Issue Position: Fighting Intellectual Property Piracy

Issue Position

Intellectual property theft remains a major threat to the entertainmentindustry. A 2007 study found that intellectual property piracy annually causes $12.5 billion dollars in losses to the U.S. economy as well as more than 70,000 lost jobs and $2 billion in lost wages to American workers. I have worked to protect the entertainment industry from the theft of the content it produces. A recent success in the fight against piracy was the passage of Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act (or otherwise known as the "Pro-IP Act"), which I joined with former Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and others in introducing.
The bill was signed into law in 2008. The legislation makes significant changes to numerous intellectual property statutes and programs, providing intellectual property owners and federal law enforcement officials with new tools to effectively pursue intellectual property theft. Federal enforcement agencies are also given a new coordinator to help streamline anti-counterfeiting efforts. I will continue to monitor the implementation of this law, making sure that enforcement efforts combat both hardware piracy (such as illegally copied DVDs and CDs) and internet piracy. On an international level, it should come as no surprise that piracy in countries like Russia and China runs rampant and the governments do little to enforce intellectual property law and treaty obligations. For example, the American film industry loses out on 90% of its estimated revenue to piracy in China. However, Canada, our friendly neighbor to the north, has actually become a major center of piracy. In fact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated that Canada has the highest level of online piracy in the world. I have been focused on drawing attention to the problem of piracy in Canada. As the Chair of the Entertainment Industries Caucus, I have sent letters with Caucus members pressing the Canadian parliament to consider new comprehensive intellectual property legislation. I have also delivered this message personally to high-ranking members of the Canadian Parliament. Particularly, I have been concerned with significant loopholes in Canadian law with regard to taking down infringing websites, like peer-to-peer websites that intentionally facilitate piracy on a massive scale. Until Canada can improve its laws and their enforcement, I will continue working with my colleagues in the Entertainment Industries Caucus to pressure Canada into modernizing its intellectual property enforcement laws.

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