MPAA Head Criticises China, ‘Rogue’ Websites

A week into his new job as CEO and Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), former Senator Chris Dodd gave his “inaugural” speech salted with jabs at China and websites that carry movie content without authorisation of the rights holders.

“The good news about our industry is that whenever we’re given the chance to compete in the world, we succeed,” he said today in prepared remarks [pdf] to exhibitors at a film industry conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. “The bad news is we’re not always given that chance to compete.”

Dodd said that “When China limits the import of non-Chinese films to 20 a year, despite the fact that hundreds of US films are produced each year – including more than 100 by the MPAA member studios – we are excluded from a market that presents huge untapped potential.”

He called for a groundswell of effort to ask Congress and others to “protect intellectual property by cracking down on rogue websites that profit from the illegal trafficking of counterfeit movies.”

After all, he said, “you are not just our eyes and ears when it comes to illegal camcording – you are the face of the film industry in your local communities. No one is in a better position to educate the American public about these threats than are you.”