Entertainment Industries
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The Congressional Entertainment Industries Caucus serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of vital information and as a forum to discuss and formulate innovative approaches to the many challenges the entertainment industry faces. Its objectives include:
- Promoting and facilitating communication between Congress and the entertainment industry.
- Providing a bipartisan forum for the free flow of information important to the entertainment community.
- Supporting and strengthening the U.S. entertainment sector; both domestically and abroad.
While the Caucus does not endorse specific legislative approach to issues, we have identified several areas of interest:
Intellectual Property and Piracy
Digital technology has drastically transformed the landscape of copyright protection in the entertainment industry. The ability to reproduce unauthorized digital media at a near perfect level creates unprecedented financial and legal challenges to the entertainment sector. As the distribution of such digital products become more and more decentralized and instantaneous, the efficacy of traditional copyright protection through legal remedies may be greatly diminished. Unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs is just one of the many challenges to the current Digital Rights Management (DRM) regime. Furthermore, the evolving state of digital technology and DRM also affects the traditional doctrine of "fair use", which limits a copyright holder’s exclusive rights for the limited use of a copyrighted work by the public.
As piracy prevention and fair use access continues to be the focus of the 109th Congress, the Caucus seeks to facilitate communication between entertainment industry and Congressional members on these pressing issues.
Trade and Intellectual Property Protection
The proliferation of new digital technologies has greatly challenged intellectual property protection on a global scale. Specifically, many of America's trading partners have not adequately addressed the issue of internet and optical disk piracies through legal and law enforcement frameworks. For example, in Russia, its domestic pirate DVD production has flooded European markets at an estimated annual capacity of over 30 million discs, over 10 times the local Russian market demand. Its production and distribution processes also often involve organized and highly dangerous criminal groups, making law enforcement even more difficult.
International laws and treaties have been instrumental in providing a primary legal weapon against global digital piracy. As the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) continues to pursue means that would ensure the proper development and dissemination of creative works, countries around the world need to work vigilantly to provide adequate legal protection and remedies against copyright violations.
The Entertainment Industries Caucus will continue to monitor issues of importance to the entertainment sector in the international arena, including intellectual protection. As the U.S. enters into various bilateral and multi-lateral trade discussions, the Caucus will also monitor aspects of trade agreement that may affect the entertainment community, including market access concerns.
Runaway Production
The accelerating phenomenon of "runaway" film and television production from the U.S. has led to significant loss in local economies. These U.S. runaway productions are developed and intended for initial release, broadcast, or distribution in the U.S. but are actually filmed in another country. While some of such runaways are dictated by creative reasons due to place and setting required by the story, others are "economic" runaways that depart for lower production costs.
In fact, according to a January 2001 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce, foreign tax incentives designed to lure film production offshore are costing the U.S. economy as much as $10 billion per year and tens of thousands of jobs. This phenomenon not only impacts the domestic arts community, including blue-collar artisans and workers working behind the camera, but also threatens the livelihood of small businesspeople who may operate restaurants, dry cleaners, and hotels that depend on film and television production.
The caucus will continue to monitor the economic and cultural impacts of runaway production in film and television and work towards putting the U.S. on equal footing with foreign countries in attracting U.S. production dollars.
Minority Representation
While racial minorities continue to grow in size and affluence, their economic and cultural clout has not necessarily translated into increases in minority representation in the media.
In front of camera, minority actors face limitation to their exposure in the mainstream media. For example, while opportunities for actors of color have been expanding through minority-themed series in cable, UPN, and WB, only two of the 26 new fall series introduced for the 2002 season featured a minority in a leading role. Behind camera, minorities continue to have limited ownership and access to programming decisions in the entertainment industry. For instance, people of color owned 449 commercial radio and TV stations in 2000 – less than 4 percent of the nation's full-power stations.
As minority population and purchasing power continue to grow, the Entertainment Industries Caucus will work with industry leaders to advance minority ownership and representation in the media to better reflect the diversity of our nation.
New Technology
Advancements in digital and wireless technologies continue to challenge the way entertainment products are produced and disseminated. During the 109th Congress, the Entertainment Industries Caucus will closely follow developments in government as well as in the private sector on some of these following issues:
- Transition from Analog to Digital Television
- Internet Protocol Enabled Television and Phone Services
- Peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy issues.
- Wi-Fi wireless technology issues, including spectrum allocation.
- Internet broadband service technology over power lines, cable lines, and other fiber optic lines.
- Satellite Radio technology.
The Caucus intends to work with Members of Congress and entertainment industry leaders in monitoring these issues.