Piracy is an ongoing problem, despite several measures to crack down. The digital age is a haven for counterfeiters and forgers. But as consumers, we might have, at one point, become participated in some of these acts unknowingly. There are still debates on the exact definition of piracy. However one thing is certain—it is hurting the people, the artists behind the movies, music, comic books, software, photos and more.

Yesterday, artists from across the spectrum, including illustrators, traditional artists, musicians, and directors along with political leaders and intellectual property experts, met for an in-depth discussion on the present-day state of artists rights digital piracy. An issue  that has already impacted the lives of countless numbers of creators.

Arts+Labs’ themed panel discussion “CREATE – Protecting Creativity from the Ground Up” touched upon three major points: preventing real online threats to economic creativity and theft of intellectual property act or PROTECT IP Act, the future of the digital economy and how the current situation has impacted artists (full video below).

In an official statement, Arts+Labs co-chair Mike McCurry sees this dialogue a timely one: “America’s most important contribution to the global economy at this moment is the Internet. It embodies things that will keep America great well into the future: the free transfer of ideas and discourse across national boundaries, the fluid movement of capital for innovation and research, the direct connection of people from different walks of life with one another. As Washington begins to craft solutions through legislation like the Protect IP Act, now is the time for a dialogue on how to foster even more innovation so that the digital economy can continue to thrive.”

The latter part of the discussion involved some of the people who are most affected by these circumstances—the artists. With names like Ellen Seidler, Marcus Johnson, John Harrington and more, the panel discussion gave the audience a better perspective on what artists gone through to cope with the technological transformations that have taken place 20 to 30 years. Apparently, most of them have fought years before they were able to thrive within the digital sphere. They see solutions like being more personal and honest with fans through blogging and chatting as lucrative. Some created a new company workflow and dealt with the client’s lifestyle. Musician Marcus Johnson  spoke about looking at consumer perspective and talking about his divorce, traveling and new relationships with his fans on his website—which lured more followers because of a certain kind of “honesty” and “human” aspect.  Also, the embedding process is now almost a mandatory system for their own photos that will be released online.

CREATE hoped to protect creators from digital theft, and it was successful in engaging professionals, academics, influential personalities and elected officials in this effort. With the US economy on the downturn once again, fighting these kinds of contemporary transgressions might help to alleviate job loss.