FILM INDUSTRY FIGHTING PIRACY.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

The entertainment industry's efforts to contain illegal online swapping gained momentum on two fronts Thursday, one in industry circles in Beverly Hills and another in the state Senate in Sacramento.

At a press conference at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, a cross section of entertainment industry leaders called for copyright and licensing protections against Internet piracy to be included in any international trade agreements.

While the occasion was to announce the addition of the major entertainment industry guilds to the recently formed Entertainment Industry Coalition for Free Trade (EIC), speaker after speaker touched heavily on the industry's escalating battle against growing levels of illegal online swapping of movies and music.

``It is vital that any trade agreements with our trading partners include commitments to protect our products from theft and to allow our products to move freely in the marketplace,'' said Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The film industry has been looking for ways to block free downloads of its product in order to avoid being plagued with a piracy problem on the same scale as the recording industry in recent years. The international market has become increasingly important to the bottom line of the industries as they represent between 40 percent and 60 percent of total revenues.

In Sacramento, a state Senate panel hearing was held to examine the effects of free Internet downloads on California's 27,000-employee recording business and 250,000-employee film industry. The hearing could set the stage for possible legislation to combat the piracy threatening major California employers.

Eric Garland, founder of Beverly Hills-based Big Champagne, which analyzes Internet trends said at the hearing: ``We see only one trend. More people are downloading more copyrighted material.'' If left unchecked, film industry leaders worry, Internet piracy will negatively impact the livelihoods of thousands of people including performers, directors, engineers and writers to people involved in the production, broadcast, exhibition or distribution of creative works.

``We are talking about entertainment product, one of the largest exports created and produced by this country,'' Thomas C. Short, international president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), said at the Beverly Hills press conference.

The Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, west, Producers Guild of America and IATSE announced their joining of the EIC. The coalition already included the major movie studios, the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Association of Theater Owners and such corporations as AOL Time Warner, News Corp., The Walt Disney Co. and Viacom.

Vance Van Petten, executive of the Producers Guild of America, urged the coalition to work together on a policy that respects ``legitimate consumers of entertainment'' but cracks down on ``theft and illegal distribution'' of copyrighted product.

``Media theft - we hesitate to use the oft-romanticized term 'piracy'- if unchallenged, will ultimately cripple producers' desire and ability to provide the entertainment that not only enriches the lives of our citizens, but has proven the most durable and successful global export that our nation has to offer,'' Van Petten said.

According to the EIC, foreign sales and exports by copyright industries were estimated to be $88.97 billion in 2001, more than other major industry sectors including chemical and industrial products, motor vehicles, aircraft and aircraft parts, and the agricultural sector.

``We are sending a united message today that opening new markets to free trade and protecting products in those markets are part of the same inseparable goal,'' said Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association.