Preserving
Creativity
The MPA believes in protecting creative works and the people who make them. Whether you’re making a film, writing a book or recording a song, the amount of time, effort, and investment is more than a passion – it’s also someone’s livelihood. For creative sectors to thrive, intellectual property laws must protect the hard work of creators and makers while ensuring an Internet that works for everyone.
Protecting creativity takes commitment from a wide range of people and organizations, from movie theater owners and operators, to technology companies and online service providers, to retailers large and small, to search engines, to law enforcement agencies. These voluntary, often industry-to-industry partnerships are a constant reminder that we all have a role to play in preventing great content from being stolen or misused.
Consumers can help, too. The motion picture and television industry is creating more ways than ever before for audiences to find their favorite films and television shows in a variety of platforms. For a detailed list, check out Where to Watch for seamless, legal streaming services and apps.
Why Copyright Matters
Throughout history, the products of human imagination have played a vital role in shaping the world we live in. Works of art, culture, and entertainment not only enrich our lives, but drive economic and technological developments that fuel progress in our own backyards and around the world. They expand our horizons and give rise to ever-greater creativity and innovation.
Essential to this creativity are the copyright laws that encourage creators and makers among us to continue their work. For its entire history, copyright law has responded – and contributed – to new developments in technology and the consumer marketplace. They have endured in part because of their flexibility, working with existing and future technologies to foster innovation and ensure our economy can continue to grow.
The protections provided by current law support business models that give consumers more choices, and more access to more content, in more formats and on more platforms than ever before. It means that today’s latest advancements and the ever-expanding media landscape exist in part because of a copyright system that empowers creativity and promotes competition. To support copyright law is to support technological ingenuity that ultimately benefits everyone.
Copyright protection is about providing the right incentives to make sure everyone has access to content across multiple platforms, and that the people who make that content are able to continue to do so
For its entire history, copyright law has responded – and contributed – to new developments in technology and the consumer marketplace.
Public Performance Law
What is a Public Performance?
Movies or TV shows obtained through a shops or online stores are licensed for your private use; they are not licensed for exhibition to the public.
The concept of “public performance” is central to copyright. If creators and makers do not retain the ability to control how and when their works are publicly exhibited, then there is little incentive for them to continue creating top content.
Obtaining a Public Performance License
Securing public performance license is easy and usually requires no more than a phone call. Fees are determined by such factors as the number of times a particular movie is going to be shown, how large the audience will be and so forth. For a list of major firms that handle these licenses please see:
Motion Picture Licensing Corporation
Report Piracy
If you have information about the illegal production, distribution or sale of movies and television programs, please contact us at reportpiracy@motionpictures.org