MPAA President (Sort Of) Tries To Make Peace Over SOPA

[vansau]

MPAA President (Sort Of) Tries To Make Peace Over SOPA

SOPA supporter and MPAA president Chris Dodd wants everyone to know that Hollywood doesn't really hate the internet, but the battle against piracy is going to continue.

MPAA President Chris Dodd hasn't won a lot of fans lately. This isn't all that surprising, since the guy was a big supporter of controversial bills the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. Once SOPA was killed - <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115265-U-S-Congress-Shelves-SOPA>almost overnight after the very public Web blackout - the former politician wound up making some ominous comments about how Hollywood wouldn't donate money to Obama's re-election campaign. These didn't sit well with the general public, and Dodd <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.339636-UPDATE-Petition-Demands-White-House-Investigate-SOPA-Supporter>became the target of a petition demanding a criminal investigation of him based on bribery charges. While the White House <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115648-White-House-Wont-Investigate-SOPA-Supporter>declined to pursue any action against the man, his reputation with the general public is pretty well shot. Now, Dodd is trying to make peace with people and claim that Hollywood really does love the Web and tech industries.

On Wednesday, Dodd was speaking at the Atlanta Press Club, where he stated that Hollywood is "pro-technology and pro-internet." However, exactly how the film industry is in favor these things isn't really apparent, because it seems that Dodd didn't really go into detail about this.

Instead, Dodd said that film groups were far from done fighting against piracy, going on to state that there needs to be a strong copyright protection in place for online content. He also claimed that nearly one-quarter of all global Internet traffic is copyright theft," although where he got this figure remains unclear. According to Dodd:

"We are not talking about overzealous film buffs or political activists making a statement about freedom of information. We are talking about criminals.

...

"We cannot draw up a business model that accounts for the wholesale theft of our product. It's true for pharmacies. It's true for the automobile industry. It's true for software developers. And it's true for us."

Honestly, Dodd's comments feel like he's trying to do damage control and explain away the entertainment industry's support of SOPA and PIPA. The problem is that he very publicly criticized opponents of the bills, going so far as to call the internet blackout last month "an abuse of power" by those sites involved. Basically, he's managed to (possibly irrevocably) harm both his and the MPAA's reputations with a large number of Web users.

Source: <a href=http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/23/idUS13183087620120223>Reuters via <a href=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/24/mpaa039s-chris-dodd-extends-olive-branch-tech-industry>GamePolitics

Permalink

 

[Somethingfake]

Never trust a man who's eyebrows and hair don't match colours. I do believe he's fully in support of the internet and it's tech as long as he's the one controlling it.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Yeah because people are totally going to forgive him now. After all the internet is know for it's forgiveness. Like some chick people kept banging on about everyone totally forgave her and didn't say anything about weight or gender.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Am I so far ahead of the curve that I'm unusual for being completely unsurprised by anything the MPAA has done here? They and the RIAA both have been more evil than the Empire from Star Wars at least as long as I've been alive.

Hell, let's throw ASCAP into the mix too. It seems like all they do is sue people for having radios on at work, and sue musicians for playing covers in bars. My uncle has had a run in or two with those assholes personally.

 

[Evil Smurf]

That evil bastard will always have a place in my lava pit. My heart no way

 

[Redd the Sock]

It'd sound more convincing if he, you know, went into some considerations and/or things he learned from all this. A few dozen gigabytes went out about why the MPAA's definition of piracy was off kilter and why we don't trust them to not have goevernment oversight, start from there.

 

[Formica Archonis]

"We cannot draw up a business model that accounts for the wholesale theft of our product. It's true for pharmacies. It's true for the automobile industry. It's true for software developers. And it's true for us."

Okay, so he's comparing himself and software developers, who have problems with people downloading their products online without paying for them, with pharmacies and car makers?

Guys, I was gonna go down to the store for some medicated lip balm, but it's starting to snow. Could one of you send me the torrent for it?

(I can't tell if this guy's out-of-touch or if he's just drank too much of his own Kool-Aid.)

 

[Callate]

The running narrative at the MPAA right now seems to be: SOPA/PIPA was just fine, we just got blindsided by the unexpected spasm of negative publicity and didn't have our own spin shock-troops ready to "educate" the public in response.

And until those in charge get it through their heads that hell yes, there was something wrong with SOPA/PIPA, we're just going to have to be ready to fight the next attempt to bribe/extort their way back into a competitive market model (now with bonus disinformation campaign!) twice as hard.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

"We cannot draw up a business model that accounts for the wholesale theft of our product. It's true for pharmacies. It's true for the automobile industry. It's true for software developers. And it's true for us."

Okay, so he's comparing himself and software developers, who have problems with people downloading their products online without paying for them, with pharmacies and car makers?

Guys, I was gonna go down to the store for some medicated lip balm, but it's starting to snow. Could one of you send me the torrent for it?

(I can't tell if this guy's out-of-touch or if he's just drank too much of his own Kool-Aid.)

He could be tying it into the supposed good parts of ACTA (it's primarily aimed at counterfeiters of patented goods like drugs and cars, with copyright law being a minor aspect.) Judging by the way my mother gets angry when I suggest that, hey, maybe the law is wrong here, that's a pretty potent way of getting people with a high respect for the law and an ignorance of the way these specific laws affect real people to agree with you.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Never trust a man who's eyebrows and hair don't match colours. I do believe he's fully in support of the internet and it's tech as long as he's the one controlling it.

...I just want to say that the colors of my eyebrows and hair don't match naturally. (Hair is red, eyebrows are blonde for some reason)

 

[draythefingerless]

Never trust a man who's eyebrows and hair don't match colours. I do believe he's fully in support of the internet and it's tech as long as he's the one controlling it.

...I just want to say that the colors of my eyebrows and hair don't match naturally. (Hair is red, eyebrows are blonde for some reason)

im watching you buddy...-_-....


anyway, BAAHAHAHAH, A QUARTER OF THE INTERNET TRAFFIC IS USED FOR PIRACY. NOW YOU MADE ME LAUGH GOOD SIR. that number is just ludicrously illogical and based in conjecture. now if you said Porn was a quarter of internet traffic....

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

Relevant take on this news. [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120223/04051817846/chris-dodd-extends-sopa-olive-branch-to-silicon-valley-proceeds-to-bash-them-over-head-with-it.shtml]

Short version: Dodd is sorry that his bullying, lies, bribery and extortion didn't work out his way, and now he'd like to say something that might get SOPA[footnote]Or PROTECT-IP, or ACTA, or TPP, or...[/footnote] passed.

But has he learned a single thing about how to relate to the tech industry, or to the citizens of the internet?

Not a one.

238U[footnote]...when wrong to be put right.[/footnote]

 

[Akimoto]

The man shoots his mouth off too easily. How did a hot head like him get to be MPAA president? The Internet will not forget that his definition of criminals are those who watched/shared a movie WITH their friends - without paying.

Greedy bugger

 

[Nurb]

He and his kind were the ones that compared the VCR to a serial killer and tried to get it made illegal every year for 25 years.

"The VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman alone."
-Jack Valenti, MPAA

Don't even doubt for a second that he will work until people can no longer own, record, or control entertainment they pay for, and the internet is just their new VCR

 

[luckshot]

i feel it would be fun to fill his yard with abacuses. no real reason other than i feel its a technology he can actually understand...although he may then try to control mathematical calculations by placing locks on them

Never trust a man who's eyebrows and hair don't match colours. I do believe he's fully in support of the internet and it's tech as long as he's the one controlling it.

...I just want to say that the colors of my eyebrows and hair don't match naturally. (Hair is red, eyebrows are blonde for some reason)

edit: but his hair is white...isnt that indicative of head trauma...or myth of head trauma causing white hair? but red/blond combo seems a little weird too

 

[Therumancer]

I'm positively surprised about any comments by them where they don't use the phrase "foreign thieves" as their newly-coined term for "piracy" like this happy fellow [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/opinion/what-wikipedia-wont-tell-you.html]...

]

Hopefully I snipped that properly.

Foreign thieves and knockoff artists are a HUGE issue and one that is hurting the US to a tremendous degree. Some of the world's most powerful economies, like that of China, are robber economies whose success comes at a direct cost to the US and other nations whose businesses and prosperity are largely based on innovation.

The problem is that those issues have nothing to do with SOPA no matter how much they dress it up. A nation like China isn't going to stop analyzing drugs and selling then, counterfeiting designer jeans, or even stealing media, because of US laws. Indeed the problems exist because they ignore the laws of the US and other countries entirely, instead setting their own policies where this is okay... and why not since it benefits them.

Nothing our politicians decide domestically matters one bit to the real, international piracy issues. The only real way to deal with those problems is to force the thieves in question to stop with the military, at the cost of hundreds and hundreds of millions of lives. A fact nobody wants to face, so efforts are made to pretend this kind of legislation addresses that in some way.

Things like SOPA are nothing but a domestic power grab against freedom of information, where the goverment and business interests happen to be aligned for differant reasons. Foreign thieves will continue to laugh at US law no matter what it says.

Hollywood, the MPAA, and other groups present the piracy situation as being some kind of huge deal that presents a threat to their existance, and talks (as per the original article) about being unable to come up with a business model that allows this. The thing is that media piracy has existed since media has and these companies have grown into huge, multi-billion dollar juggernauts despite it's existance. The current levels of profit show that things CAN continue the way they are without any negative effects beyond what we've seen so far. The guys running the companies will continue to make truckloads of money as well, even if they will never believe those truckloads are as big as they could be.

This by no means makes piracy right, but it DOES mean that it's a lesser evil than the methods proposed to control it domestically.

Basically if anyone wants to address the issue seriously, they need to start looking towards going to war and facing the actual problems. Not just trying to justify a domestic power grab.

 

[weirdee]

The classic Dodd Gambit: in which you declare "DODD GAMBIT!" and flip the board in disgust.

 

[Therumancer]

Foreign thieves and knockoff artists are a HUGE issue and one that is hurting the US to a tremendous degree. Some of the world's most powerful economies, like that of China, are robber economies whose success comes at a direct cost to the US and other nations whose businesses and prosperity are largely based on innovation.

The problem is that those issues have nothing to do with SOPA no matter how much they dress it up. A nation like China isn't going to stop analyzing drugs and selling then, counterfeiting designer jeans, or even stealing media, because of US laws. Indeed the problems exist because they ignore the laws of the US and other countries entirely, instead setting their own policies where this is okay... and why not since it benefits them.

Ugh, it's... you xD

No, China are doing exactly the right thing by ignoring retarded US patent and copyright laws, their economy is booming, every US company wants to go into business with them anyway cause they are so cheap and they will likely be #1 nation in the world soon, and not because they are "foreign criminals who exploit technology to steal American ingenuity and jobs", but because they aren't retarded enough to listen to lobbyists and implement ever more draconic backwards laws that actually hinder their evolution and do the exact opposite of furthering innovation, watch this: http://vimeo.com/36881035 and read this: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,710976,00.html

Yes it's me.

Actually there is no way for China to justify doing things like analyzing drugs or knocking off patents and selling them at cut rates, it's theft pure and simple. The fact that China's economy is booming is EXACTLY why they do it, because they have very little of their own to sell and promote.

We let China get away with this for a very long time because we hoped that it would be a self correcting problem, with the economic prosperity leaking down to the common man, leading to that man making demands and no longer working in sweatshops, and a less oppressed populance innovating it's own things and wanting them protected and following international laws for patents and copyrights. It didn't work out that way.

Your 100% correct that as things are going, China will be the #1 nation in the world because it's feeding it's prosperity into the military specifically so nobody will be able to stop it, and also because it plans to invade other countries (and internally makes no bones about wanting to colonize other nations in the name of vengeance, and to spread out it's population and deal with it's own overcrowding problems). It's navy, anti-satellite/missle systems and other things are all moves in that direction.

With the US and it's allies being unwilling to go to war with China, businesses are increasingly willing to do business with them, in hopes of having positive ties/investments there should the focus of global power change. Not to mention that since the US won't take action to protect their business interests, using Chinese manufacturing and sweatshops is the only real way for them to see any profit at all, doing business with China at least leads to them making SOME money as opposed to none at all.

In the end though, like most things, it comes down to us or them. There is no absolute right or wrong here. China doesn't do this and it's going to sink back into poverty and irrelevency. If the US let's it continue it and it's allies are going to lose global control and gradually be rendered poor and impotent as money no longer flows into our coffers and we lose the intellecual properties and related services that we've been largely based our economy off of.

In the end though the US is too moral to go to war and kill hundreds of millions of people pre-emptively when it can, and prefers to wait for ideal solutions. On the other hand China is entirely immoral and willing to do whatever it can to dominate, including mistreating it's own people to use them for glorified slave/sweatshop labour while it builds it's military. Basically the situation exists because western powers will not act outside of a moral box of it's own creation.

No matter how you dress it up, that's the bottom line. In the end I think we agree on the details, and where things are going, just not on what should be done about it, if anything. One key differance is that in seeing the problem I'm willing to quash a rival and kill hundreds of millions of people for the prosperity and dominance of my own people, and you (presuming your from the US/West) are not and see the change as being inevitable because there is no way we can change things within narrow moral cooridor that you allow yourself to walk.

Me, I believe MAD has ensured world peace/stability and American dominance, but it loses meaning if nobody fears it. Truthfully with the way the militaries line up if we went to war tomorrow I think we could still slap China around (though this would be less certain as soon as 10 years in the future) if we did it properly and just set about leveling them as opposed to engaging in a police action or the quitessential stupidity of a land war in asia. In the end though the point of mutally assured destruction is simply that if the US goes down, we take everyone with us. Going down can mean anything from invasion, to simply being destroyed economically. I think the world needs some solid reminders that the US still has the firepower to destroy the entire world 10x over if it decides to use it, and if it looks like we're not going to be on top, everyone is going to die... period. As crazy as that sounds it's pretty much been the state of affairs for decades, it's just that recently people seem to be ignoring it because they don't believe the US will pull the trigger. Leaders like Obama who are so anti-war it isn't funny (when you get down to it) doesn't help with preception. Basically we need a warrior in the big seat that the world is going to fear, not someone crazy enough to convince them that he's liable to start shooting off nukes and sending out invasions for no reason, but someone who is understood to be willing to nuke people or kill hundreds of millions for the sake of his own people. The more people believe we'll do that, the less likely the US will go down, or actually have to do it. I'm a firm believer of the "speak softly, and carry a big stick" doctrine, but that only works if people believe your going to beat them to death with that stick if they don't listen, and your being nice by choosing to talk as opposed to having no other option. Right now we have the big stick located in a safe behind 30 differant security doors each of which requires the unianimous consensus of eternally bickering commitees to open, ensuring that all we do is speak softly and the big stick is not a threat and can't be taken seriously as one. "If you don't listen, maybe I'll thump you with my stick, if I can convince someone to give it to me and give me permission despite stringent anti-stick policies and political commiteees" doesn't work.