By Ruth Vitale

In case you missed it over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times ran a letter to the editor on Saturday in response to its editorial from March 24 on copyright reform and the cumbersome notice-and-takedown process.

The letter is from Michael Kelly, Executive Director at the Los Angeles Coalition for the Economy and Jobs. It reads, in part:

In recent years, the entertainment industry has made dramatic improvements in how it delivers digital content to meet the changing viewing habits of today’s audiences.

But no legitimate business can compete with free, which is why it’s so important that all responsible companies work together to reduce piracy. For this region, where the creative sectors support many wage and salary jobs, finding solutions to reducing piracy is critical. Read full letter

We couldn’t agree more. A recent report by Otis College found that one in every seven jobs in the LA region – more than 725,000 in total – is in the creative industries, and that the creative economy accounts for more than 10 percent of the region’s total economic output.

The Los Angeles Coalition for the Economy and Jobs is a CreativeFuture Coalition Partner. We appreciate their efforts to highlight our community’s contributions to the local economy – and how those economic benefits are harmed by digital theft of creative content.

This is another example of the importance of speaking out about the value of creativity. With the help of our Coalition Partners – and everyone who is reading this – we can do more to take the profit out of piracy and to grow our creative economy.