Creative America, an effort by studios and unions to enlist content creators in a grassroots movement to combat online piracy, says it has generated more than 100,000 letters to the Hill supporting piracy protection legislation.
Creative America launched a Web site last month where supporters could back the bill (now bills) and learn more about the issue.
The site was launched in support of the Senate PROTECT IP Act, but since the introduction of a companion House Bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which extends beyond the foreign Web sites covered by PROTECT IP to include domestic piracy sites, the group has added a link to support for that bill as well.
Elsewhere on the content protection front, The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) released its 2011 report on copyright industries' impact on the economy. According to IIPA, the figure is $931 billion in value to the economy for "core content production and distribution industries including book and journal publishing," or about 6.4% of the GDP.
In addition, the study said, those industries employed over $5 million people.
IIPA members include the Motion Picture Association of America, the Independent Film & Television Alliance and the Recording Industry Association or America.
There has been pushback on the legislation by fair use fans, including consumer electronics manufactures and Public Knowledge, who argue the legislation is overbroad, provides too much power for the government and copyright holders to go after sites on mere suspicion, and would "stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness."
