Several months ago, I discussed the decline of the U.S as an innovator as part of my Industry Evolution: Innovation vs. Spending series. While a tough pill to swallow, it was true then and it continues to be the case today – the U.S. is lagging in innovation and our title of world thought leader is being stripped away by other countries.
I’m not the only one that’s caught onto this trend. Hollywood is in the midst of a vigorous battle against innovation thieves distributing their Intellectual Property (be it films, music, games or other forms of creative expression) via the web. This issue is so concerning that it worked its way through Congress in 2011 in the form of two proposed bills aimed at fighting online piracy: the Senate’s Protect IP (PIP) Bill and the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Various grassroots organizations have sprung up in an effort to pass this type of legislation. One group I’ve been particularly impressed with is Creative America. Check out this eye-opening PSA they put together and then be honest…would you take the DVDs? The guy in the PSA who does take them argues that the example is “too literal” but I believe what the Creative America spokesperson is saying is dead-on. While one person downloading an illegal copy of a film may not have such an extreme consequence as someone losing their job, the point is that it’s the collective mindset. If everyone sees their actions as one person, one time and uses the justification: “If others are doing it, why can’t I?” the effect snowballs and does ultimately lead to extreme consequences.
Just as I stated in the blog post I mentioned above, America is losing jobs due to theft of innovation. According to the LA Times, “The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) estimates the nation loses more than 300,000 jobs, $16 billion in earnings and a total of $58 billion in economic output each year because of pirated movies, music, software and video games.” These figures are staggering and by allowing them to happen we are furthering the country’s decline. And they are not alone in this struggle. Virtually every industry faces this problem, from auto manufacturing to software.
I’ve said it a million times before, but again I find myself pointing to another glaring example of the fact that our government is nowhere close to where it needs to be in terms of regulating and securing the Internet. And while I’m glad that this issue is finally coming to light with bills such as PIP and SOPA, it seems our federal government is once again becoming tangled up by its own red tape, rather than actually getting anything done. I’m talking about the House’s recent announcement to put PIP on hold and a proposal of yet another option – the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act, OPEN .
A number of tech giants including the likes of Google, Facebook, Mozilla and others now support this draft text because they view PIP / SOPA as “dangerous overreach.” Google copyright counsel Katherine Oyama believes the bill “would undermine the legal, commercial and cultural architecture that has propelled the extraordinary growth of Internet commerce.” But OPEN isn’t the answer either. It is criticized for making no allowances for the agency proposed to lead the charge, the U.S. International Trade Commission, to actually enforce their decisions. When dealing with the threat of a nation, an all bark and no bite approach is simply not good enough.
We have to find the balance between the freedom and openness the Internet offers and the ability for innovators – around the world – to protect their ideas. At the end of the day, our country is losing jobs, revenue and Intellectual Property to cyber thieves both here and abroad. I recently sat down with a member of our intelligence community and he explained to me a reality most of us have no concept of – every time we travel overseas and access the Internet, our laptop is re-imaged on average two times per week. Without our knowledge. And, our confidential corporte information is being siphoned from our networks within hours of creation.
While we are busy investing in research to support our next great idea, cyber criminals focus on stealing those ideas and investing only in cheap, fast manufacturing. That translates directly to our bottom line, and jobs. Yes, online piracy is a big deal. We could all watch Michael Bay’s next blockbuster over spotty WiFi in our shuttered office buildings. We may be jobless but at least we’ll have free movies. Ok, maybe that’s extreme, but hey it worked for Creative America…