Safeguarding A Unique American Industry
Film and television production supports 2.4 million American jobs and contributes nearly $80 billion each year to the U.S. economy. Recognizing the importance of this unique American industry — and other U.S. intellectual property industries — U.S. copyright laws embody one of the highest of international standards.The Copyright Act of 1976 was the last comprehensive copyright law revision in the United States and broadened the scope of federal statutory copyright protection. The Piracy and Counterfeiting Amendments Act of 1982 substantially increased the criminal penalties for copyright infringement. Violations of these and other federal statutes carry tough penalties, including fines and even incarceration for serious offenses.
Copyright theft can take many forms. The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 and later amendments provide penalties and remedies for the theft of cable TV and satellite services, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, among other things, prohibits the circumvention of technical measures used to protect copyrighted work.
In 2005, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act made camcording in a theater a federal felony and established new penalties for pirating works that have not yet been made available in copies for sale to the general public outside a theater. First-time violators can be sentenced to up to five years for these crimes and fined up to $250,000 if the offense was committed for financial gain or commercial advantage.
The message of U.S. copyright laws is clear: Intellectual property rights are important to our nation, its economy and its creative industries, and violating these laws is not worth it.
