TALKBACK

EMA backs pending anti-piracy measure

MARCH 3 | The Entertainment Merchants Assn. is supporting a proposed federal government measure that would increase a crackdown on illegally duplicated movies, videogames and other forms of content.

The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act (PRO IP), which is being reviewed by the U.S. House of Representatives, will help “strengthen and protect our nation’s creative industries and the retailers that deliver that creativity to consumers worldwide,” EMA president Bo Andersen wrote in a letter sent today to John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan), chairman of the U.S. House judiciary committee.

The act, the most aggressive of its kind since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed a decade ago, was introduced in December as a way to protect creative and intellectual property rights. Counterfeiting and piracy costs the U.S. as much as $250 billion in annual sales, the House Judiciary Committee estimated in December. Movie, videogame, music and software piracy costs retailers $2.6 billion in annual sales as well as 61,000 jobs, wrote Andersen, citing an Institute for Policy Innovation survey.

PRO IP includes a $125 million grant provision over five years to state and local law authorities to boost anti-piracy law enforcement.

The provision “would contribute much-needed additional coordination, personnel and financial resources to fight against copyright infringement,” wrote Andersen, whose group’s board includes executives from Amazon.com, Blockbuster and Netflix.

The bill calls for the creation of an Office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER) within the Executive Office of the President, similar to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The IP Enforcement Representative would be responsible for coordinating domestic and international enforcement efforts among the multiple government agencies with responsibility in the area.

It also would create a new permanent Intellectual Property Division within the Department of Justice that would assume enforcement roles currently spread over multiple divisions.

The bill has strong support from a broad array of industry groups as well as organized labor.

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