Valenti on Hollywood’s survival
p2pnet.net News:- Piracy “knows no boundaries” and “the very future of the filmed entertainment industry and other copyright industries is at stake,” outgoing MPAA boss Jack Valenti has warned the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary, Senate Appropriations Committee
Could this be the same movie industry that in 2003 recorded its second biggest year ever with official MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) box office figures at $9.5 billion?
It would appear so. But piracy must be defeated. After all, since 1972 the growth of motion picture production and service jobs has more than doubled the growth of “non-farm jobs” – 4.8% compared to 1.9%, said Valenti, also noting “that in the past 30 years motion picture production and services jobs grew 292 percent, while all non-farm jobs grew 78 percent”.
Thus, the role of Congress in ensuring that the Federal Government is “organized and equipped to confront the growing challenges of protecting intellectual property, both at home and abroad” is the key “to ensuring that the U.S. Government remains adequately equipped to aid us in our fight against worldwide piracy”.
But, Valenti sternly admonished Congress, in addition to enforcing copyright laws and prosecuting “criminals” who “violate those laws”, the US Government must “devote adequate resources to investigate intellectual property crime to effectively fight domestic piracy”.
On the international piracy front, the US Government “should engage foreign governments to reduce piracy through trade agreements and trade sanctions, traditional diplomacy, and by training and providing resources to foreign governments to address intellectual property challenges”.
However, Valenti wasn’t merely criticising. He also had a five point plan on how the US administration can use taxpayer money to protect the major studios’ bottom lines.
Apparently, all-out operations such as Fastlink in which the FBI raided schools in Arizona looking for ‘pirate’ product aren’t sufficient.
First, he lectured Congress, “increase funding to the FBI and earmark it for properly equipped and trained agents to work cases in the field”.
He said, “We [the major studios] are receiving a consistent message that promising leads in intellectual property cases are not being pursued because of a lack of trained tech-savvy investigators who are familiar with how to conduct intellectual property investigations.”
Second, echoing the demands of his colleague BSA spokesman Robert Holleyman, Valenti told Congress to “raise the profile for intellectual property enforcement among the international agencies,” with “a new Ambassadorial position that would be subject to advice and consent of the Senate; and/or creating a new Office of Intellectual Property Protection to be headed by a new Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Intellectual Property.”
Valenti also called for Congress to “increase the profile of the Intellectual Property Division of the U.S. Department of State” Raising the office to “the Office-Director level could help them recruit even more experienced Foreign Service Officers and lend greater weight to their voice in intra-agency and inter-agency debates”.
Third, Valenti urged the US Government to “reinvigorate key trade tools” such as the “Out-of-Cycle Reviews” under the Special 301 program and the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Valenti said that resource constraints have resulted in insufficient use of “Out-of-Cycle” reviews, and the GSP program itself has been weakened by lapses in the overall program.
Fourth, Congress must “explore innovative approaches to staffing at U.S. embassies” and fifth, Congress should “hone” US Government efforts at international intellectual property training and capacity building.
One way it could do this would be “to fund a significant expansion of the $2.5 million capacity-building program for State Department for fiscal year 2004, so that resources continue to be available to aid foreign law enforcement efforts.”
But Valenti wasn’t expecting the (for the moment) Bush administration to do everything to protect the major studios against the evils of piracy and the threats to their profit margins. Hollywood is prepared to do its bit too, he said.
Until the administration gets its act together, he implied, the MPAA and MPA (Motion Picture Association) will continue to dedicate their resources to fighting piracy on many fronts “here and abroad, including working with local law enforcement on investigations and raids against illegal replication and distribution networks, organizing educational and public campaigns about the evils of piracy, bringing civil litigations against copyright violators, and lobbying for appropriate copyright reform and other legal tools”.
May 16th, 2004 at 1:27 pm
This guy should crawl back under the rock he came out from under and stop trying to strongarm the public with his Gestapo tactics. Him and the jerk from the RIAA should stop thier chicken little sky is falling crap. They are making record profits and still crying foul. I haven’t gone to a theatre to see a movie in years because I can’t afford their large prices and small seats. Being crammed in like sardines to watch an always way too loud movie is not my idea of enjoying $40. That’s what it cost here for 2 people and a bit of treats. I mean, popcorn and Pepsi at $4 each ? It’s highway robbery.