MPAA’s Dodd: Europe Blocked Access to 845 Piracy Sites in 2016 (Variety)
Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, praised European officials Monday for blocking access to 845 illegal websites in 2016 that were providing pirated film and TV content across the European Union, which has long been considered a hotbed of piracy.
“In Europe we have been particularly successful at blocking access to large-scale pirate sites,” Dodd, who is Hollywood’s chief lobbyist, said of the work being done by the MPAA in tandem with E.U. authorities.
The former U.S. senator was the keynote speaker at a gathering in Rome where it was revealed that, last year, “more than one-third of Italians over the age of 15 engaged in some form of piracy,” Dodd said, citing figures from Italian anti-piracy organization Fapav.
The illegal activity caused economic damage worth an estimated 686 million euros ($692 million) to content creators and placed more than 6,000 local jobs in jeopardy, Fapav said.
Movie piracy was down 4% compared with 2010, but consumption of pirated TV series in Italy went up 9%, a study commissioned by Fapav showed.