

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales: MPAA chairman Christopher Dodd should be fired - ukdm
http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/24/wales-versus-dodd/

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jedbrown
It could be wise to fire Dodd just to allow the MPAA to continue making
contributions without risking interpretation as a quid pro quo.

From the Hobbs Act: "It is important to note, however, that it is irrelevant
whether the public official in fact intended to hold up his or her end of the
bargain--it is enough that the official had knowledge of the payor's intent to
buy official acts."

Supreme Count statement in McCormick v United States (1991): "The receipt of
such contributions is also vulnerable under the Act as having been taken under
color of official right, but only if the payments are made in return for an
explicit promise or undertaking by the official to perform or not to perform
an official act."

Related analysis:
[http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2005/...](http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2005/11/prosecuting_cam.html)

See also Chapter 6 of
[http://books.google.com/books?id=gJY-i4QHHC8C&lpg=PR7...](http://books.google.com/books?id=gJY-i4QHHC8C&lpg=PR7&ots=E0G2ihyRu3&dq=Private%20and%20Public%20Corruption&lr&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q&f=false)

For example, consider Case 4
([http://books.google.com/books?id=gJY-i4QHHC8C&lpg=PR7...](http://books.google.com/books?id=gJY-i4QHHC8C&lpg=PR7&ots=E0G2ihyRu3&dq=Private%20and%20Public%20Corruption&lr&pg=PA137#v=onepage&q&f=false))
which is very similar to Dodd's, and which Lowenstein argues might be
considered bribery under the Hobbs Act, in light of McCormick v United States.

An (opinionated) editorial on the topic:
[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0606.birnbaum...](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0606.birnbaum.html)

~~~
nextparadigms
The White House petition to investigate him and MPAA for bribery has also been
completed (25,000 signatures in 3 days), so at the very least maybe this will
hasten his resignation:

[https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/investigate...](https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/investigate-
chris-dodd-and-mpaa-bribery-after-he-publicly-admited-bribing-politicans-
pass/DffX0YQv)

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dtf
“I hope to see … a window of opportunity for Hollywood to come to the table
and talk to Silicon Valley with a little more humility.”

I couldn't help smile at this comment from Jimmy Wales - it really does show
there's been a power shift. It's the kind of tone that will have some
Hollywood stakeholders foaming at the mouth.

~~~
mjwalshe
Humility not a exactly any wikipedians strong suit is it.

------
wisty
Not as crazy as it sounds - he's saying Dodd essentially told the members of
Congress not to expect any more campaign funding from Hollywood if they didn't
play ball.

I'm pretty sure it's bad form for a former senator to tell members of congress
to vote one way, or lose funding from his lobby group. Especially if he says
it on the public record.

~~~
khafra
The way I understand it, the Citizens United decision made that type of
bribery completely legal.

~~~
pemulis
That's not what the Citizens United decision says at all. It allows Super PACs
to collect unlimited donations to run campaign ads supporting or opposing
specific candidates. That may open the door to corruption in a certain sense,
but it doesn't allow quid pro quo on active legislation.

~~~
wl
That's not quite correct, actually. Citizens United overturned a part of a law
that prohibited corporations and unions from spending their money on
"electioneering communications" (generally defined as communications
advocating for or against a specific candidate) within 30 days of a primary or
60 days of a general election. The decision is not about PACs or limitations
on their ability to raise funds, though PACs certainly benefited from the
ruling.

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a_a_r_o_n
Fire him? Heck no! He does the country a service by being open and up front
about the legal bribery that runs Congress.

I think more CEOs, lobbyists and other influencers should be this upfront, it
would go a long way towards teaching Civics 102.

Speak up!

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wmblaettler
This quote from Christopher Dodd, heard on NPR the day after the blackout,
really irked me: "It sort of reminds me of kids who can't get their way hold
their breath and start screaming, instead of engaging with the debate and
providing information, encouraging a discussion on how this can be improved.
It just seems petulant to me."

I wonder what he thinks of strikes, boycotts and public demonstrations, I
guess they are all childish too.

~~~
sp332
Actually a lot of people in the USA think strikes, boycotts and demonstrations
are stupid. They look at the huge number of strikes in e.g. France and don't
understand how the French get anything done. And then they whine that the
government doesn't listen to them.

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paul9290
Check out this "We The People," petition.

[https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/investigate...](https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/investigate-
chris-dodd-and-mpaa-bribery-after-he-publicly-admited-bribing-politicans-
pass/DffX0YQv)

The nation agrees with Wales!

~~~
jedbrown
It's great that this petition reached threshold in two days, but it would have
been nice if it had less than two spelling errors in the title.

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kzrdude
When MPAA bribes members of the congress, the foremost concern should be that
congress is corrupt, not MPAA. It's a whole different level.

~~~
TheCapn
Agreed. As an engineer when a vendor wants me to pick their product over
another they try to "sweeten" the deal to make it seem like they're the right
choice. It is _my_ ethical duty to refuse the cherry on top and accept what's
best for my employer at face value. Why can we not expect those working "for
the public" cannot share such practices?

------
Vivtek
I didn't like their mischaracterization of the issues: _SOPA and PIPA, two
almost-dead pieces of legislation that would give the U.S. government and
copyright holders the authority to seek court orders against foreign websites
associated with infringing intellectual property_.

It's not the court orders that were the issue here - it was the entirely
extrajudicial ability to shut a site down merely on a copyright holder's say-
so. And not just foreign sites!

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askmehow
"10 million people contacted Congress, Wales said. “That’s not an abuse of
power, that’s democracy,” he said. “[Dodd] had best get used to it.”

Quoted for truth!

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vaksel
fired? No, he is doing everything he's been hired to do.

Getting him and MPAA prosecuted/fined by the DoJ for his remarks that amounted
to admission of bribery? You betcha

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brown9-2
I don't think the MPAA would fire Dodd for these comments that make them out
to be a corrupt Congress-buying organization, because that is what the MPAA
_is_ , and it's how they want to be perceived.

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zeruch
I think we're still far, far from an endgame, and the MPAA and the like will
be trying probably ever more under-the-table moves, as they are now quite
aware of the number of eyes (and the capital behind some of those eyes) that
are glaring at them.

Frankly, firing Dodd would do nothing. Dismantling the MPAA, the RIAA, BREIN,
et al would be a good first step. Next is helping along the "Megabox" idea to
come to fruition (maybe Last.fm or some new player will take up that baton)
and see if we can't just pummel the Big COntent dinosaurs into a gristled,
historical footnote.

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raldi
It would have been nice if the article had provided the actual quote where
Wales said Dodd should be fired.

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bproper
Dodd's no longer a politician and lobbying isn't illegal. If the MPAA thinks
Dodd isn't effective, maybe they should fire him. But they won't let him go
because he put his foot in his mouth and highlighted how the political process
usually works.

~~~
officemonkey
They should fire Dodd because his lobbying wasn't effective. He threw money
around and thought his old buddy-buddy tactics were going to be enough to beat
the Internet Rage Machine.

It's a sea-change, and Chris Dodd just got left behind in the 20th Century.

~~~
jm4
I'd be more than happy if they kept an ineffective lobbyist on the payroll.
Why would we want them to fire a guy who's lousy and get someone better?

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mrdingle
Fired? Who really cares? But investigated for congressional bribery?
Definitely.

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maeon3
About 5 years ago I predicted that one day watching videos on the internet
would become so difficult that youtube and other video hosting sites would be
useless as a reliable storage medium. I bought a TB drive and kept all videos
that have touched me over the last 5 years. Many of those videos are nowhere
to be found anywhere with a simple Google query, no matter how much searching
you do.

In a sense, Hollywood has already won, the greatest tool on the planet has
been greatly damaged, it is not reliable enough for me to use as a place to
store things which I find very useful and want to keep for reference 5 and 10
years later. When I stop breathing one day, the vast wealth of knowledge I
have accumulated with video evidence as backup will vanish into the night with
me on my X TB drive. Because I won't be able to say: "Here, this video solves
all of your problems, but it's been copyrighted, I'll stick it on a thumb
drive for you."

Internet video is becoming a treasure trove of information, and people want to
take out all the good bits, put a giant wall around the good bits and charge
cash money for it. Destroying the original intent of the internet. We need
tools to bring back what the internet was... A symphony of thought, energy and
freedom where you can post music, video, audio, lectures, comics, ANYTHING.
Those days are gone. Now you will only be able to post these things if they
are irrelevant and childish, filling the internet with banalities. Passing
power right back to the content providers. The internet is under attack, and
they have half won.

~~~
vetler
Videos not available? Really? I stopped storing videos, because they are so
readily available. What kind of videos are you storing?

~~~
mike-cardwell
Same here. I now delete videos after watching them because I know that if I
want to watch them again in future they're just a quick download away.

