As part of their commitment to transparent and open government, the Obama Transition Team is posting the lobbying agendas of the groups it meets with for public review and comment. One of the more interesting documents to be found there is the Motion Picture Association of America’s “international trade” agenda.
Some of the MPAA’s agenda is reasonable, such as cracking down on commercial optical disc piracy. But much of it, if adopted, would result in a substantially less free and safe internet, at little or no actual benefit to the artists and workers the MPAA claims to represent.
[…]
Here, the MPAA is advocating for a number of things, the most problematic of which is a “three strikes” internet termination policy. This would require ISPs to terminate customers’ internet accounts upon a rights-holder’s repeat allegation of copyright ingfringement. This could be done potentially without any due process or judicial review. A three-strikes policy was recently adopted by legislation in France, where all ISPs are now banned from providing blacklisted citizens with internet access for up to one year.
[…]
[T]he MPAA would like the US government to pressure foreign governments to adopt the same harmful measures. This is made explicit by a look at, for instance, the International Intellectual Property Association’s 2008 one-sheets on Canada and Spain: The MPAA wants these governments to institute mandatory internet filtering and three-strikes laws.
Given how the Interwebitubes has become integral to the world, I wonder if we implemented this against another country it could be considered an act of war. Greedy lunacy!
“Greedy lunacy!”
However once enough money changes hands it will end up on the Presidents desk. You can count on it.
“Nobody takes power. They’re given power by the rest of us, because we are stupid or afraid or both” – William Edgars “B5 The Exercise of Vital Powers”
Great to see what Obama is doing with open government and to show the scams presented to the president and his staff.
I can only imagine the scams that Haliburton, the oil companies, the banking industry, military suppliers and the like presented to the Bush administration under a shroud of secrecy to be approved.
The MPAA gets away with this, even in the face of losing court cases, because they
are organized and have plenty of money.
Most people believe their propaganda. The rest are not organized to a sufficient degree, so they cannot muster the resources – bought with money – to put an end to it.
Lots of the MPAA money goes to politicians via lobbying and “contributions” of some sort.
The only thing a politician wants more than money is votes. The two things they fear are public shame and losing office.
Stu, I agree they are afraid of losing power/office/money. There is far to much evidence to suggest that most of them will do just about anything for power/office/money to question that.
I don’t think most of them understand the meaning of the word shame; for one thing that would imply they aren’t sociopaths when to much evidence suggests that a lot of them are.
I just read that the movie industry has to cut back on throwing lavish parties, like for awards shows and such. Or at least scale back a lot on the costs. But apparently they’re not scaling back on lobbying for this crap about trampling on our rights. Wouldn’t such a “three strikes” law be in violation of the First, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Amendments. If Obama really does know Constitutional law, he should have considerable reservations about what the MPAA wants. And maybe the French will learn something from this, the way they did back in the Colonial days.
I rarely agree with Uncle Dave, but I sure do here. The MPAA needs to just go away.
How utterly naive you are. You don’t come from Illinois if you don’t know how to take a payoff.
Just for that I’m going to go download a movie. I hope these guys wives have asses that look like they were hail damaged.
TOTAL morons.
Instead of creating online music sales and making money, they choose to blow it suing people who would buy online…
I’m not sure if I’m ok with the “without due process or judicial review” part
Disturbing, but don’t worry, as a group of computer geeks, you shall simply tell the ISP’s three times that every single person that has ever supported the MPAA and everyone currently working for them has illegally obtained your source code that you wrote.
Without evidence, or due process, as the MPAA expects, they will either give you loads of money (yay) or be disconnected from the Internet, and hence our lives, for at least 1 year.
An end to the MPAA, thanks to the MPAA for the tools to destroy you.
Let me see…..
Support Obama(Democrat): Kill the Internet
Support McBush(Republican): Kill the American economy.
No wonder things are soooo depressing right now.
#14 Grandpa:
Yeah, well, I don’t get why everyone thinks Obama *won’t* kill the economy.
#15 – brm
>>Yeah, well, I don’t get why everyone thinks
>>Obama *won’t* kill the economy.
Maybe everyone knows more than you do. Obama is smart, he’s honest, and he’s surrounded himself with people that know what they’re doing.
Besides, if Dumbya couldn’t kill us, nobody can.
#15, well one reason is because he has scaled back his plans to raise taxes
#16, #17 – Time will tell. My crystal ball is in the shop, so I can’t prognosticate as well as you two can.
The Satriani/Cold Play analysis was removed from YouTube the other day by Cold Play’s Record Company. This was NOT a copyright violation because it was an scholarly report…protected speech. But YouTube complied without a hearing or checking the law.
Corporations run our country. Let’s see… the definition of that is…Fascism.
The MPAA’s plan will work about as well as Prohibition did back the the 1920s. That is to say, it won’t. But what it will do, is drive whatever small time piracy exists, underground to fuel a huge black market in the US. That’s all we need. Another hot commodity for organized crime to exploit. As if illegal drugs, gambling and prostitution isn’t enough.
Yeah, let’s make music and movie piracy only something the Mafia can pull off. And it makes a weird kind of sense. The entertainment industry has had some cozy relationships with crime families, in the past. So if anyone’s going to steal from them, it should be old friends, right? And of course, a new black market will also put some payoff cash in the hands of various law enforcement officials, to look the other way (again!).
What the MPAA (and RIAA) really objects to, is that so many nobodies can do now, what they’d rather could only be done by those they have profitable relations with. Regardless of any legalities or moralities. And the cash value of music and movies, is arbitrarily set. As it gets more expensive, piracy increases, bring it legit sales down. The MPAA wants taxpayer funded law enforcement to help keep their profits from falling. That would be like the Feds busting people who make their own diamonds, to help out De Beers. The question is, should our government be in the monopoly protecting business? Why is the government less worried about the loss of jobs of the many, over the loss of wealth of the rich few?
#16 – “Obama is smart, he’s honest”
I’ll give you smart, but honest? I laughed so hard I pooped myself. Thanks a lot.
#18, I wasn’t prognosticating, I was stating a fact. Obama’s team has announced that they aren’t going forward with the tax hikes as quickly as they had planned.
22 – SnotPoop
>>I’ll give you smart, but honest? I laughed so
>>hard I pooped myself.
I think you’re just one of those grown-ups who likes to piss and shit themselves for sexual gratification.
If you have any evidence of dishonesty on the part of Obama, please put it forth.
Otherwise, accept my diagnosis.
#11 “I’m not sure if I’m ok with the “without due process or judicial review” part” I know damn well Im not ok with it.
#24, I think your own posts have revealed dishonesty by Obama.
#26, Lyin’ Mike,
Maybe you could remind us of some of those (ahem) dishonestys.
*
Meanwhile, I just was encouraged to d/l three movies. Not because I do routinely, but because I want the MPAA to realize they can’t win.
#26 – Lyin’ Mike
Your more fun when you’re lyin’, Mike.
What’samatta? You didn’t have time to check AnalCystLimbaugh.com for a snappy comeback?
Lib’s don’t mind censorship as long as it suites their agenda.Freedom of speech for all unless we don’t like what they have to sayIE the truth.