Mangina Valenti thinking about lawsuits

[gitreel]

Valenti weighs movie pirate lawsuits
Posted by CodeWarrior on May 20, 2004 at 12:00 AM (printer friendly)

Valenti weighs movie pirate lawsuits

By Frank Barnako, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 1:31 PM ET May 17, 2004

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- The outgoing chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America is considering singing the same song as the music companies: sue the pirates.


Attending the Cannes Film Festival, Jack Valenti called online film piracy a scourge. "If all our efforts over the next several months do not show ameliorization of this, we are not ruling out lawsuits," he said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Valenti, the longtime MPAA chief who announced his retirement several weeks ago, commented after sitting down for a piracy roundtable that included film executives.

"Clearly this is not a U.S. problem. It is a global problem," added Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SNE: news, chart, profile).

[indolikaa]

The Mangina has spoken. But is anybody really listening? :P


Jack Valenti in The Mangina Monlogues

[MJPollard]

By all means, go after the pirates! Theft of intellectual property is still a crime, and violators should quite rightly be punished. What I have a problem with is classifying Joe Sixpack as a pirate simply because he wants to make a copy of his legally purchased DVD for his own personal use. The RIAA has the same mentality, and it's too late for them -- Napster let the genie out of that particular bottle -- but the MPAA still has time to adjust its approach to the problem (thankfully, movie piracy over the Internet is still in its infancy due to the huge sizes of movie downloads, even when using broadband connections and the movies are encoded with DivX, MPEG4, and other space-saving algorithms). Will they? Doubtful. Thanks to Valenti, the MPAA is repeating the RIAA's same mistakes, and will likely suffer the same aggrivations as consumer backlash against their Gestapo-esque tactics grows.

[gitreel]

By all means, go after the pirates! Theft of intellectual property is still a crime

I will say this one more time. It is not stealing if the item in question is still in your posession. You need to reread the definition of stealing. Then you will not sound like the industries puppet.

[lordsmurf]

Valenti's probably never been laid. 8)

Has kids? Well, probably was a clinical extraction to get what was needed, while he read up new methods to kill VHS and DVD-R. Which brings another though: good God, he reproduced!

[glockjs]

i dont think it would be fair to call them kids. if he had offspring it would be more like spawns.

[gitreel]

Spawns of Satan

[MJPollard]

By all means, go after the pirates! Theft of intellectual property is still a crime

I will say this one more time.

Promise?

It is not stealing if the item in question is still in your posession. You need to reread the definition of stealing.

And you need to develop better reading comprehension. That's the only reason I can think of why the part about where I talk about objecting to the MPAA "classifying Joe Sixpack as a pirate simply for wanting to make a copy of his legally purchased DVD for his own private use" could've slipped past you.

Then you will not sound like the industries puppet.

Ah, thank you! I was wondering what I was. So good of you to point it out for me. I can now look forward to plenty of restful nights, free from the constant stress of trying to discover my purpose in life.

[gitreel]

I was saying that filesharing is not stealing. As far as backing up dvd's, I agree with you. We should have the right to back up our dvd's. None of the laws on the books cover filesharing, so for you to say it is stealing is not only wrong but it is short-sided.

[BJ_M]

ameliorization

? big word ..

anyway - another version of the same thing with a litttle more detail (read it the hollywood reporter if you have a subscription

May 17, 2004

Valenti: Studios may turn to download lawsuits

CANNES -- MPAA chief Jack Valenti warned Sunday that the movie studios may follow their music counterparts in pursuing individual file sharers through the courts, if the scourge of online film piracy continues unabated. "We are not ruling out anything, as far as America is concerned," said Valenti, speaking in Cannes following an international piracy roundtable, which included several prominent film executives. "If all of our efforts over the next several months do not show an ameliorization of this, we are not ruling out lawsuits. We have no plans to do that but we are not going to rule it out as an option." When asked whether legal action could spawn a commensurate backlash amongst file sharers, Valenti responded: "We are not coming down on students, we are coming down on students that are stealing property." Representatives from France, China, Russia, India, Spain along with distribution executives, talent and local producers presented a unified front in the fight against piracy at a half-hour press conference following a closed door meeting at the Palais. (Peter Kiefer )

[indolikaa]

AARRGGHH!! Matey.

[bugster]

AARRGGHH!! Matey.

A detailed and insightful post, thank you Indolikaa

But seriously, you think this is bad. You can even go to jail simply for buying counterfeit CD's these days

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/20/ifpi_greece_warning/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3731861.stm

3 months in prison simply for buying 2 CD's from a street vendor, that is beyond ridiculous.

[indolikaa]

AARRGGHH!! Matey.

A detailed and insightful post, thank you Indolikaa

Always a pleasure.


EDITOR'S NOTE: Piracy begats discussions about morality and ethics. Methinks Indolikaa would better serve this community making smart-ass remarks in such a thread, rather than speak his mind, receive a formal warning, and have the thread locked as a result. The Kindler, Gentler Indolikaa has spoken. Now, piss off!

[MJPollard]

I was saying that filesharing is not stealing. As far as backing up dvd's, I agree with you. We should have the right to back up our dvd's. None of the laws on the books cover filesharing, so for you to say it is stealing is not only wrong but it is short-sided.

I think that's a rationalization, to be honest, but at least we agree on one point. I shall concede the debate, rather than stir things up, and a good day to you, sir.

[Capmaster]

MJPollard

Hmmmm ...a Bonnie And Clyde fan? Or maybe Big Fauss And Little Halsey?

I like Michael and the way I heard it, Michael J. Fox took his first and middle names from him because he's such a big fan

[BJ_M]

Born Michael Andrew Fox in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he adopted the "J" as an homage to character actor Michael J. Pollard. Moving several times during the course of his childhood, Michael and his family settled in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver. At the age of 15, he made his professional acting debut in the situation comedy _"Leo and Me" (1976) (TV)_ .

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000150/bio

[MJPollard]

MJPollard

Hmmmm ...a Bonnie And Clyde fan? Or maybe Big Fauss And Little Halsey?

No, actually, it's just my boring 'ol name: Martin John Pollard. I doubt my parents had Michael J. Pollard in mind when they named me (my middle name was my maternal grandfather's name; my brother, Timothy Harold, got my paternal grandfather's monniker). Nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid.

[Capmaster]

MJPollard

Hmmmm ...a Bonnie And Clyde fan? Or maybe Big Fauss And Little Halsey?

No, actually, it's just my boring 'ol name: Martin John Pollard. I doubt my parents had Michael J. Pollard in mind when they named me (my middle name was my maternal grandfather's name; my brother, Timothy Harold, got my paternal grandfather's monniker). Nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid.

Interesting, and a coincidence. It caught my eye, and I'll bet anyone else's who remembers those movies

Born Michael Andrew Fox in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he adopted the "J" as an homage to character actor Michael J. Pollard. Moving several times during the course of his childhood, Michael and his family settled in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver. At the age of 15, he made his professional acting debut in the situation comedy _"Leo and Me" (1976) (TV)_ .

Ahh, so it was just the "J" then. Trying to trust my memory again :P

[aero]

By all means, go after the pirates! Theft of intellectual property is still a crime

I will say this one more time. It is not stealing if the item in question is still in your posession. You need to reread the definition of stealing. Then you will not sound like the industries puppet.

right, and you sound like someone getting legal advice out of a black helicopters pamphlet. The ones that say you actually are not required to pay income tax according to the constitution.

[aero]

None of the laws on the books cover filesharing, so for you to say it is stealing is not only wrong but it is short-sided.

Wrong.

[gitreel]

There are no laws on the books that cover filesharing. Why do you keep mentioning black helicopters? What does that have to do with anything?

[aero]

There are no laws on the books that cover filesharing. Why do you keep mentioning black helicopters? What does that have to do with anything?

Because you were quoting bogus articles on other threads.

Let me see if you can get this. There are laws on the books concerning file sharing of copyright material. to do so without permission or license outside of fair use is very often plainly illegal.

Why don't you look at this sites' rules on warez. How do you explain that?

Whether some enforcement is draconian or not is a topic of discussion. Beyond the legal issues whether enformcent is always or even mostly a good business model is a tiopioc for discusion. Whether part or all of DMCA is reasonable is a serious topic of discussion. BUT whether sharing, including file sharing, copywritten material without license, ownership or fair use isn't.

to say there isn't a specific law ignores that there isn't a specific law for the type of commision of 99% of crimes or civil causes.

By your definition there isn't a law on the books in most juristictions for stealing most things...and therefore it is legal?
Nope