
MPAA Chief Suggests Backroom Negotiations On New SOPA Are Well Underway - sethbannon
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120405/13292918393/chris-dodd-suggests-backroom-negotiations-new-sopa-are-well-underway.shtml
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JumpCrisscross
> _"But he won't [having a public discussion], because Dodd is a coward and a
> DC-insider who only knows how to cut deals, not how to actually respond to
> the public's best interests."_

SOPA was a malignant offshoot of a dying industry, but that doesn't justify
being irrational.

Chris Dodd is no longer a Senator, he's now the chairman of an industry trade
group - he isn't responsible for the "public interest" any more. Cutting deals
in public would dilute the MPAA's negotiating leverage. He isn't being private
because he's a coward but because he's not a clueless negotiator.

It's the Lamar Smiths who are the clear and present danger. The sitting
representatives and senators supporting this crap are the ones violating their
responsibility to the public interest, they're the ones warping the chess
board. Dodd? He's another player.

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beloch
1\. Hollywood is dwarfed by Big Internet companies. Big Internet is more
important to the economy of both the U.S. and the world than Hollywood is.

2\. The MPAA declared war on Big Internet with SOPA.

What's really going on is that, thanks to that SOPA wake-up call, companies
like Google and Comcast now have lobbyists on the ground in Washington
greasing palms and promising campaign contributions, and they can offer a lot
more cash than the MPAA can. The MPAA has grown accustomed to being able to
buy politicians but now they're being outbid.

~~~
narrator
The MPAA represents the interests of companies that are owned by media
conglomerates that control the mainstream news media. They strongly influence
who wins elections. Don't underestimate their power.

~~~
stephengillie
The influence of the mainstream media is waning. All they do is gather
information into a centralized location, editorialize, and distribute the
information. How much longer will people listen to them instead of their
friends on Twitter?

~~~
bratsche
Long enough to to let the Internet get fucked over.

And I'm sorry, but outside tech people I know almost nobody who really uses
Twitter. I know a ton of people who have Twitter accounts and almost none of
them ever use it.

The influence of mainstream media is not waning. The influence of proper
journalism is waning though, and that's pretty scary.

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rhizome
Of course he says this, he's trying to peacock some power. I'm guessing the
"negotiations" aren't going so well if he's broadcasting this, but one of the
side-benefits to him and his talking like this would be to discourage
activism. Once again, the __AAs act undemocratically.

Update: original: [http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-
valley/technology/220181-d...](http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-
valley/technology/220181-dodd-says-sopa-can-live-again)

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vellum
Big Internet is going to have to spend a lot more money if they want to win
the war. Big Media & friends are outspending Big Internet when it comes to
lobbying. According to Opensecrets[1]: Computers/Internet spent $125.6M in
2011.

OTOH, TV/Movies/Music spent $123.2M and Telecom spent $58.9M. But that’s not
all of their allies. If you look at the SOPA supporters list[2], many of them
produce brand name goods, like Tiffany. They're worried about counterfeiters.
Let’s call this potential group of supporters, Misc Business. In 2011, they
spent $491.2M.[3]

It boils down to incentives. For them, there’s limited downside to supporting
SOPA-like legislation, and a lot of upside in deterring pirates.

1:
[http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=B12&...](http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=B12&year=2011)

2:
[https://sites.google.com/site/boycottsopasponsors/home/list-...](https://sites.google.com/site/boycottsopasponsors/home/list-
of-supporters-and-sponsors)

3:
[http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indus.php?id=N&year=a](http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indus.php?id=N&year=a)

~~~
xtreme
It is sad to see that laws are essentially being auctioned like this. Is this
what you would call Free Market Politics?

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nextparadigms
I thought they said they've learned their lesson after the SOPA backlash.
Clearly they haven't.

~~~
jrockway
Like everyone who's ever been caught doing something bad, they learned an
important lesson: don't get caught.

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tocomment
This might be relevant: testpac.org

They were doing an AMA on reddit today.

Basically its a super PAC run by redditors. Their first goal is to unseat
Lamar Smith.

~~~
zacharycohn
For clarification: Their goal is actually to just decrease his victory to 70%
of the votes. He's basically been unchallenged for decades and has had over
80% of the vote forever. By damaging his success by even 10%, you get to the
real reason for doing this...

Not because it will solve all the world's problems, but as a demonstration of
power. Showing that the movements can be organized by the internet, and they
can have real world effects.

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alan_cx
I think that in the end, "we" cannot win this one. This is happening in the
US, and the EU is up to the same game. We all know that when business and
governments want some thing, they get it. People will be harassed and jailed
so that failing businesses can be kept on life support so that they may
influence "democracy" on behalf of politicians. Yes, its corrupt and vile, but
its is also inevitable.

~~~
jrockway
But most businesses don't want SOPA. It's one tiny minority of businesses that
control most of the media that wanted SOPA. So while it may _sound like_
business and government want SOPA, it's simply not true; the media companies
are merely telling everyone it's true.

(That's why they got so mad when the Internet companies, which have a lot of
reach, fought SOPA. It resulted in an epic loss for them. And it will continue
to do so, because the government isn't in the business of protecting tiny
industries at the expense of much bigger ones.)

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snowwrestler
It is a good thing to have tech companies talking to content companies out of
the glare of the press. They'll be more likely to understand each other and
find common ground.

Tech and content are not enemies or even competitors, they are inextricably
linked pieces of the economy who must work together. That's why they fight so
much; it's like brothers sharing a small room.

