Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that the Senate has passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, which contains legislation she sponsored with Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) to combat intellectual property theft or piracy, which is having an increasingly damaging impact on the entertainment industry.

“The growing piracy of movies, music and software hurts artists’ ability to be compensated for their hard work and those who steal these creative works should be held accountable,” Senator Feinstein said. “I am pleased that the Senate approved this bill, which takes us forward in the fight to prevent the illegal copying and unauthorized distribution of ‘pre-released’ works.”

The Cornyn-Feinstein Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act (the ART Act) was included in the overall Family Entertainment and Copyright Act sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). That was approved last week and efforts are still underway to seek action by the House before it adjourns for the year.

The ART Act closes two significant loopholes that exist in intellectual property laws:

• First, it makes it illegal to record a movie off of a movie theater screen or any other public viewing facility. These ill-gotten copies of new movies appear on file-sharing networks while they are still in theaters.

• Second, this law will make it illegal to circulate pre-released materials via the Internet or anywhere else from which the public can download or reproduce the work without the express written consent of the copyright holder.