WASHINGTON – The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal ecosystem and reducing digital piracy, joined a Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) forum on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, to discuss ACE’s anti-piracy mission and the global threat that illegal piracy operations pose to the film, TV and streaming industry.
ACE representatives included Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel of the Motion Picture Association, and Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the MPA and Head of ACE.
The economic losses of piracy “aren’t going to our neighbors and friends down the street. They’re going to the real-life Tony Montanas of the world, the real-life mobsters who are engaged not only in illegal piracy of entertainment content but also in money laundering and drugs and tax evasion,” said Temple. “It really does have a real-world impact on a multiple number of individuals and participants in the overall content ecosystem.”
“This coalition is very much focused only on content protection and litigation work,” van Voorn said. “It’s really driven by the MPA team, the investigation and legal team under the leadership of Karyn Temple, where we try to be effective around the world. This is a global issue and it needs a global approach.”
The online program, the second in WLF’s Taking the Initiative on IP Protection webinar series, focused on the work ACE and the MPA are doing to defend creators’ copyrights worldwide. The panel was moderated by Glenn Lammi, WLF Executive Director and Vice President of Legal Studies.
On the panel, Temple and van Voorn discussed the various facets of this massive undertaking, which includes strategic litigation against infringers and cooperation with domestic and international law enforcement; coordination with other content-creating industries; agreements with internet-economy companies, and other businesses; and education. They also explained the broader implications of the campaign for the U.S. economy and consumers and shared lessons learned from years of playing both offense and defense against a moving, constantly evolving target.
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About The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE)
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market and reducing digital piracy. Driven by a comprehensive approach to addressing piracy through criminal referrals, civil litigation and cease-and-desist operations, ACE has achieved many successful global enforcement actions against illegal streaming services and sources of unauthorized content and their operators. Drawing upon the collective expertise and resources of almost 40 media and entertainment companies around the world, and reinforced by the content protection operations of the Motion Picture Association, ACE protects the creativity and innovation that drive the global growth of core copyright and entertainment industries. The current governing board members for ACE are Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, ViacomCBS, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman of ACE and the Motion Picture Association. For more information, please visit www.alliance4creativity.com.
Press Contact
John Mercurio
John_Mercurio@motionpictures.org
