“We get it.”

That is what Vice President Joseph (or as he prefers, Joe) Biden said — twice — to a gathering of entertainers, entertainment industry executives and policymakers last night at the Business of Show Business dinner. Speaking before Martin Scorsese was honored with the Jack Valenti Humanitarian Award, the Vice President emphasized the critical role copyright plays in driving both our culture and our economy.

“Barack and I are resolute in our dedication to intellectual property protection,” he said. “All of us need to tell the American people that piracy is killing the [creative] industr[ies], and the American economy… it hurts the American people.”

A key theme of the symposium was how motion pictures and television shows are being made across the country, in fact in the last two years in every state in the country and D.C. Biden again: “The Hollywood sign’s shadow stretches all across America to all 50 states… You provide the kind of jobs that Barack and I are fighting for.”

Biden, while in the U.S. Senate, was the co-founder and co-chairman of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, and ranked with Senators Leahy and Hatch — both of whom were in attendance at the symposium yesterday — as some of the senators with the best grasp of intellectual property issues. He chaired at various times both the Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees, and thus is an expert on international IP enforcement.

He said we need much more of that, and that the IP Coordinator, when appointed, will likely be too focused domestically. Biden felt “our neighbor to the north needs, in my opinion, stronger IP enforcement.” In fact, they are on the U.S. State Department’s Special 301 watch list, and still haven’t implemented into law their WIPO treaty obligations a decade after signing the treaties. Biden also singled out China as a trouble spot. He noted that Chinese leaders recently have suggested they would step up IP enforcement, and added the Administration would seek to hold that leadership to its word.

Biden also did a nice shout-out to Dan Glickman, the former House Judiciary member and U.S. Agriculture Secretary now serving as Chairman and CEO of the MPAA, the host for last night’s event. Biden said policymakers “have a BS meter” regarding visitors, but with Glickman, “everyone knows he’s being straight with you.”

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also took a brief turn at the podium. She too was bullish in her support of the motion picture industry and its economic impact across the U.S., but was especially appreciative of its contributions to culture. Recognizing the connection between culture and copyright, she said: “You change people’s lives. That is worth protecting.”

The audience consisted of nearly a dozen senators and easily twice that number of House members and Administration officials, along with Scorsese, John Landis (director of my favorite movie of all time, The Blues Brothers) and others from D.C. and Hollywood. Perhaps the most moving moment of the evening was when Mary Margaret Valenti presented Scorsese the award named in her late husband’s honor.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under Obama, capitol hill, counterfeit, economy, events, international, piracy, property rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.