An open letter to the President-elect argues that much more needs to be done to deter theft.

A group of organisations representing every facet of the music industry, from songwriters and music publishers to producers and record companies, have written an open letter to Donald Trump asking him to consider the issue of music piracy at today’s (December 14) tech summit in Silicon Valley.

As Billboard reports, the letter, which congratulates Trump on his win and has been signed by companies including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), is “calling for strong action to enforce intellectual property laws against infringers.”

It highlights the music industry’s valuable contribution to national wealth and job creation and says that many in the technology and corporate community should be “commended for doing their part to help value creators and their content,” but argues that much more needs to be done to deter theft.

The letter claims that some search engines, user upload content platforms and file-sharing sites are guilty of “perversely abusing US law to underpay music creators,” by allowing people to download or host music illegally.

“Surely the world’s most sophisticated technology corporations can do better – by helping to prevent illegal access and paying fair market value for music with prices set by or based on the free market,” the letter continues. “Strong protection for intellectual property rights will assure growth in both creativity and technology, benefiting the American economy as a whole.”

Yesterday, the President-elect was visited by Kanye West at his Manhattan HQ Trump Tower. West later took to Twitter to defend the rendezvous, claiming that he was there to “discuss multicultural issues” after downplaying the xenophobic platform that Trump ran on.