Business

CreativeFuture CEO Ruth Vitale Testifies Before Congress on Voluntary Initiatives to Reduce Online Piracy

In a Senate Judiciary IP Subcommittee hearing re-evaluating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, CreativeFuture CEO Ruth Vitale called on YouTube to work with the creative communities and expand access to the platform’s content protection tools.

The hearing – “The Role of Private Agreements and Existing Technology in Curbing Online Piracy” – was the latest in a year-long series assessing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 22 years after its passage.

Vitale was invited to testify on the opening panel alongside Mitch Glazier, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America; Josh Lamel, Executive Director of Re:Create; and Probir Mehta, Head of Global Intellectual Property and Trade Policy at Facebook.

The second panel included Katherine Oyama, Global Director of Business Public Policy at YouTube; Keith Kupferschmid, CEO of the Copyright Alliance; Noah Becker, President and Co-Founder of AdRev; and Dean Marks, Executive Director and Legal Counsel of the Coalition for Online Accountability.

“I am honored to have been invited to testify before Congress, and I commend the IP Subcommittee’s efforts to reassess the DMCA,” Says Vitale. “The cost of global piracy to the U.S. economy amounts to at least $29.2 billion each year. It is a devastating loss that is stifling creative livelihoods across the nation.

“Though the technology to mitigate this problem exists, it is only used at the discretion of massive online platforms like YouTube. Their existing content protection tools are only available to a small fraction of rightsholders. It would require minimal time and effort for YouTube to make these tools available to individual creatives and small businesses – the very people who need them most. Yet, time and time again, YouTube has refused to do so.

“We are grateful for this opportunity to represent the creative communities before the Senate today. We look forward to working with Congress and the platforms to implement technologies that can put an end to the piracy that is devastating our creative livelihoods.”