At the same time it named Ingram Entertainment chairman Bob Geistman the chairman of its board of directors for 2004-05, the Video Software Dealers Association reaffirmed its commitment to fight video piracy on and offline through consumer education, legislation, technology, lawful alternatives, and litigation.
The home video industry trade group passed a resolution at its Las Vegas meeting this week that committed the VSDA board to support the Motion Picture Association of America's education campaign explaining why movie piracy is illegal and how it affects jobs and the national economy, an effect that includes the VSDA estimate that online piracy costs retailers about $1 billion a year.
The nine-part resolution also binds the VSDA to encourage movie studios to support anti-piracy signs at retail outlets and anti-piracy messages on DVD disc packages, backing the MPAA's campaign to close down peer-to-peer file swapping networks, endorsing "appropriately targeted" lawsuits against those swapping movies online, and supporting legislation in the U.S. and elsewhere to tighten deterrence against copyright infringement and other piracy acts.
But the VSDA resolution also called for supporting "the development of multiple lawful alternatives to file-swapping, based on diverse and competitive business models that empower consumers to choose legal services rather than movie theft, to serve as effective antidotes to piracy."
The new VSDA board members also include Video Hut's Tom Warren vice chairman, Giant Eagle's Chuck Porter secretary, and Rentrack's Marty Graham treasurer.
Circuit City, and Netflix assumed seats on the VSDA board, with Leigh Ann Moore representing Circuit City and Ted Sarandos representing Netflix, while Amazon (representative: Jeffrey Belle), Hastings Entertainment (representative: Steve Hicks), and Ingram (Geistman) were reappointed to the VSDA board.
Geistman was unavailable when AVNOnline.com attempted to contact him for comment.
Earlier this week, VSDA's new iGroup division for independent retailers named their 2004-05 officers, naming Video Village's Terri Schumacher chairman, Video Zone's Todd Zaganiacz vice chairman, TLA Video's Adrian Hickman as secretary, and Emerald City Video's Jim Loperfido as treasurer.
