

MPAA's Chris Dodd Calls SOPA Defeat a 'Watershed Event' - danberger
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/sundance-2012-chris-dodd-mpaa-piracy-284190

======
hxa7241
Their interest is not 'having a conversation'. They have degenerated into
monopolists. Let us clarify the game they play:

One year they lobby government to strengthen enforcement. They say: piracy
means they are not getting what the law says is their due. (it sounds almost
reasonable!)

The next year they lobby government to expand copyright. That is: _they are
deciding for themselves what is their due_.

Far from the general public interest, and, indeed, plainly very far from the
free market.

------
jrockway
I like how he thinks that Netflix and Redbox are also ripping him off. It's
like he expects each person who sees the movie to pay for the entire
production. Anything less is ruining the industry.

I disagree with this, though. I think it should be legally required for
_everyone_ to pay for the movie, regardless of whether or not they see it.
That way, nobody can steal his hard work!!

~~~
orcadk
Don't even joke about that.

In Denmark we pay "license" to the state, to keep the public television and
radio channels going. Mind you, this isn't part of the tax and it's completely
optional whether you want to pay it or not.

Except, if you have a television, an internet connection, a cellphone, a radio
or any device capable of receiving a television signal via an antenna or
internet connection - you have to pay. After all, you have the ability to
watch/hear the content. Whether you do or not, that doesn't matter. If we paid
this through our taxes, it wouldn't be an issue (compared to what else we pay
for). This being a pseudo-tax masked as an optional thing, that's ridicilous
though.

Oh and on top of that we pay an extra tax (which goes to the artists) on
casette tapes, CD-R's, DVD-R's, VHS tapes, etc. After all, we might record
songs & movies on those mediums. And before you ask, no, despite us paying
that tax, it's still not legal for us to do so.

~~~
davej
By the way, almost every country in europe has a TV licence. It definitely can
be a good thing, most brits would accept that the TV licence is a good price
for the BBC. They provide quality television/radio for minority groups and
tend to invest heavily in industries like documentary film-making which might
otherwise be ignored in a purely capitalist TV industry.

~~~
orcadk
I agree that a public television channel may be a good idea, and I agree that
BBC produces great content, just as our DR does. I also see that your license
is ~145£ while ours is ~265£ - not that that makes the argumentative
difference though.

My problem is that everybody pays exactly the same, the poor, the students,
just as the rich. Everything else in our society is based on a progressive
tax, just as most "extras" besides your tax is completely optional. The
license on the other hand, that's a flat "tax" that everybody has to pay. With
the current rules, very few can honestly say they don't need to pay it. As
such - let us pay it over the tax and I'd be fine with it.

~~~
davej
Population is obviously a factor because the cost of producing/broadcasting
television content is not proportional to population. £145 * 60 million people
is a lot more money than £265 * 5 million.

The BBC also makes a lot of money selling it's programming around the world,
presumably most Danish TV is in the Danish language so it would be difficult
to sell on.

Having said all of this, I'm in Ireland not in Britain. :-) Our TV licence is
€160/annum but out national broadcaster airs commercial ads (unlike the BBC).

------
Newgy
Classic Chris Dodd. Obvious outcomes -- like the 2008 financial crisis, which
occurred on his watch as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee-- are
"watershed" and heretofore "never seen before." This way, he can escape
responsibility for the role his own actions played in creating the mess.

~~~
rhizome
In fact, the public rejection (if final) of SOPA/PIPA are not watershed
events, but evidence of Dodd's absolute failure to execute the job he was
hired for.

------
emehrkay
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Dodd>

In office for 36 years, the first thing he does when he goes private is to
lobby for a law nobody wants on behalf of his new employer. What happened to
Obama's promise to stop this?

~~~
rayiner
Obama's promise was to limit lobbyist movement in the other direction
(industry -> government). Not that he's done a great job of that, but let's
paint his promises in an accurate light.

~~~
emehrkay
He did mention the other way as well. I'm not sure if he was only talking
about limiting the extent to people in his administration of the whole gov.

[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/promises/obameter/pr...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/promises/obameter/promise/240/tougher-rules-against-revolving-door-for-
lobbyists/)

------
esmevane
I want to share my results of a tertiary topic on this thread: Adam Lipsius
claiming that hundreds of thousands of pirated copies of "16-LOVE" had
destroyed his chances of profiting from the film.

A Google of Adam Lipsius returned his IMDB page, his Facebook page, a few
videos about 16-LOVE, and no Wikipedia article. I followed his IMDB page and
discovered he has participated on the producer + director level of several
films. He is said to be 'known for' The People vs. Larry Flynt and Men in
Black, but was involved only in the sound of those films.

16-LOVE produces similar results: virtually nothing on Wikipedia or IMDB. Its
IMDB article says it is similar to films such as "Zookeeper", and is rated at
around 5 stars. Completely distinct from the IMDB results, RT claims it is
100% fresh with 39 reviews. It was directed by and produced by Mr. Lipsius.

Conspicuously absent in my searches were any torrent offerings.

\---

Here's what I think:

I think 16-LOVE was not a popular film, and just plain didn't do well. I don't
think piracy had anything to do with it.

My opinion is that generally you will find the noisiest, most entitled,
belligerent users amongst the ranks of the free. They didn't pay for it, and
so there is literally no skin in the game to persuade them to like it.

I contend that if, indeed, hundreds of thousands of people had illegally
downloaded this film, there would be much, much more evidence of its existence
available through Google - the same exact route I would have found torrents,
by the way.

I think it was just an unknown film, with no publicity, and maybe - hell,
probably - it would have done far better if it had been offered through a more
direct, easily-accessible avenue.

~~~
duskwuff
Perhaps he found one of those ridiculous fake torrent sites that claims to
have thousands of downloads for anything you pass it in a query string? He
definitely wouldn't be the first.

example:
[http://usenetdownloads.net/usenet.nl/v4/files.php?q=SGFja2Vy...](http://usenetdownloads.net/usenet.nl/v4/files.php?q=SGFja2VyIE5ld3MK)

------
spodek
The MPAA knows watershed events, alright.

I'm still waiting for the VCR to destroy movies, as his predecessor, Jack
Valenti, predicted: "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film
producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home
alone."

~~~
fennecfoxen
Let's talk about the Boston strangler.

How many women did the Boston strangler actually get? (I'll save you a trip to
Wikipedia: 13, over 3 years.) What percentage of "women home alone" is that -
even women home alone in the Boston area? Now compare the level of raw
_paranoia_ that the strangler generated - surely, paranoia well in excess of
any real risk. Perhaps this is a more apt analogy than Valenti realized.

And no one ever seriously promoted a massive reorganization of society,
establishment of a surveillance state, or revocation of basic liberties in
communication over the matter of the Boston strangler.

------
RyanMcGreal
Another 'watershed moment' in American politics is Dodd's shameless and
unapologetic shakedown of the US Congress for not staying bought.

[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/19/exclusive-
hollywo...](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/19/exclusive-hollywood-
lobbyist-threatens-to-cut-off-obama-2012-money-over-anti/)

~~~
nextparadigms
Speaking of which, the petition has been completed, so let's see what the
Obama administration does about it now:

[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)

------
jinushaun
_"There was some back and forth about how best to combat piracy, with some in
the audience advocating a strategy that supplies more content in new,
affordable avenues to undercut the temptation to steal, and Fithian arguing
that cheap-prices-up-front approaches such as Netflix streaming and $1 Redbox
kiosks are "bad business models.""_

Clueless

~~~
waterlesscloud
Fithian represents NATO, the theater owner trade association.

He has zero interest in promoting anything other than theatrical distribution.

~~~
haakon
Oh. I was wondering why there was such a heavy military presence on the panel.

------
waterlesscloud
There's a business opportunity in this article.

At the end they talk about digital-to-the-theater distribution and indie
filmmakers hooking up with indie theaters.

A marketplace portal that facilitated that connection on a global basis could
do well for itself.

A lot of schlepping, but a very viable market.

~~~
djb_hackernews
Yea, I never understood why that isn't the case today. I mean, they ship the
film to the theaters still.

Theaters should be turnkey. Find the space, set up the Movie Market Place
(MMP) hardware, make an account on MMP.com, license movies from the MMP.

Should be no different from app markets.

------
waterlesscloud
I very, very seriously doubt the film 16-Love was robbed of "hundreds of
thousands" of viewers through piracy.

You can't complain about misinformation on the other side and then trot out
something like that.

------
gregd
I love how Dodd seems to extricate himself from his own statements, "the white
noise has made it impossible to have a conversation about this," he said.
"We've gotta find a better way to have that conversation than we have in the
last two weeks."

It's as if his head isn't attached to his mouth, which I think goes for a lot
of current politicians. Bringing them all down a staff of notches is entirely
in order, lest they forget they represent the "people".

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math_is_life
I hate when they just pull these numbers out of their ass. I can agree that
they lose money (even though I feel it is necessary to force them to
innovate), but they are just creating random figures of things that would have
never happened. It would be like Michael Bay coming out claiming Transformers
lost 250 million dollars because of piracy.

------
djhworld
Has it actually been defeated though? I'm not that well versed in what's been
going on, but the last time I read about it they just said the bill had been
shelved after public outcry

Shelved surely means they'll pick it up later and push it through discreetly?

~~~
technoslut
When something gets shelved it pretty much means it's dead. The president even
said he was against it and we are in an election year.

Chances are greater that they would hide this in another significant bill so
it can get passed.

~~~
warfangle
Or it will become moot when ACTA is ratified.

------
ChristianMarks
It's more like a river basin event. My fervent hope is that Dodd draws upon
his years of experience weakening the economy to weaken Hollywood to the point
of collapse. Hollywood should figure out how to protect its products if this
is important to them, instead of demanding that Internet service providers
figure it out for them and pay for the privilege.

------
squarecat
MY EYES! Thank you, Clearly... <http://www.evernote.com/clearly/>

------
orenmazor
why does he make "…communicate and organize directly with the public…" sound
like such a bad thing?

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funkah
There is no conversation to be had. They're just gonna keep pulling this shit
until they pass what they want to pass.

