The Motion Picture Association of America has announced eleven different letters in support of the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (S.968 – the ‘PROTECT-IP Act). The legislation allow the Justice Department to obtain court orders to go after sites “dedicated to infringing activities” by ordering domain name seizures and serving orders on third parties such as search engines, advertisers and financial intermediaries. It would also allow right holders to bring private rights of action.
Gov. Dannel Malloy wrote that “15,000 people living in Connecticut are either directly or indirectly employed by the film industry.” Gov. Beverly Perdue wrote that “piracy represents a direct attack on over 3,000 crafts people” employed by the film industry in North Carolina. Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah did not give jobs figures from his state, but said that piracy cost a total of 2.5 million jobs in the G20 economies (a figure contained in a recent BASCAP report).
The trade associations that recently wrote their Congressional representatives supporting the PROTECT-IP Act are the Software and Information Industry Association, the California Healthcare Institute, and the State International Development Organization. The theater owners were Cinema Centers, Inc., Cinemark Theaters, Cobb Theaters, Hallett Cinemas, LLC, and Logan Luxury Theaters.
Click here for the MPAA press release, and links to each of the letters.
