PIRATES PLUNDERING FILMS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S ENFORCEMENT EFFORT FALLING SHORT IN HOLLYWOOD.

Byline: LISA FRIEDMAN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department claims impressive results in curbing counterfeit trading and copyright theft but Hollywood leaders and economists aren't buying it -- L.A.'s movie industry still is losing $6.1 billion each year to piracy.

While acknowledging efforts are being made to crack down on counterfeiters of everything from Hollywood blockbusters and airline parts to music CDs and Viagra, the Justice Department still has a long way to go in protecting intellectual property rights.

``They talk a good game, but it's still a very significant problem,'' Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., said. ``It's still basically out of control.

``Regardless of what they say ... it's still rampant.''

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales released a report earlier this week showing prosecutions against piracy have nearly doubled since 2004 and a flurry of new enforcement strategies have been launched to curb copyright infringement and intellectual property theft.

Calling the creativity and innovation fostered by copyright protection the ``lifeblood of our economy,'' Gonzales said the steps amount to ``the most aggressive effort to protect intellectual property rights in the history of this country.''

The enforcement extended well beyond the music and movie downloading for which the word piracy has become most closely linked, but also to the counterfeiting of items that could cause serious health and safety risks, like pharmaceuticals or car parts.

The agency said it prosecuted 350 people charged with intellectual property offenses in 2005, compared to 177 the year before.

In Southern California, cases included the conviction of a Los Angeles man for manufacturing and distributing more than 700,000 phony Viagra tablets valued at more than $5.5 million, federal officials said.

The Justice Department also included breaking up a counterfeit DVD and CD ring in New York as part of a large-scale operation in New York's Chinatown; the indictment of 19 people in Detroit for trafficking in counterfeit Viagra and cigarettes to support Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist organization; and the April 2006 charges against five people in San Jose in connection with camcording and distributing online pre-released movies.

``We've done a lot. We have to do a lot more,'' Gonzales told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in unveiling the report.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who helped found a congressional caucus on international piracy, agreed.

``I think this report highlights some important first steps, but we have no evidence that they've made a meaningful dent in the problem,'' he said.

Schiff said he hopes to see even more prosecutions and a more consistent devotion of time and resources to the problem.

``I'm glad the Justice Department is doing what they're doing,'' he said. ``But until we actually see it having an impact, I'm not going to be ready to celebrate.''

Chris Cookson, an executive vice president at Burbank-based Warner Bros., called piracy an ongoing battle that increasingly is being fought outside the United States.

The Motion Picture Association of America has estimated that movie piracy in China alone is costing the major film studios nearly $300 million a year, with more than nine out of every 10 DVDs sold in that country being a fake or stolen product.

``They're being much more effective,'' Cookson said of the Justice Department's efforts. But, he said, ``the Justice Department is not the vehicle for solving piracy around the world.''

Cookson said education is a key component of fighting movie and music theft. He said many people underestimate the economic damage involved in copying, or burning, DVDs and giving them to friends.

Too many people, he said, see it as a perfectly innocuous practice.

James Boyle, a law professor at Duke University, maintains that for the most part, it is harmless.

``When they go after people who are engaged in mass-market copying of DVDs, where they're producing trademark goods and distributing them as if they're the legitimate ones, there's absolutely no doubt it's illegal and it should be stopped and I totally support that,'' Boyle said.

But, he argued, ``Making a mixed CD of music you legitimately own and giving it to your friend ... when those kinds of things are lumped in and put under the label of piracy, then I think we do ourselves an injustice.''

Piracy issues and losses remain, despite stepped-up efforts and gains in the movie and music industries.

Last year, the Supreme Court delivered Hollywood a resounding victory, ruling unanimously that online file-sharing companies that enable people to download music and movies can be held responsible for copyright piracy.

The music and entertainment industry hailed the decision as a major triumph in their estimated $3.5 billion battle against global piracy. The next challenge, they said, will be to encourage more people to legally download from sites such as iTunes and Napster.

They also vowed to aggressively continue pressing lawsuits against file-swappers.

The ruling came just months after the MPAA, following in the footsteps of the music industry, began suing Internet users for stealing movies online.

Gail Osterberg, spokeswoman for the MPAA, called piracy an ``ever- evolving problem.''

She said those intent on stealing music and movies are agile at shifting tactics and changing practices to avoid prosecution.

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

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