International Intellectual Property Alliance - Definition

The International Intellectual Property Alliance was created in 1984 by a variety of private firms in the "copyright-based industries" of the United States. The organization now represents six trade associations which encompass over 1,300 American companies. The term "copyright-based industries" denotes conventional cultural productions such as television shows or music recording as well as all software applications. The IIPA formed in response to a series of new technologies, from cassette tapes to peer-to-peer file sharing, that have disrupted the control over availability traditionally exercised by broadcasters, record labels, and other distributors. Since the group's inception in the 1980s, advances in telecommunications have increasingly made the personal manipulation of culture by consumers possible and dramatically reduced the cost of both reproducing intellectual property and transmitting it over national borders.

The IIPA belongs to a worldwide phalanx of semi-official institutions, such as the World Trade Organization, that have emerged in recent decades to regulate the global economy. The group monitors the enforcement of copyright laws in countries around the world and issues yearly assessments that rate each nation's compliance with international standards, while making recommendations for securing the rights of American intellectual property abroad. Given the importance of entertainment and computer technology as exports from the United States, controlling the flow of information has assumed a strategic significance to both private and public entities. Although it is technically a non-governmental organization or NGO representing private interests, IIPA works closely with the US Trade Representative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Trade_Representative) in formulating its proposals and pushing for their implementation.

Member Groups

• Association of American Publishers (http://www.publishers.org)
• Business Software Alliance (http://www.bsa.org)
• Entertainment Software Association (http://www.theesa.org)
• Independent Film & Television Alliance (http://www.ifta-online.org)
• Motion Picture Association of America (http://www.mpaa.org)
• Recording Industry Association of America (http://www.riaa.com)

External Links

• International Intellectual Property Alliance homepage (http://www.iipa.com)