Representative of major US film studios talks about piracy on ETCO visit

By ETCO
17/10/2013

Former US senator and current CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Christopher Dodd discussed the ways of combating piracy in Brazil

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) CEO Christopher Dodd visited the ETCO headquarters in São Paulo on the morning of August 30. A former American Democratic senator and now a spokesman for the major film studios in the United States, Dodd was in Brazil for a series of meetings with government officials and businessmen in the national film industry. He made space on his agenda to get to know ETCO and the work that has been done by the Institute in combating unfair competition, which includes piracy.

After attending a presentation on ETCO made by the Executive Director, Heloisa Ribeiro, he praised the work carried out in the Institute's first decade of operation and acknowledged Brazil's difficulties in terms of combating piracy. “I am impressed with what you do. I learned a lot and I will certainly carry on with this experience, ”said Christopher Dodd.

“As it is an important and critical market, in Brazil the work of inspecting piracy and illegal trade, in addition to defending intellectual property, which is now done within the scope of large corporations, must also reach small companies. Furthermore, as ETCO has shown, children need to be prepared for the future, ”said Dodd, of the need to teach future generations that piracy is a crime.

Brazil and other countries in the world have assumed great importance for the American film industry - one of the main export products of the United States -, considering that 60% of the revenue of this industry comes from outside the USA. And it is an industry highly affected by piracy worldwide.

"A big problem is that piracy is socially acceptable," the former senator told an audience of representatives from ETCO's sectoral chambers and some of his partners. According to him, with the growth of the internet, access to the pirated product has become easier, while the pirate producer has become more difficult to be located. "We have been working on technologies to combat internet piracy, but it is sophisticated."

Dodd, a former Democratic senator from Connecticut for 30 years (from 1981 to 2011), took over as CEO of the MPAA in March 2011.