Secondly, The US is more than just making films. Most of the US population do not even work in the entertainments industry, as with all countries. The biggest produce of any country is food (you cannot eat films). Of the small percentage of US citizens working in and around the film industry, only a small percentage of those are responsible for ingenuity (or lack of it).

The excuse is just another one to ensure that the rich get richer on a business model that is over 100 years old.

[pro267]

The basic assumption of the MPAA, that every movie downloaded represents X dollars lost is fundamentally flawed. I would dare say that most filesharers consume more content due to piracy than they would've otherwise had they been forced to pay for it. In fact, many people who simply can't afford to access the content legally use filesharing to that end. If movies, for example, were more accessible to the general public (read: cheaper), then many may not have resorted to piracy. The entertainment industry simply doesn't want to understand this. They're sticking to outdated economical models that tell them how to maximise profits, and will not budge from then even though the basic assumptions behind these models do not apply in today's world.

[benficao]

"We just spent billions of dollars on a stimulus package to provide jobs to millions of unemployed Americans, and if we merely focused on curtailing piracy and counterfeiting we would preserve almost a million jobs,"


Nice one. WHit this statement, they re approaching the piracy whit an all new angle, turning ppl against each other, making us, the bad apples, who cost jobs to normal ppl.

LOLOLOL.

How about, sharing the whealt off, movie actors, singers, who never worked theyre entire life, and have so much money, that they could wipe theyre ass whit 100dollar bills and still have enough money to wipe theyre shoes whit more 100dollar bills.

Sharing is caring, you guys should use your ideals, and start sharing too.

Greedy fucks.