MPAA, Mexico target DVD pirates
Glickman recruits Calderon for crackdown
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The MPAA chairman-chief exec met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday night to discuss the problem of piracy and came away encouraged; the org will work with the country's law enforcement agencies to crack down on camcorded DVDs of copyrighted films and Web piracy.
The meeting comes none too soon: An estimated $480 million has been lost to piracy in a country that can ill afford to withstand that kind of blow to its economy.
Glickman said there's hope for distribs yet. A national anti-camcording bill is being pushed through the Mexican congress; it's still legal to record video inside a movie theater.
Mexican law enforcement may have trouble enforcing the laws, but Glickman is optimistic on that point as well. "We're encouraging the Justice Ministry by providing them intelligence and law enforcement information," noted Glickman, who stresses that though the MPAA wants to help, no money has changed hands. "We have a very well-developed group of folks in L.A. and worldwide who are monitoring content, whether it's physical piracy or Internet piracy."
Still, there are further issues tied directly to piracy that render enforcement problematic, not least of which is organized crime. "I recognize that this may not be as significant a problem for them as serious systemic drug running," Glickman said of the Mexican justice system. "But in some cases, the problems are linked."
