Meet NBC/Universal general counsel Rick Cotton. He told a press conference that,

“Our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned. If you add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16 billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of dollars] a year.”

Cotton is the Chairman of something called the Coalition Against Counterfieting and Piracy and is “spearheading” a new effort by the MPAA and and the RIAA called, “Campaign to Protect America.”

The campaign’s agenda, among other things, seeks a new “IP Enforcement Coordinator” within the White House.

“We’re having intensive consultations with the leadership in Congress, and we’ll be consulting closely with the appropriate committee chairman to try to put the agenda into the appropriate legislative vehicles,” Cotton said.

Cotton is talking to your congresspeople, are you? —MEGHANN MARCO

MPAA, others call for new anti-piracy laws [ContentAgenda via BoingBoing]
(Photo: swanksalot)

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