Bell is already a member
LOS ANGELES – The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) today announced the addition of Comcast and Viacom as members.
While NBCUniversal and Paramount Pictures were already ACE members (as is Bell Media) the addition of the parent companies “will strengthen ACE’s comprehensive approach to disrupting a piracy ecosystem that harms creators,” reads the ACE press release.
Comcast is the first American internet service provider (ISP) to join ACE.
“We are excited to have Comcast and Viacom join ACE,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association, which runs ACE. “As the parent companies of two of our original members, they have been supporters of our efforts and numerous successes, but now as members, they will strengthen the legal and operational work we’re able to do to reduce the threat of piracy and support creators.”
ACE was founded in June 2017 by 30 creative companies who sought to expand ongoing, cooperative efforts to reduce the threat and prevalence of online piracy.
“Last year alone, there were an estimated 5.4 billion downloads of pirated films and television shows and 21.4 billion total visits to streaming piracy sites worldwide,” reads the press release. “This conservatively costs US$29.2 billion to as much as US$71 billion annually in lost domestic revenues, according to a recent study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center. Piracy also harms consumers – one-third of pirate sites target them with malware that can lead to a range of problems, including identify theft and financial loss, according to a report by Digital Citizens Alliance.
“Since its inception, ACE has achieved successful litigations against piracy device sellers and providers of unauthorized content and their operators like Vader Streams, SetTVNow, Tickbox, and Dragon Box, and collaborated with law enforcement investigations and actions around the world. ACE draws upon the global antipiracy resources of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in concert with the internal antipiracy expertise of the coalition members.”
In Canada, of course, Bell and others are also fighting piracy, as we have reported.
The full roster of ACE members includes Amazon, AMC Networks, BBC Worldwide, Bell Canada and Bell Media, Canal+ Group, CBS Corporation, Channel 5, Comcast, Constantin Film, Discovery, Foxtel, Grupo Globo, HBO, Hulu, Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Millennium Media, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, SF Studios, Sky, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Star India, Studio Babelsberg, STX Entertainment, Telefe, Telemundo, Televisa, Univision Communications Inc., Viacom, Village Roadshow, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
