Hey Jack, Leave the CONSUMERS ALONE!
If you read my site regularly I'm sure you get the impression that I am an advocate for the abolition of all Intellectual Property laws, hell I even had a tagline at one point that said setting IP free one work at a time, but let me come clean, I represent corporate clients with Intellectual Property assets. I know how to protect their rights. That's my job.
However, no matter how much I try to fight my impulses, I am deep down a consumer advocate and media critic. Blame my mother for getting me that subscription to Penny Power magazine. I was a Penny Power zealot and I can only imagine that such reverence continues to shape my thinking to this day.
Why the long preface? Because Jack Valenti and the MPAA are at it again. In this press release Q&A regarding stupid broadcast flags [via Politech], they state:
My point is that the law has been misapplied for a very long time (since 1909), we have this stupid Bono Act crap to contend with and now we're getting letters at school and at work and they want to subpoeana our ISPs -- saying that what we are doing is illegal and seeking the application of new and unheard of laws to imprison and bankrupt us. Piracy is when I mass produce copies of Buffy and compete directly with the studios by selling directly to the consumers or the retail outlets. The industry has been fleecing the consumer for years and it won't stop until you decide to stand up for yourselves and do something about it. I don't advocate abolition, I merely seek to stem the tide of ever increasing expansion.
See also: ESPN the Mag's most recent issue had a not about Adonal Foyle and the little organization he started called Democracy Matters -- whose goal is to eliminate big businesses stranglehold over politics via campaign finance reform. A further step would be to boycott the purchase of movies and music until we can get this resolved at the federal level. Hollywood is crap now anyway, go out and rent yourself some quality classical film or just watch Jimmy Stewart kick the crap out of Potter in It's A Wonderful Life over and over.
However, no matter how much I try to fight my impulses, I am deep down a consumer advocate and media critic. Blame my mother for getting me that subscription to Penny Power magazine. I was a Penny Power zealot and I can only imagine that such reverence continues to shape my thinking to this day.
Why the long preface? Because Jack Valenti and the MPAA are at it again. In this press release Q&A regarding stupid broadcast flags [via Politech], they state:
Q: I know people offer Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other programs on the Internet now. Is this illegal? Why?If Valenti tells me one more time that what consumers do with a publicly disseminated work is piracy than I....
A: Yes, it is illegal. Current laws state that redistribution of copyrighted materials without express permission from the copyright holder is illegal. Buffy is a copyrighted program that 20th Century Fox produces and UPN broadcasts for its audience's personal use and have not authorized the redistribution of their programming via the Internet. If unauthorized copies of programs are widely available on the Internet they cannot be sold in ancillary markets and the owners cannot cover the costs of production.
My point is that the law has been misapplied for a very long time (since 1909), we have this stupid Bono Act crap to contend with and now we're getting letters at school and at work and they want to subpoeana our ISPs -- saying that what we are doing is illegal and seeking the application of new and unheard of laws to imprison and bankrupt us. Piracy is when I mass produce copies of Buffy and compete directly with the studios by selling directly to the consumers or the retail outlets. The industry has been fleecing the consumer for years and it won't stop until you decide to stand up for yourselves and do something about it. I don't advocate abolition, I merely seek to stem the tide of ever increasing expansion.
See also: ESPN the Mag's most recent issue had a not about Adonal Foyle and the little organization he started called Democracy Matters -- whose goal is to eliminate big businesses stranglehold over politics via campaign finance reform. A further step would be to boycott the purchase of movies and music until we can get this resolved at the federal level. Hollywood is crap now anyway, go out and rent yourself some quality classical film or just watch Jimmy Stewart kick the crap out of Potter in It's A Wonderful Life over and over.
