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New Grassroots Organization Aims To Fight Content Theft

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A new grassroots organization has declared war on the growing problem of content piracy.

People are illegally downloading TV shows and movies and their actions are threatening jobs.

Movies and TV shows can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to create and years to produce, but can be stolen in the blink of an eye.

Hollywood may romanticize the life of pirates looting in the 1800s, but present-day pirates are threatening the entire industry.

They set up websites where people can download and watch bootlegs of movies and TV shows without paying a dime.

"We've lost 140,000 jobs already to content theft," said Craig Hoffman, the Communication Director for a website called Creative America, a grassroots organization trying to spread the word about real-life movie pirates.

But major stars are not the ones feeling the pinch; it is the thousands of men and women who work on the other side of the lens whose livelihoods are on the line.

As supervisor of the grip department at CBS Studio Center, Jamie Barnett sees the cost of piracy in human terms.

"It's scary, it's very scary... And when that grip doesn't work, his mortgage doesn't get paid. And when his mortgage doesn't get paid, his car payment doesn't get paid and thing about how many jobs that impacts," Barnett said.

Creative America is trying to spread the word about new legislation that could strengthen laws to help identify the movie and TV show pirates and put a stop to them.

CBS Corporation, the parent company of this website, is part of the coalition that makes up Creative America.

For more information visit Creative America online at www.creativeamerica.org.

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