IPR Center, RIAA launch partnership to combat digital piracy

WASHINGTON – The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today announced a long-term agreement expanding and formalizing their partnership on digital antipiracy efforts. Under the signed memorandum of understanding (MOU), the RIAA and the IPR Center will coordinate public and private sector efforts to disrupt and combat all forms of digital piracy. The IPR Center and the RIAA will implement an aggressive multi-layered strategy to strengthen the digital ecosystem, conduct joint training events, educate consumers on the dangers of illegal streaming, enforce the nation’s intellectual property rights laws, and dismantle large-scale online criminal enterprises.

Brad Buckles, the RIAA’s Chief Content Protection Officer added that, “Digital piracy is too big a problem for any one artist, industry, or agency to handle on their own. The expanded partnership we have signed today helps solve that problem – strengthening cooperation and coordination between law enforcement and the private sector to protect digital music and the broader creative economy. As global piracy operations evolve their tactics and innovate new ways to steal and profit from creative works, this MOU will empower creators and the federal government to work together on the cutting edge of this fast-moving fight.”

Digital music piracy remains a major threat to artists, songwriters, and rightsholders – taking many forms from the theft and distribution of works prior to commercial release leaks to stream-ripping. It has caused a massive amount of harm to the industry and artists, reducing recorded music revenues in the United States by 50% during the peak periods of peer-to-peer network piracy, losses from which the industry has yet to fully recover. In response to the rise in digital piracy, the IPR Center developed “Operation Intangibles” in December of 2019 to combat transnational copyright infringements, and digital piracy activities impacting the content creative industries and the U.S. economy.

Digital piracy reduces the ability of U.S. industry to collect money they rightfully earned from their intellectual and creative property. This loss translates into fewer jobs, loss of tax revenue, and the stifling of American cultural content.

To date, the IPR Center, in conjunction with Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, has leveraged vast authorities and international law enforcement partnerships to successfully intercept and dismantle multiple criminal organization’s cyber piracy networks and arrest those responsible. The IPR Center’s mission includes investigating criminal organizations involved in reproducing, distributing, or streaming digital works without the permission of the rightsholders, which hurts creators, fans, and licensed distribution apps and services.

About The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center

The IPR Center brings together public and private partners, in a task force setting utilizing a three-pronged approach (interdiction, investigation, and community outreach), to coordinate a whole-of-government and industry response to combat intellectual property theft and enforce U.S. international trade laws. The IPR Center also has a significant role policing the sale and distribution of counterfeit goods on websites, social media, and the dark web. Click here report IP theft.

About RIAA

The Recording Industry Association of America® advocates for recorded music and the people and companies that create it in the United States. RIAA’s several hundred members – ranging from major American music groups with global reach to artist-owned labels and small businesses – make up the world’s most vibrant and innovative music community, working to help artists reach their potential and connect with fans while supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs.