MPAA CEO and former US Senator Chris Dodd spoke abruptly today on the subject of piracy at the annual assembly of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). The event was being held at the Washington Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Dodd was joined on stage by a panel of individuals including; Joseph Storch (Associate General Counsel at the State University of New York), Rick Cotton (Executive Vice President and General Counsel from NBC Universal), Larry Conrad (Vice Chancellor for IT and CIO at University of North Carolina), and Rob McKenna (NAAG President and Washington Attorney General).
In his anterior statement, Dodd recited; “University students are growing up in an era far different from when many of us went to college. In fact, far different than students who attended college even a few years ago. Information is at their fingertips, in both legal and illegal form. Some have argued that intellectual property protection and the freedom of speech that universities cherish cannot coexist. This is wrong. … I firmly believe universities can, and should, play a vital role in educating students about the importance of respecting intellectual property rights and the rule of law.”
The MPAA CEO then went on to say that; “Young people are key consumers of our content online, and we want to ensure that they can continue to legally watch the shows and movies they love in a whole host of different formats online. We believe that both innovation -- and the cooperation of the tech companies -- are critical parts of the conversation about content theft.”
Panelist Joseph Storch quickly added to Dodd's statement, enforcing that; “…by continuing to work together we can find creative and efficient methods for higher education to comply with the law and for the entertainment industry to protect its intellectual property. SUNY understands this all too well. Our university does more than a billion dollars every year in sponsored research and our faculty and students create untold amounts of copyrighted material. Intellectual property is as crucial to the mission and future of the State University of New York as it is to the future of the members of the entertainment industry.”
From these statements, it seems that the MPAA is gearing up to crack down on college students that are illegally viewing and downloading movies via the Internet. Deciphering what Dodd said, it also appears that he feels that the newest generation of college students are perhaps the biggest issue that the MPAA is currently facing. The MPAA doesn't appear to be blaming the university demographic, but is concerned about how to "keep college students from illegally viewing content." Perhaps the MPAA is taking a different approach to stopping piracy by attacking illegal downloaders, rather than attacking the source of the illegal content.
A full copy of Dodd's prepared remarks can be read at the MPAA's site.
