Andre Yoskowitz
16 Dec 2009 23:53
The MPAA has announced that the United States Congress has allocated $30 million in funding for anti-piracy measures, part of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act.
"Congress took a major step forward by providing $30 million in funding for new FBI agents, federal prosecutors, and local and state law enforcement grants to protect American jobs and creativity by cracking down on the theft of movies and other intellectual property," added MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman.
$20 million will go to "new state and local economic, high technology and Internet crime prevention grants," says TheHollywoodReporter, while $8 million will go towards new FBI agents "targeting IP crimes." The final $2 million is for "new Department of Justice IP prosecutions."
Glickman also lauded the piracy crack-down operation dubbed Holiday Hoax which has so far led to the arrest of seven sellers of counterfiet software and movies, and the confiscation of 79,796 counterfeit CDs and 79,610 DVDs. "Copyright industries in the U.S. lose $25.6 billion a year in revenue to piracy, the U.S. economy loses nearly 375,000 jobs either directly or indirectly related to the copyright industry, and American workers lose more than $16 billion in annual earnings," he noted.