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Building a movement around a Senate bill designed to combat foreign trafficking of pirated movies and TV shows, a new grassroots coalition for intellectual property rights is gaining traction. It seems the movie industry may have finally found the right flagpole on which to fly its anti-piracy banner in Creative America, the organization which says it will serve as the unified voice of more than two million Americans in all 50 states whose jobs are supported by film and television in one way or another.
The website for the initiative, www.creativeamerica.org, is meant to provide a central hub for industry workers and others to see the impact of movie theft on jobs and the economy, and to learn about actionable initiatives for preventing it. One tool the site offers is an online form users can fill out to send pre-written emails directly to their individual members of Congress in support of copyright protections.
While previous initiatives from the MPAA have focused more on illegal disc production in other countries, so far Creative America has its sights set on online distribution through unregulated foreign websites. These “rogue sites” are also the focus of the PROTECT IP Act now before the Senate, as they target U.S. consumers.
“The goal of Creative America is to bring together people of diverse skills, talents, interests and backgrounds who care about protecting jobs and creativity in this country,” said director Jonathan Mostow. “When the movies and TV shows we create and finance are stolen, there is a ripple effect throughout our business.”
The coalition is made up of a broad spectrum of unions and content providers, from SAG, AFTRA and the DGA to CBS, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures and Twentieth-Century Fox.
