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Orem • Just like Walt Disney, Ed Catmull believes technology is a vital part of the artistic process.
Catmull, president of Pixar Studios, told an audience Thursday at Utah Valley University that the technology and computer animation techniques used in Pixar's films are as much a part of the studio's creations as the "Toy Story" films and "Wall-E."
But without copyright protection, Pixar and other intellectual property companies — they constitute 38 percent of the national economy — will not make it, he said.
"We have to realize that intellectual property rights have to be protected. They are one of the reasons our nation is strong," Catmull said during Sen. Orrin Hatch's second annual economic summit.
Catmull, a University of Utah graduate, was joined by Dan Danner, president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, and David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general.
The conference's theme was "The right way to grow the economy." The topics ranged from protecting copyrights to deficit spending.
Catmull said protecting copyrights was important on the global stage. He said piracy in Russia and China erodes 90 percent of the value of the sales of films and other intellectual property in those countries.
"To make this investment in creativity, [Pixar] has to be able to recoup that investment, and recoup it globally," Catmull said.
Danner sees the recently enacted health care reform as a significant threat to the nation's economic health. The NFIB has joined 20 states — including Utah — in challenging the constitutionality of requiring everyone to have health insurance.
"If the government can mandate that you have to purchase health insurance because you exist, where does it stop?" Danner asked the more than 200 people attending the summit.
While Danner does support some elements of health reform — allowing people to take their insurance with them when they change jobs and removing the pre-existing conditions rule — he said the current reform is too costly for businesses. He said a tax on fully insured companies is too onerous, and the subsidy for small businesses to purchase insurance is not enough.
"The final result, in our opinion, will be that many businesses will drop health coverage because the penalty for not getting coverage will be cheaper," Danner said.
His suggestions were to repeal the current law and enact such programs as giving employees vouchers to purchase health insurance, and to create a national insurance pool, allowing the risk to be spread over a greater number of people.
Danner also commended Utah's medical insurance exchange, saying it was one of the better ones in the country.
Walker, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said government spending has dangerously spiraled higher, due in large part to the government promising too much in the way of Social Security and Medicaid coverage.
When that debt is factored in, he said, the United States is about three years away from the same debt crisis that crashed Greece's economy.
"We're not Greece, but we're not exempt from the laws of fiscal prudence," Walker said.
He said the solution is to adopt more pay-as-you-go rules and to amend the Constitution to limit the ratio of debt to the gross domestic product.