Intellectual Property gets some extra muscle

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is the voice and advocate for the American motion pictures, home video, and television industries, with its members consisting of Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros, Sony, Universal, and Twentieth century fox.

That being said the MPAA was happy to hear that on October 3, 2012 the Department of Justice awarded more than $2.4 million dollars to 13 law enforcement agencies around the country in order to improve their ability to fight the war on Intellectual Property Rights; preventing, investigating, and prosecution against intellectual property infringement.

The agencies awarded the funding were all in association to PRO-IP which is Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act, enacted by congress and signed by President Bush in 2008, to protect creative property and jobs involved in creative the process, also suspecting that the bill will help leave Bush’s mark on history.

The IPR or Intellectual property rights centers employs a multi-layered approach to combat IP theft, involving the identification, disruption, prosecution, and dismantling of criminal organizations involved in the manufacturing and distribution of counterfeit products. When the IPR investigates IP theft it is in all aspects of business, but the MPAA appreciates the attention made due to the increase of piracy and intellectual theft in the motion picture industry, causing the industry to experience major declines in ticket sales, and mostly due to illegal distribution.  

 Michael O’Leary the Senior Executive Vice President for Global policy and External Affairs of the MPAA made a quote stating “These generous grants will support the ongoing efforts of local law enforcement working in the field to combat the theft of creative content. While we continue to work toward an Internet that works for everyone, we must also continue to protect the creative industries that contribute to national job growth and a stronger economy".

I believe that O’Leary is spot-on with the claim that the beefing up IP security will help create more jobs leading to a better economy. 

Think of a recording artist and all the people involved in the process of getting an album recorded then distributed, the main players who get the most profit will always be the producers whom invested their own money and resources in the talent, the following commission will go to the artist who is the foundation of the product. The artist or talent receives a good sum for their work but not enough to retire or become their own boss, maybe if they invest well; that isn’t the case most the time so the artist must continue to produce hit after hit to maintain a lifestyle; but the producers just needs the artist album to sell in general, it being a hit is just their bonus. 

Point being- without intellectual property rights there would be no point in wanting to become a recording artist because most your products would be given away free online or distributed by illegal parties that do not have the rights to your product, thus decreasing the revenue of the studio or producer and mainly the talent whom gets a percentage of what is left over.

Decreasing Artist salaries or even studio salaries decreases jobs needed to produce music or film, because less jobs means less dollars to pay anyone. 

                                              Respect the BIll!