On March 27, DGA National Board Alternate and Western Directors Council Member LeVar Burton testified in Sacramento at a special hearing of the California Senate Select Committee on the Entertainment Industry, chaired by State Senator Kevin Murray (D-Culver City). The subject was Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks.
Burton expressed the DGA's concern that the proliferation of online file swapping on these networks create serious economic and creative consequences for filmmakers.
The following is an excerpt from Burton's testimony:
"Film and television are indigenous American art forms, and the work of filmmakers — as well as the other artists of our industry who sit with me here today — has documented, reflected upon, and portrayed the American experience for almost 100 years. Those of us who work in film and television feel lucky and privileged to earn our living contributing our talents to a craft we love.
"However, as American consumers — consumers around the world — are entering the digital age where they will have instant access to the content we create, the debate over this access too often obscures the voice of the creator. In fact, the debate usually simplistically focuses on the rights of those who possess the technology, the transaction between who owns the 'product' and those who download it or the cost to the consumer and the consumer's rights.
"Nowhere has our absence been more evident than in the discussion of who is affected by peer-to-peer networks. Peer-to-peer technology has many benefits, but it also permits widespread and unauthorized uploading and downloading of movies, television programming, music and software files — in other words it has opened the floodgates to blatant piracy of these copyrighted works. When you hear the arguments that those who want unfettered access bring forth it appears that most of them believe that once a film or a television program is completed its value to those who create it is gone. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are very real stakeholders in the outcome of efforts to stem illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Make no mistake, there are very real economic and creative consequences to the creator if unauthorized peer-to-peer networks are allowed to effectively 'steal' our work.
"Let me explain how the illegal distribution of our work through peer-to-peer networks affects our livelihood. Our compensation and pension benefits depend on residual revenues from the works we create. Residuals are the fees paid to us for the reuse of our motion pictures or television productions on free and pay television, DVD and videocassette, both domestic and international. Our industry's residual system — which in the DGA's case has existed for 40 years — is designed to provide appropriate compensation to those of us whose contributions to these works are so fundamental that without us they cannot be produced. In 2002, the DGA collected and distributed in excess of more than $200 million of these residual payments to its members. This $200 million represents bread-and-butter income to us — a reality made even more necessary because the motion picture and television industry operates on the concept of freelance employment. We can't count on a regular paycheck. What we count on is ongoing income in the form of residual payments that support our families and go into our pension plan.
"In other words, peer-to-peer piracy — which allows our copyrighted works to be downloaded without our authorization or compensation — takes income directly out of our pockets and our retirement plans. In addition, our work — when distributed in an unprotected digital format — through peer-to-peer networks, is easily altered and exploited, so that it no longer resembles what we created even though our name may remain on it. I am here because DGA wants to make clear that we cannot afford to have our livelihoods weakened by individuals, institutions or companies who think downloading and sharing our copyrighted work is their 'right' without regard to the economic consequence of their action on us the creators. Ironically they admire our work so much that they feel justified in taking it illegally.
"Peer-to-peer networks, if properly regulated, legally created, and legitimately operated can represent a market that may greatly benefit us. However, if our work is not protected, and it is used around the world without just payment to us, it is very likely that in the end neither the creator nor the copyright holder will want to make their work available. The loser will not only be those of us whose talent and hard work is the creative vision on the screen, but also the very public whose 'love affair' with this most American of art forms began so many decades ago."
Also appearing at the same hearing were representatives from the MPAA, SAG, AFTRA, RIAA, Earthlink and the Kazaa P2P network.
