Piracy of Creative Works Hurts More Than Mickey Mouse

In a recent discussion within the Clinton administration on how to respond to the theft of American intellectual property in too many countries, a high official of the Treasury Department is alleged to have said (referring to the pirating of movies): “What, get tough just to protect Mickey Mouse?”

This remark reveals, first, a fatal passivity about the assaults on America’s most prized trade asset, and second, confirmation of how barren is that official’s knowledge of the worth of American creative works. (Thankfully, many in the administration and Congress understand clearly how valuable is our creativity.)

What is intellectual property? It’s a fancy moniker for movies, TV programs, home video, musical recordings, computer software and books. At a time when we are drowning in trade deficits eroding the pillars of our economy, intellectual property is rapidly rising to become the greatest source of surplus balance of trade to this country.

Yet the future of these fragile works is being severely threatened by rogue theft, the illegal duplication of American creative works in foreign countries and the sale globally of this thievery. Losses to the intellectual property community in 1995 were more than $18 billion.

Not only are we challenged by piracy, but some countries are persistently trying to exile us, bar us, restrict us, to shrink our entry into their markets. Our industry must each day be vigilant, because like virtue, we are each day besieged. We are (as we say in Texas) being nibbled to death by ducks.

China and the U.S. are confronting each other across an uneasy divide piled high with evidence of piracy on such leviathan scale that it fractures common sense. Indeed, America’s creative works have become a profitable trade prize for China, since the vast majority of what is stolen is shipped to markets in other countries.

In February 1995, a Sino-American trade pact was signed wherein China solemnly confirmed its willingness to abolish piracy and offer market access to America’s creative works. One year later, except for some momentary advances, the landscape is now as it was then, inhabited by Promethean piracy, broad, uninterrupted, systemic.

What to do about it? To the movie industry, China is the face of the future. We have a keen desire to invest millions of dollars there in joint projects to erect theaters, renovate studios, co-produce films, construct cable systems, build theme parks, all as economic partners with Chinese authorities and businessmen. Therefore, shutting down piracy and opening up the marketplace are in the long-range best economic interests of China.

There are only two pathways to abolishing piracy: strong copyright laws with stern penalties and government resolve to enforce the laws. China’s copyright laws are fine. Alas, there is little if any enforcement.

If China refuses to redeem the pledges it made last year, what should be our country’s response? If there is no rebuttal on our part, what is the value of other trade pacts with other nations?

This is not a casual query. The intellectual property community has revenues from foreign markets of more than $50 billion annually. We are welcomed throughout the world. Movies, for example, are America’s most wanted export in more than 150 countries.

The intellectual property industry is growing at a rate twice that of the national economy and is creating new jobs at a rate four times that of the nation at large. We are riding an ascending curve into a future where the growth potential of creative works outstrips that of any other American industry.

If ever an American industry is worthy of being protected from gradual decay by theft and restriction, it is intellectual property. A pity the Treasury Department official is not aware of the unseen wings that beat above him, wings that carry American’s most valuable exports to the world.