Guest blog by Motion Picture Association of America Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman:

"This is a
question for Senator Clinton – this is a fun question for you – Do you prefer
Diamonds or Pearls?"

The
presidential campaign season is well underway. During these next several
months we, as the electorate, will have the opportunity to evaluate each
candidate's positions – some of which are more relevant than others.

Presidential
candidates are asked about a whole range of questions during the course of the
campaign. While national security and health care have dominated this season's
campaign dialog, a key issue for the 2008 presidential candidates includes
their commitment to recognizing the critical importance of intellectual
property rights.

The U.S. economy
today is changing quite rapidly. While yesterday's financial landscapes were
determined largely by the sweat of our brows, America's future economy will
undoubtedly depend greatly on the value created by our minds. This is a country
that has always valued knowledge, and leaders of tomorrow will be challenged as
never before to guide our nation in safeguarding that value in our online,
digital world.

Based on recent research,
innovators and producers of creative content from a wide range of industries
including, music, computer software, video game, publishing, and motion
pictures, comprise nearly 13% of our economy's growth. While these fields of
business contribute greatly to our nation's financial health, the escalating
costs of intellectual property theft are taking a toll on economic growth,
curtailing our continued progress.

As candidates debate the
methods of ensuring our global competitiveness and the future health of the
American economy, there is no doubt that this pivotal and increasingly
important engine of intellectual property is central to our future.

This is not merely a
"movie industry" issue, but rather an issue of economic competitiveness, and I
look forward to hearing more from our presidential candidates about how they
will protect intellectual property as president.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 11:43 am by admin and is filed under creators, economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.