Printer-Friendly Page

Time Warner’s Global Public Policy team not only seeks to provide policymakers with a trusted source of business and strategic input, but also works to uphold our company’s values, including freedom of expression, journalistic integrity, responsible content, and access to information.

Freedom of expression goes hand-in-hand with protecting intellectual property. To help ensure that people continue to create the movies, television shows, magazine articles, and Internet content that we all enjoy, it’s vital to ensure that those creators are compensated for their efforts. Accordingly, the protection of intellectual property is a key public policy priority for us. We work with both the U.S. government and governments around the world to take action against those who illegally copy and sell our films and television shows, whether online or from street-market stands. In the marketplace, we continue to work with the electronics industries to develop new and secure ways to deliver our rich array of content to consumers on a variety of devices.

Freedom of expression also requires safeguards to protect our journalists. Time Warner takes great pride in the independence and integrity of our print and TV journalists. We are staunch defenders of journalistic freedom and believe it is an important tool for there to be fair and transparent government. We support protecting reporters from prosecution for refusing to identify confidential sources except in special circumstances.

As part of our agenda to promote responsible content, children’s online safety is a top priority for us, and we have led the Internet industry with our multi-pronged approach. Both AOL and Time Warner Cable provide protections that allow parents to manage their children’s online activities. The company also works appropriately with law enforcement to combat cyber-crime. Time Warner promotes protecting the security and privacy of customer data, and supports efforts to educate consumers about those protections. Turning to the workforce and economic issues, Time Warner supports the creation of a federal standard for workplace fairness for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees. We also support policies to encourage economic development and technological innovation. We believe that technological advances, new investment, and rapid innovation are fundamentally changing the communications and media marketplaces. This infusion of new services and unprecedented competition will continue to benefit consumers. Given this thriving and competitive marketplace, we believe communications and economic regulation should be used only when needed, and it should apply to all service providers on a technology and competitively neutral basis.

Similarly, in the areas of tax and trade, we support fair and transparent regulation. To this end, we are active proponents of free and fair trade and support the negotiation of market opening agreements at the bilateral, regional, and global level. With respect to taxes, we believe that any taxation of our business should be simple and non-discriminatory.

Membership in Associations
Time Warner is a member of several trade associations, including the National Cable and Tele-communications Association (NCTA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA).