The MPAA isn’t a publicly-traded, for-profit entity, so CEO Dan Glickman’s presentation at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference was sparsely attended. But there is decent contingent of folks here interested in the film business, from the financial side, so there’s interest in what Glickman’s organization is doing to protect and promote the industry. Since the top priority for MPAA these days is fighting piracy, this dominated much of the discussion.

Content theft: Anti-piracy is the top priority. Organization works with law enforcement here and abroad. “You will never stop piracy, the markup is just too great… but you make it as tough as you can.”

Anti-piracy Multi-pronged approach: technology, education, enforcement. Technology is the key to success. Working with ISPs and user-gen communities. Example: working with AT&T, (NYSE: T) which is building technical protections in its system. Glickman predicted that all of the major ISPs would follow AT&T’s lead over the coming years, particularly as they get into content themselves. Still some work to do with the consumer electronics companies. Most piracy still comes from camcorders, so MPAA has been pushing anti-camcorder laws. In Northern Europe, the internet is the big problem, but in South Asia, it’s sill mainly about physical piracy. In China, there is price experimentation to compete with pirates, but there’s no information yet about how the dollar slide is affecting piracy.

Digital: Glickman acknowledged online distribution is creating tension with some of the theater owners the MPAA works with, but he maintained, “Theatrical distribution model will always be the foundation of how movies are shown in this country.” “The theater experience is unique and unequaled… would hate to see the day it disappears.” To survive, theaters need to get on digital themselves.

Windowing: “Clearly the method of distribution is staged… we obviously spend a lot of time examining this.” “It’s complicated because there’s a lot of history in this business.” In discussions of piracy, windowing’s contribution to it is considered.