MUMBAI: Motion Picture Association of America chairman and CEO Dan Glickman thanked Congress for providing $30 million to help law enforcement battle the piracy and theft of movies and other intellectual property.
The funds provided by the Congress are included in the Omnibus Appropriations Conference report and are targeted for personnel and programs authorized by last year’s bipartisan Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act: $20 million for new state and local economic, high technology and Internet crime prevention grants, $8 million for new FBI agents targeting IP crimes and 2 million for new Department of Justice IP prosecutorial activities.
Glickman said, “Congress took a major step forward by providing $30 million in funding for new FBI agents, federal prosecutors, and local and state law enforcement grants to protect American jobs and creativity by cracking down on the theft of movies and other intellectual property. This follows the confirmation of Victoria Espinel earlier this month as our nation’s first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator to develop and lead the national IP enforcement strategy. The MPAA, on behalf of the motion picture industry, commends Congress and the Obama Administration for this commitment to these vital American industries. Reaching this point came about thanks to a strong coalition of movie studios, the guilds, labor and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who all recognized the ongoing harm from intellectual property theft. I want to also thank them for their efforts.”
“The motion picture and television industry alone employs more than 2.4 million people and generates over $41 billion in wages. It is one of the few U.S. industries that consistently generate a positive balance of trade, even in these difficult economic times, bringing dollars back home and creating good high-paying jobs in the U.S. Yet our industry faces the relentless challenge of the theft of its creative content, a challenge extracting an increasingly unbearable cost. Passage of the PRO-IP Act last fall, the naming of the new IP Enforcement Coordinator and now this new funding appropriated today, mark important milestones in our national efforts to ensure the health of industries that are vital to the American economy,” he added.
