DGA Supports MPAA Action Against Illegal File Sharing

Estimates state that the U.S. entertainment industry loses about $3.5 billion annually to piracy. Last year the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) pioneered the use of civil suits to go after people who were making music available illegally via file-sharing on P2P (peer-to-peer) networks. Thus far the RIAA has sued more than 4,000 people and has succeeded in raising awareness about the situation.

On November 4, 2004, at a press conference held at UCLA, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced that it would adopt the music industry's tactic of suing individuals suspected of illegally distributing copyrighted works online. MPAA president and CEO Dan Glickman was joined by studio executives, legislators, educators, filmmakers and union leaders including DGA Secretary-Treasurer Gil Cates, who spoke on behalf of the 12,800 directors and members of the directorial team the Guild represents. The following is a transcript of Cates' statement.

"Film and television are indigenous American arts forms, and the work of filmmakers—as well as the other artists of our industry who are here today—has portrayed the American experience for almost 100 years. The DGA's goal is to ensure that this craft continues unimpaired for the benefit of millions of film and television viewer's worldwide and that our members continue to earn their living giving their talent to a craft they love.

"Films are not created by the snap of a finger nor do they materialize out of thin air. For directors, writers, actors and the many craftspeople we work with, it involves years of creative effort and hard work to put a vision on the screen. For the studios and investors it involves tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to make that vision a reality.

"Today we are faced with a reality we cannot accept. Individuals, enabled by the ease of the Internet, can go into theatres, illegally camcord a film and upload it onto the Internet where it will be downloaded by others who see nothing illegal in taking that pirated film for free. This is stealing plain and simple. Why would I as a director—why would my fellow directors—want to make a film that is exploited in that way and which robs them of both their livelihood and their work? And why would the studios want to put money into a film that can be stolen and illegally mass distributed before or just as it reaches the screen. The answer is we won't and they won't.

"This is a basic question of what is fair and right. We wish there was a perfect solution to this problem. We wish everything was for free and that nobody had to pay anyone. But that is not the world in which films can be made. And if films are not made 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.

"To quote what Winston Churchill once said about democracy. 'Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." What the MPAA announces today in an effort to protect our films may not the action many want to see or hear. But stealing is stealing. The "arrival" of the Internet and the digital age does not change that truth.'"