Outgoing MPAApresident Jack Valenti presented a five-point anti-piracy plan to Congressyesterday (29), urging legislators to foster stronger links between government,intelligence agencies and America's international partners.

Testifyingbefore the senate appropriations committee's sub-committee on commerce,justice, state and the judiciary, Valenti called for greater FBI funding andtraining and a higher awareness of enforcement issues among US andinternational agencies.

He also proposed the returnof stricter trade sanctions, greater cooperation between Embassy staff andlocal enforcement agencies and greater US funding of international intellectualproperty training.

"Withlarge-scale involvement of organised crime in the international replication andexport of pirated DVDs and the large and rapidly growing threat of internetpiracy, the very future of the filmed entertainment industry and othercopyright industries is at stake," Valenti said, echoing a line he hasdelivered before.

"Ensuring thehealth of the filmed entertainment industries, and the US copyright industriesas a whole, is in the national interest," he added.