MPA Awards U.S. Lawmakers for Their Anti-Piracy Efforts

Before the Oscars are handed out early March, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has announced its own annual awards. Wicked director Jon Chu is a proud recipient, but the bulk of the accolades go to lawmakers and the U.S. Government's IPR Center, who helped to combat online piracy. Perhaps not coincidentally, those lawmakers could help to push a pirate site blocking bill over the line.

Every year, the entertainment industry celebrates its stars in various award ceremonies.

From the Oscars, through the Grammys, to the Emmys, there’s no shortage of spotlights for the finest performers.

Hollywood is abuzz this week leading up to the Oscars ceremony on Sunday. At the same time, the leading movie industry group, the MPA, announced its own annual awards. These celebrate creative achievement too, but mostly IP-related legislative and enforcement efforts.

The MPA and its flagship anti-piracy arm ACE represent the major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix. The organization has a global presence and helped to orchestrate site blocking measures around the world, paired with high-profile enforcement actions such as the Fmovies takedown.

The MPA Awards Go to…

This year’s annual awards have a strong national focus, however. This includes the Creator Award, which goes out to “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu, who notably missed out on an Oscar nomination for best directing.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can rest assured, as the MPA’s Awards are no competition for the Oscars. In fact, Chu is the only filmmaker to receive an award, as the rest of the accolades go out to lawmakers and enforcement partners, who help the movie industry majors protect their copyrights.

The Creative Protector Award, for example, goes to Ivan Arvelo, director of the U.S. Government’s Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center). The IPR Center works closely with the MPA to combat online piracy.

IPR Center has also been instrumental in various domain seizure efforts. This included the sports streaming piracy seizures that were carried out earlier this week.

Recent Seizure Banner

seized
MPA says that the IPR Center has been vital to combating online piracy and, in turn, Arvelo stresses that anti-piracy efforts are a top priority for the U.S. Government organization.

“We are proud to stand with the MPA to safeguard intellectual property, and we are grateful to the association for recognizing the important work we do to protect this vital American industry,” Arvelo commented on receiving the Creative Protector Award.

Lauded Senate Leader

It is no surprise that the MPA awards those who, directly or indirectly, further their interests. This applies to the enforcement side but also to the lawmaking process, where members of the United States Congress help steer future legislation.

This year, the MPA commended three veteran politicians for their efforts to protect the movie industry. They include John Thune, Senate Majority Leader for the Republican Party. This is a pivotal position, which enables significant influence over the legislative process.

Senator Thune will receive an Industry Champion Award for his work on policies that encourage innovation and competitive choice for customers. We’re not aware of any pioneering copyright policy the Senate leader was involved in, but he did extensively advocate for consumer freedom, including the Filter Bubble Transparency Act.

The MPA hasn’t mentioned Thune in any communications on its website before, aside from the fact that MPA’s Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs worked for him previously. That said, the award shows that the movie industry group values his work and achievements.

Sen. Coons and Rep. Issa

The two other lawmakers who received an Industry Champion Award are more directly linked to anti-piracy work. Democratic Senator Chris Coons introduced the PROTECT IP Act in 2011, and later sponsored the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act in 2020, which criminalized pirate streaming services.

Coons also teamed up with other lawmakers, urging domain name registry Verisign to help copyright holders tackle online piracy. And as Chairman of the Senate’s Intellectual Property Subcommittee, he further helped protect rightsholders.

“Coons understands the cultural power and economic value of the film and television industry in the U.S. and across the globe, and he has worked to protect copyright from piracy as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Intellectual Property,” MPA writes.

Sen. John Thune, Sen. Chris Coons and Rep. Darrell Issa (left to right)

lawmakers
The final Industry Champion Award goes to Republican House Representative Darrell Issa, who has proven to be a reliable ally for copyright holders over the years. Similar to Coons, he also sponsored the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act, which opened the door to criminal prosecutions of streaming services

Issa has a prominent position as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet. In this capacity, he chaired a prominent hearing on digital piracy, where site blocking was presented as a key solution to this problem.

When Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren introduced her FADPA bill late January, the MPA thanked her, while mentioning Rep. Issa in the same sentence. It later emerged that Rep. Issa is working on his own version of a pirate site-blocking bill.

“The MPA thanks Rep. Lofgren for introducing FADPA and for her commitment to work with Chairman Issa to enact legislation this Congress to ensure America’s creators have effective enforcement tools to combat offshore piracy targeting the U.S. market,” MPA CEO Charles Rivkin said at the time.

Surprise

The award recipients have all earned their stripes over the years. And it doesn’t come as a surprise that the MPA awards those who have its best interests in mind. That these people are in key positions ensures that enforcement priorities stay on track and favorable legislation is passed into law, fits the overall picture.

The most surprising part, perhaps, is that Rep. Lofgren did not receive an award for introducing a site blocking bill. After all, this was not a decision that was made lightly, since the failed SOPA bill left serious scars on the Hill.

There might be logical reasons for this decision, and perhaps the award for Rep. Lofgren will come one day. These are politics, after all, so some things are kept behind closed doors, likely for good reasons.

The MPA Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place later this year and all honorees are expected to attend.