Longtime intellectual property rights crusader Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., might have moved on to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the 111th Congress but he has not abandoned his passion for the hot-button policy topic. Berman, whose congressional district includes parts of Hollywood, is planning an April 6 field hearing in Van Nuys on the international impact of counterfeiting and piracy. Berman chaired the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property last Congress and after being tapped for the Foreign Affairs top spot, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers decided to eliminate the panel and handle IP at the full committee level.

The forthcoming hearing titled "Sinking the Copyright Pirates: Global Protection of Intellectual Property" will feature representatives from various sectors of the entertainment industry who will discuss the devastating economic impact of illegal reproduction of copyrighted material overseas, a Monday e-mail from Berman's office said. Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will take part but a witness list has not yet been released. According to the International Intellectual Property Alliance, U.S. creative industries account for $110 billion annually in revenue from foreign trade but they are losing billions from IP theft. IIPA recently told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in a filing that in 48 countries, the software and recording sectors alone lost more than $18.4 billion to bootleggers.