Hollywood wants the rest of the world to follow US copyright law

Hollywood doesn’t want free trade to mean free, illegal downloads of movies. Or bootleg sales. Anissa Brennan, vice president for International Affairs and Trade Policy at the Motion Picture Association of America, wants the treaty to follow US law, which doesn’t allow movie goers to film what’s on the screen, then sell illegal copies. She explains, “If you go into a theater and you record a film without the permission of the theater owner, that is a criminal act.” Brennan also wants the trade deal to extend copyrights to the life of the author plus 70 years. Bill Watson, a trade policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, advocates free trade. He says US negotiators have taken Hollywood’s position, which isn’t very popular.