7 ms·

MPAA Response to White House Position on Anti-Piracy Legislation

48 points by jhack 15y ago

ianstormtaylor 15y ago
"The American businesses that are victimized on a daily basis by global Internet thieves are among the most innovative industries in this nation and we welcome the Administration's support of these American businesses." Right... the film and music industries are among the least innovative industries, as Fred Wilson reminds us http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/01/scarcity-is-a-shitty-business-model.html http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/01/scarcity-is-a-shitty-busines...
- javadyan 15y ago
  Not to mention that the quality of the majority of content produced by these industries sucks.
  - Okvivi 15y ago
    They are not in the business of producing quality, they are in the business of producing content that is consumed. Big difference.
- DrCatbox 15y ago
  Thieves is a strong word for copyright infrigiment. MPAA is representing global thieves, they steal opportunities, expression and free culture from everyone who doesnt own intellectual property. They deprive all independent artists from mixing and contributing to society. MPAA is victimizing itself on a daily basis, while oppressing all independent producers, oppressing all small job-creators.
alexhaefner 15y ago
Wow that was an absolutely disgusting read. I don't like piracy, but the make the logical leap from piracy (which they see as a problem of enforcement of laws rather than a matter of distribution) to a loss of jobs that is particularly bizarre. Also I have no idea what they mean when they say they are innovative. This is a mish mash of 'jobs' and 'thieves' and 'innovation' all over the place, tastelessly. I guess I just get annoyed when institutions or industries make arguments for their relevance through legislation. They mention the status quo, but entertainment wants to hold onto a status quo where entertainment is a highly profitable industry, and they're willing to try and do it by creating legislation. Good artists are always going to prevail, but shitty business models don't need to be protected.
- Delmania 15y ago
  That's just standard boilerplate logic thrown in to justify an controversial position. Essentially, you come up with something (usually that enacts more control over people), and then claim it will "protect jobs" and "foster innovation", and then move on.
  - Vivtek 15y ago
    Also, not doing it will harm children.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
javadyan 15y ago
They need to shut the hell up and work on improving their content distribution model. Learn something from Gabe Newell already. Sheesh.
- bittermang 15y ago
  It goes deeper than that. It's a clandestine unwillingness to innovate. They have been running the existing model for too long and are too comfortable with it to even think of anything different. I was thinking the other night as a commentator did a pitch for a show airing later in the week. Logo, short message, date and time. And I got mad. Mad because I couldn't press a button on my remote and just schedule it to record that. We live in a world where the DVR has won, every cable provider I can name is running a promotion where they're bundling their own home brand DVR box with a cable package. Yet, no new models have arisen to enhance the DVR experience beyond simple recording. They've begrudgingly accepted the devices, but otherwise it's business as usual. Think about it. If you're going to spend air time to tell me about a show, it would behoove you to let me effortlessly schedule a recording of the show. I liked the pitch, I was hooked, I wanted to watch it. But I didn't want to go out of my way to find it, despite the fact that all the information was right in front of me. Of course they've tried this. Half assed. Poorly implemented "Go Interactive!" initiatives that never get used. And the so called Interactive programming adds no value, I'm not even certain what they do since I've never been inspired to press the button during the rare occasions when the on screen prompt appears. Which extends in to the second problem. They set themselves up for failure with systems like this, only to use them as a prop to say "See, the old model is better!" See all of their stunted and disorganized digital distribution channels for further examples. They're getting better, but only because they have to because they look so poor when you compare them to something like Netflix. We're not going to be able to make them innovate. Horse vs. Water. Frankly I don't know what it will take for them to come around at this point, but I know we must staunchly oppose and fight any attempt to further stifle the progress we are all making in spite of them, all in the name of preserving their old way of life.
  - zheng 15y ago
    I don't actually watch TV very often, and don't have it at home, but over the holidays I saw this feature at someone's house. I think it was DirectTV/Dish, and during a commercial for some TBS(?) show, it prompted you to press some button on the remote to automatically record the series. It was pretty cool.
ianferrel 15y ago
"For too long in this debate, those that seek to preserve and profit from the status quo have moved to obstruct reasonable legislation." --MPAA
- schwit 15y ago
  And up is down and black is white. The MPAA and RIAA are the poster children for maintaining the status quo. They have no need to innovate as long as they can continue to line the pockets of corrupt politicians.
- nkassis 15y ago
  It's such hypocrisy I had trouble reading that line without spitting my coffee on my screen. I mean, what was the DMCA? Maintaining the status quo? Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act Over the past century Copyright has been strengthened and protected to ever higher levels. There is no status quo here, it's all one sided and they dare say this when we tug back a little?
  - Symmetry 15y ago
    But don't you see, copyright extension is supporting the statis quo. Certain works are in copyright, and they don't ever want that to change. </irony>
vectorpush 15y ago
protecting American jobs is important too, particularly in these difficult economic times for our nation Bullshit. The film industry is boasting record profits, piracy has had a negligible effect on American jobs. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/piracy-once-again-fails-to-get-in-way-of-record-box-office.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/piracy-once-...
- thetrendycyborg 15y ago
  Doesn't matter. What matters is that they mentioned a keyword (jobs) and that means they're a job-creator and everyone who opposes the bill hates jobs.
  - joshuahedlund 15y ago
    Good thing the tech industry can play the jobs game too. Surely Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a thousand other web companies have hired more people than the entertainment industry in the last ten years...?
    - herge 15y ago
      That is what I do not understand about how the SOPA debate has proceeded. Google is one of the fastest growing, most profitable and innovative companies in the world, and a clear example of american innovation and economic dynamism, and yet its name is slandered as "thieves" and as profiting from crime, by a U.S. congressman no less. If the same allegations were laid against any other industry in the United States like the automotive industry or Wall Street, there would be more indignation.
    - mkr-hn 15y ago
      I tried to get numbers on the RIAA and MPAA. I didn't go deep enough to get specific employee counts from RIAA and MPAA companies, so most often I went a level up to parent companies. There's a lot of overlap. It also gets murky quick when you try to decide whether a job is destroyed, created, or moved. So this was a lot of wasted time because first we'd need to agree on a methodology for measuring this stuff, and that's a hard thing to do. MPAA The Walt Disney Company 156,000 Time Warner 32,000 General Electric 287,000 Comcast 102,000 News Corporation 51,000 Viacom 10,900 Sony 168,200 RIAA Big 4 Citigroup (!) 260,000 Vivendi 54,560 Total: 1,121,660
crcsmnky 15y ago
Show me the profits being impacted by piracy. Show me the number of jobs lost to piracy. I get that it takes a lot of people across the production chain to get media developed and delivered to the end consumer, but I have yet to be shown how piracy impacts those people. I'm not naive, people steal content. They do it all the time, in fact. Hell, I download show off of BT every so often. But how much of that revenue did you actually lose? Just tell me, I want to know. Why are legitimate movie downloads (that are locked with DRM) as expensive as DVDs? Why is it that when I purchase digital content I'm simply renting it, I don't actually own any of it? The MPAA serves the interests of studios executives, plain and simple. They don't serve their own ecosystems; if they did, they would innovate more and attempt to actually create more value for their own employees (and related businesses).
- sounds 15y ago
  In case anyone missed the reason the MPAA has no solid numbers to back up their case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting (Not available on the 18th though... :-)
electic 15y ago
It's funny. They believe in the first amendment when it protects their industry but disregard it when it crushes someone else's industry.
neilparikh 15y ago
"...neither of these bills implicate free expression but focus solely on illegal conduct, which is not free speech." So basically, they support free speech, as long as they approve of it?
Revisor 15y ago
It's interesting that a domestic law should stop "foreign-based thieves". It's for the first time that I see it repeated so often - according to the MPAA the law is meant only to attack the pirates abroad and save domestic jobs. This should be the last straw for all countries to wring the control over DNS and generic domains away from USA. The soon-to-be international copyright and patent troll is dangerous to hold the keys.
bgentry 15y ago
On behalf of the 2.2 million Americans whose jobs depend on the film and television industries Really? In spite of that grossly inflated figure, how many jobs depend on a fully-functional and uncensored internet?
CWuestefeld 15y ago
working to enact common-sense legislation That's one of my pet peeves, right there. The phrase "common-sense legislation" seems to be a code for either "we can't come up with a rational argument", or "you're not worth the trouble of proving this". Either way, the party saying this is hoping that we'll simply accept it at face value, and not think about it more deeply. It's common sense that the sun revolves around the earth, and the idea of Evolution is completely offensive to common sense. The fact that something is appealing to our intuition is really only loosely related to its veracity.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
RexRollman 15y ago
If the MPAA was really concerned about jobs, the corporate officers of its members would forego their personal bonuses so more low wage earners could continue to be employed. But no; just like every other corporate officer in America, their goal is only to enrich themselves in the days of a modern depression.
wmwong 15y ago
Did anyone else notice that you can't comment on their blog? Ironic that they're talking about free speech.
- mattdeboard 15y ago
  Blog comments have nothing to do with free speech unless the government is preventing you from doing or saying something there.
swang 15y ago
At the rate MPAA/RIAA claims to be losing money due to piracy since Napster peeked its head in 1999, why isn't the music and movie industry out of money?
sounds 15y ago
"Misinformation simply can't be allowed to replace honest debate, and derail the critically important fight..." Passing SOPA is critical compared to what? Repairing our economy? Bringing home the troops? Let me say it again: piracy has not had a material affect on the entertainment industry; on the contrary, they're having record years of gross profit. This is honest debate? http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111114/23145216770/house-judiciary-committee-sopa-hearings-stacked-5-to-1-favor-censoring-internet.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111114/23145216770/house-... So, Senator, who is guilty of "misinformation"?
warmfuzzykitten 15y ago
"Senator" Chris Dodd is no longer a Senator. Use of the honorific highlights what is most wrong with the U.S. political system: the revolving door between the legislature and corporations seeking to influence the legislature. In this instance, his rhetoric is so inflammatory, I believe he should be henceforth referred to as Lobbyist Chris Dodd.

48 points by jhack 15y ago

"The American businesses that are victimized on a daily basis by global Internet thieves are among the most innovative industries in this nation and we welcome the Administration's support of these American businesses." Right... the film and music industries are among the least innovative industries, as Fred Wilson reminds us http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/01/scarcity-is-a-shitty-business-model.html http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/01/scarcity-is-a-shitty-busines...

javadyan 15y ago
Not to mention that the quality of the majority of content produced by these industries sucks.
- Okvivi 15y ago
  They are not in the business of producing quality, they are in the business of producing content that is consumed. Big difference.
DrCatbox 15y ago
Thieves is a strong word for copyright infrigiment. MPAA is representing global thieves, they steal opportunities, expression and free culture from everyone who doesnt own intellectual property. They deprive all independent artists from mixing and contributing to society. MPAA is victimizing itself on a daily basis, while oppressing all independent producers, oppressing all small job-creators.

alexhaefner 15y ago

Wow that was an absolutely disgusting read. I don't like piracy, but the make the logical leap from piracy (which they see as a problem of enforcement of laws rather than a matter of distribution) to a loss of jobs that is particularly bizarre. Also I have no idea what they mean when they say they are innovative. This is a mish mash of 'jobs' and 'thieves' and 'innovation' all over the place, tastelessly. I guess I just get annoyed when institutions or industries make arguments for their relevance through legislation. They mention the status quo, but entertainment wants to hold onto a status quo where entertainment is a highly profitable industry, and they're willing to try and do it by creating legislation. Good artists are always going to prevail, but shitty business models don't need to be protected.

Delmania 15y ago
That's just standard boilerplate logic thrown in to justify an controversial position. Essentially, you come up with something (usually that enacts more control over people), and then claim it will "protect jobs" and "foster innovation", and then move on.
- Vivtek 15y ago
  Also, not doing it will harm children.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

javadyan 15y ago

They need to shut the hell up and work on improving their content distribution model. Learn something from Gabe Newell already. Sheesh.

bittermang 15y ago
It goes deeper than that. It's a clandestine unwillingness to innovate. They have been running the existing model for too long and are too comfortable with it to even think of anything different. I was thinking the other night as a commentator did a pitch for a show airing later in the week. Logo, short message, date and time. And I got mad. Mad because I couldn't press a button on my remote and just schedule it to record that. We live in a world where the DVR has won, every cable provider I can name is running a promotion where they're bundling their own home brand DVR box with a cable package. Yet, no new models have arisen to enhance the DVR experience beyond simple recording. They've begrudgingly accepted the devices, but otherwise it's business as usual. Think about it. If you're going to spend air time to tell me about a show, it would behoove you to let me effortlessly schedule a recording of the show. I liked the pitch, I was hooked, I wanted to watch it. But I didn't want to go out of my way to find it, despite the fact that all the information was right in front of me. Of course they've tried this. Half assed. Poorly implemented "Go Interactive!" initiatives that never get used. And the so called Interactive programming adds no value, I'm not even certain what they do since I've never been inspired to press the button during the rare occasions when the on screen prompt appears. Which extends in to the second problem. They set themselves up for failure with systems like this, only to use them as a prop to say "See, the old model is better!" See all of their stunted and disorganized digital distribution channels for further examples. They're getting better, but only because they have to because they look so poor when you compare them to something like Netflix. We're not going to be able to make them innovate. Horse vs. Water. Frankly I don't know what it will take for them to come around at this point, but I know we must staunchly oppose and fight any attempt to further stifle the progress we are all making in spite of them, all in the name of preserving their old way of life.
- zheng 15y ago
  I don't actually watch TV very often, and don't have it at home, but over the holidays I saw this feature at someone's house. I think it was DirectTV/Dish, and during a commercial for some TBS(?) show, it prompted you to press some button on the remote to automatically record the series. It was pretty cool.

ianferrel 15y ago

"For too long in this debate, those that seek to preserve and profit from the status quo have moved to obstruct reasonable legislation." --MPAA

schwit 15y ago
And up is down and black is white. The MPAA and RIAA are the poster children for maintaining the status quo. They have no need to innovate as long as they can continue to line the pockets of corrupt politicians.
nkassis 15y ago
It's such hypocrisy I had trouble reading that line without spitting my coffee on my screen. I mean, what was the DMCA? Maintaining the status quo? Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act Over the past century Copyright has been strengthened and protected to ever higher levels. There is no status quo here, it's all one sided and they dare say this when we tug back a little?
- Symmetry 15y ago
  But don't you see, copyright extension is supporting the statis quo. Certain works are in copyright, and they don't ever want that to change. </irony>

vectorpush 15y ago

protecting American jobs is important too, particularly in these difficult economic times for our nation Bullshit. The film industry is boasting record profits, piracy has had a negligible effect on American jobs. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/piracy-once-again-fails-to-get-in-way-of-record-box-office.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/piracy-once-...

thetrendycyborg 15y ago
Doesn't matter. What matters is that they mentioned a keyword (jobs) and that means they're a job-creator and everyone who opposes the bill hates jobs.
- joshuahedlund 15y ago
  Good thing the tech industry can play the jobs game too. Surely Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a thousand other web companies have hired more people than the entertainment industry in the last ten years...?
  - herge 15y ago
    That is what I do not understand about how the SOPA debate has proceeded. Google is one of the fastest growing, most profitable and innovative companies in the world, and a clear example of american innovation and economic dynamism, and yet its name is slandered as "thieves" and as profiting from crime, by a U.S. congressman no less. If the same allegations were laid against any other industry in the United States like the automotive industry or Wall Street, there would be more indignation.
  - mkr-hn 15y ago
    I tried to get numbers on the RIAA and MPAA. I didn't go deep enough to get specific employee counts from RIAA and MPAA companies, so most often I went a level up to parent companies. There's a lot of overlap. It also gets murky quick when you try to decide whether a job is destroyed, created, or moved. So this was a lot of wasted time because first we'd need to agree on a methodology for measuring this stuff, and that's a hard thing to do. MPAA The Walt Disney Company 156,000 Time Warner 32,000 General Electric 287,000 Comcast 102,000 News Corporation 51,000 Viacom 10,900 Sony 168,200 RIAA Big 4 Citigroup (!) 260,000 Vivendi 54,560 Total: 1,121,660

crcsmnky 15y ago

Show me the profits being impacted by piracy. Show me the number of jobs lost to piracy. I get that it takes a lot of people across the production chain to get media developed and delivered to the end consumer, but I have yet to be shown how piracy impacts those people. I'm not naive, people steal content. They do it all the time, in fact. Hell, I download show off of BT every so often. But how much of that revenue did you actually lose? Just tell me, I want to know. Why are legitimate movie downloads (that are locked with DRM) as expensive as DVDs? Why is it that when I purchase digital content I'm simply renting it, I don't actually own any of it? The MPAA serves the interests of studios executives, plain and simple. They don't serve their own ecosystems; if they did, they would innovate more and attempt to actually create more value for their own employees (and related businesses).

sounds 15y ago
In case anyone missed the reason the MPAA has no solid numbers to back up their case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting (Not available on the 18th though... :-)

electic 15y ago

It's funny. They believe in the first amendment when it protects their industry but disregard it when it crushes someone else's industry.

neilparikh 15y ago

"...neither of these bills implicate free expression but focus solely on illegal conduct, which is not free speech." So basically, they support free speech, as long as they approve of it?

Revisor 15y ago

It's interesting that a domestic law should stop "foreign-based thieves". It's for the first time that I see it repeated so often - according to the MPAA the law is meant only to attack the pirates abroad and save domestic jobs. This should be the last straw for all countries to wring the control over DNS and generic domains away from USA. The soon-to-be international copyright and patent troll is dangerous to hold the keys.

bgentry 15y ago

On behalf of the 2.2 million Americans whose jobs depend on the film and television industries Really? In spite of that grossly inflated figure, how many jobs depend on a fully-functional and uncensored internet?

CWuestefeld 15y ago

working to enact common-sense legislation That's one of my pet peeves, right there. The phrase "common-sense legislation" seems to be a code for either "we can't come up with a rational argument", or "you're not worth the trouble of proving this". Either way, the party saying this is hoping that we'll simply accept it at face value, and not think about it more deeply. It's common sense that the sun revolves around the earth, and the idea of Evolution is completely offensive to common sense. The fact that something is appealing to our intuition is really only loosely related to its veracity.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

RexRollman 15y ago

If the MPAA was really concerned about jobs, the corporate officers of its members would forego their personal bonuses so more low wage earners could continue to be employed. But no; just like every other corporate officer in America, their goal is only to enrich themselves in the days of a modern depression.

wmwong 15y ago

Did anyone else notice that you can't comment on their blog? Ironic that they're talking about free speech.

mattdeboard 15y ago
Blog comments have nothing to do with free speech unless the government is preventing you from doing or saying something there.

swang 15y ago

At the rate MPAA/RIAA claims to be losing money due to piracy since Napster peeked its head in 1999, why isn't the music and movie industry out of money?

sounds 15y ago

"Misinformation simply can't be allowed to replace honest debate, and derail the critically important fight..." Passing SOPA is critical compared to what? Repairing our economy? Bringing home the troops? Let me say it again: piracy has not had a material affect on the entertainment industry; on the contrary, they're having record years of gross profit. This is honest debate? http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111114/23145216770/house-judiciary-committee-sopa-hearings-stacked-5-to-1-favor-censoring-internet.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111114/23145216770/house-... So, Senator, who is guilty of "misinformation"?

warmfuzzykitten 15y ago

"Senator" Chris Dodd is no longer a Senator. Use of the honorific highlights what is most wrong with the U.S. political system: the revolving door between the legislature and corporations seeking to influence the legislature. In this instance, his rhetoric is so inflammatory, I believe he should be henceforth referred to as Lobbyist Chris Dodd.