Entertainment Legal News

Coleman Will Call Industry Roundtable To Address Crisis Facing Entertainment Industry

At the Consumer Electronics Show, PSI Chairman says future of entertainment industry will be led by the private sector

Minnesota United States Senator Norm Coleman, appearing on a panel at the world’s largest consumer electronics show, said on Friday, January 9th, that he would convene a roundtable of industry and technology leaders to address the growing crisis facing the entertainment industry.

“The time has come to recognize that solutions to this challenge are not going to come solely from government,” said Coleman. “In 1998, Congress passed legislation that was intended to protect the entertainment industry and copyrights. Yet, within less than five years, the legislation was bypassed by technology. With the advent of technology such as peer-to-peer networking, law, technology and ethics are now not in synch. We need to find other ways to solve the problems rather than issuing lawsuits and lobbying Congress to pass tougher laws.”

At the Consumer Electronics Show, produced by the Consumer Electronics Association, Coleman participated in a nine-member panel and answered questions on topics ranging from free trade to the protection of private copyrights.

Coleman, who has held hearings to address the issuing of subpoenas by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), stated that the solution to the problems facing the music and the motion picture industry were more likely to be found through the innovation of technology, rather than the passage of more legislation.

“I believe we need the technology experts, the computer industry, peer-to-peer industry, the software industry, the entertainment industry, the privacy experts and the business experts to come together and discuss positive and meaningful solutions to this challenge facing a major segment of our economy,” said Coleman. “I’m not interested in assigning blame, or pointing fingers. I want to bring together the great minds that have a role to play in this matter and develop constructive measures that can address these challenges, and determine an appropriate role for Congress to play in helping to find some common ground.”

Coleman said he hopes to convene the roundtable sometime soon after the Congress convenes in January. 

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	Did You Know?
	Treatment is one of the starting blocks in the development process The treatment takes the outline a step further, adding depth to character and story by filling in missing blanks. The treatment's main purpose is to tell the complete story before setting it in script form. Most are written in prose and range from ten to twenty pages. The treatment is the best place to hammer out initial story and character problems. Unless a script is sold on spec, most buyers require a treatment (or very detailed) outline from its writers before commencement of the actual screenplay. If financed independently, the treatment's often a part of the initial fundraising package.