Trade Associations

Association of American Publishers (AAP)

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is a national trade association representing the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP represents more than 300 commercial and non-profit member companies, university presses, and scholarly societies that publish books and journals across a broad range of interests. AAP’s members include leading educational publishers, who produce textbooks and other educational and testing materials covering the entire range of educational and professional needs. In addition to their print publications, many AAP members are active in the emerging market for e-books, while also producing computer programs, databases, and a variety of multimedia works for use in on-line, CD-ROM and other digital formats.  AAP’s programs and activities cover a broad range of issues of interest to publishers, including protecting and strengthening intellectual property and exploring challenges and opportunities related to new technology. In 1994, AAP launched the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which focused on content identification (discussed more fully above), as part of a broader copyright management initiative. Through its Open eBook Standards Project and other efforts, AAP promotes the development and use of standards and requirements in the areas of DRM metadata and numbering that will enable an open and competitive marketplace for eBook commerce on a large scale. More information on AAP is available at: http://www.publishers.org.

Business Software Alliance (BSA)

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is an international organization representing companies in the software, hardware and Internet sectors. BSA’s priorities are enhancing trust and security in cyberspace, reducing software piracy, promoting strong policies for intellectual property protection and free trade, and educating the public about sound software management practices. The BSA is committed to working on technological solutions for protecting digital content on-line, but as innovators, software and hardware makers BSA member companies are also committed to letting the market lead. Thus, BSA participates in cross-industry efforts to develop technological protection measures to protect copyrighted works within a broad framework of shared objectives – protecting content, promoting consumer choice, and fostering innovation. More information on BSA is available at: http://www.bsa.org.

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)

International Federation of Phonographic Producers (IFPI) is an international organization comprised of 1500 record companies and distributors in 76 countries. IFPI describes its priorities as fighting music piracy, promoting fair market access and adequate copyright laws, and helping to develop the legal conditions and the technologies for the recording industry to prosper in the digital age. IFPI has been closely involved in the discussions between the recording industry and the technology and consumer electronics sectors known as the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), which is discussed below. More information on IFPI is available at: http://www.ifpi.org.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its international counterpart, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), serve as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries, domestically through the MPAA and internationally through the MPA. MPAA represents the largest producers and distributors of filmed entertainment: Buena Vista International, Inc; Columbia Tristar Film Distributors International, Inc.; Paramount Pictures Corporation; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal International Films, Inc.; and Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P.
The MPAA pursues an active agenda to confront digital piracy and facilitate the viability of a legitimate marketplace for high-quality digital entertainment, including promoting technological protection systems. Currently, the MPA’s three primary goals are: (1) implementing a “Broadcast Flag” to prevent the unauthorized redistribution of “in-the-clear” digital over-the-air broadcast television, including its unauthorized redistribution over the Internet, (2) plugging the “analog hole” that results from the fact that protected digital content can easily be converted into analog form and then reconverted to unprotected digital form, making it subject to widespread unauthorized copying and redistribution, and (3) putting an end to copyright infringement on so-called “file-sharing” services on peer-to-peer (p2p) networks. As noted above, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) currently is conducting a rule making on the Broadcast Flag. More information on the MPAA is available at: http://www.mpaa.orgg

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. The mission of RIAA is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes its members' creative and financial vitality. RIAA’s record company members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States. In support of this mission, the RIAA, among other things, works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide, conducts industry and technical research, and monitors domestic and international legal and public policy issues affecting the U.S. recording industry. RIAA has been closely involved in the discussions between the recording industry and the technology and consumer electronics sectors known as the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), which is discussed below. More information on RIAA is available at: http://www.riaa.org

Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association representing over 1,400 high-tech companies that develop and market software and electronic content for business, education, consumers, the Internet, and entertainment. SIIA members represent a wide range of business interests. Numerous SIIA members create and develop new and valuable encryption technologies, use encryption technologies to protect their proprietary content, and purchase or license software and information products and other content and services that utilize encryption technologies. As a result, SIIA and many of its members are actively involved in issues relating to the protection and use of encryption technologies and the relationship between research and development activities relating to encryption. More information on SIIA is available at: http://www.siia.net.