
MPAA Response to White House Position on Anti-Piracy Legislation - jhack
http://blog.mpaa.org/BlogOS/post/2012/01/14/MPAA-Response-to-White-House-Position-on-Anti-Piracy-Legislation-.aspx
======
alexhaefner
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
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
Also, not doing it will harm children.

------
vectorpush
_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-...](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)

~~~
thetrendycyborg
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
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...?

~~~
mkr-hn
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
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
In case anyone missed the reason the MPAA has no solid numbers to back up
their case:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting>

(Not available on the 18th though... :-)

------
ianstormtaylor
"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-
busines...](http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/01/scarcity-is-a-shitty-business-
model.html)

~~~
javadyan
Not to mention that the quality of the majority of content produced by these
industries sucks.

~~~
Okvivi
They are not in the business of producing quality, they are in the business of
producing content that is consumed. Big difference.

------
CWuestefeld
_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.

------
warmfuzzykitten
"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.

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bgentry
_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?

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

~~~
nkassis
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>

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
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>

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

~~~
bittermang
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
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.

~~~
Groxx
Wow. Only 5 years after Hulu, with their 'subscribe' buttons. They're stepping
up their game.

------
sounds
_"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-...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111114/23145216770/house-
judiciary-committee-sopa-hearings-stacked-5-to-1-favor-censoring-
internet.shtml)

So, Senator, who is guilty of "misinformation"?

------
neilparikh
"...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
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.

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

------
RexRollman
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.

------
swang
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?

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

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

