MPAA President Jack Valenti Clueless At DVD Piracy

AG writes: "In this week's Village Voice, Jeff Howe continues his coverage of the legal battle the MPAA and Hollywood film studios are waging over DVD decryption. The current article finds MPAA president Jack Valenti not quite sure who or why he's suing." We've already gone over this on Slashdot, but it's nice to see the Voice covering this whole issue with truth in mind (the other NYC papers are either printing Valenti's Op-Ed piece or writing their own about all the Internet DVD pirates). This article does contain one interesting bit: Valenti saying playing DVDs on Linux is illegal was supposed to have been redacted from the transcripts.

Comments

Ho Hum, Business as usual

[rgmoore]

This seems to be business as usual for the media industry, and for lawyers in general. They don't want anything to be made public because they're afraid that it will make them look stupid. They try to claim protection for everything, even stuff that the judge has specifically told them they can't protect, and hope that people won't realize what they're hiding to know to demand that they make it public. I don't think that they actually think that they'll succeed in keeping this stuff secret, but they just want to stall and force the other side's lawyers to fight a bunch of peripheral stuff about geting depositions and the like rather than building a case. It's nasty, low-down, and, unfortunately, it works well enough that it's going to keep happening until lawyers are actually punished for trying it.

Re:Ho Hum, Business as usual

[titus-g]

The worst thing of all is that they don't even need to win the case, and given Valenti's backgrounding in the subject, which would need to be quite extensive for them to succeed, the chances are that this isn't even their intention.

All they need to do is drag the case on and on, one court to the next, people will forget about it and the outcome will be irrelevant by the time they are through. Fait accompli.

In their hands the law isn't about justice, or winning or losing, it is just another business tool they have at their disposal.

In any war of attrition those with the best supplies and resources are going to come out on top in the end, 2600 should really have chosen their battlefeild a little better (IMHO).

Re:Ho Hum, Business as usual

[Grexnix]

In their hands the law isn't about justice, or winning or losing, it is just another business tool they have at their disposal.

This is always the case with large corporations. The status quo is defended feverishly by bureaucrats and their associated teams of lawyers who are only interested that their pockets continue to be filled, regardless of justice or human rights.

Valenti probably had nothing to do with this suit at all. He's just another corporate figurehead, spouting the same old pro-industry propaganda.

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How stupid

[1DeepThought]

I am in Australia so not seeing as much press about this issue. This Valenti guy surely can't be this stupid. Maybe I am just seeing a biased view from the media i do see ie slashdot. If this guy is really this stupid and incompetent shouldn't he be the head legal council for MS or at least in charge of the windows ME code.

Re:How stupid

[technos]

This Valenti guy surely can't be this stupid.

Stupid, playing dumb, and lying are three different things.. Unfortunatly, only one can 'work' at a time. Valenti is trying to pull all three off and looking like an ass.

Re:How stupid

[tcomeau]

This Valenti guy surely can't be this stupid.

Actually this is a very well done deposition on Mr. Valenti's part. He manages to deny that he doesn't know anything about the subject of which he admits no knowledge. (And if you can parse that, you might have a future as a lawyer!)

If you ever have to face a hostile deposing attorney, review this transcript. Whoever prepared Valenti did a wonderful job.

tc>

my favorite quotes...

[EnderWiggnz]

not verbatim mind you, but the lawyers from the MPAA accused Garbus of going on a "fishing expedition" during questioning of Valenti...

To which the judge responded...

"The whole things a big bass tournament"

Maybe the judge is seeing the Truth of the matter...

Re:my favorite quotes...

[luckykaa]

I get the imprssion that the judge finds the whole case tedious and an overreaction. Chances are, whoever wins isn't really going get a major vistory.

But which ones??

[titus-g]

Valenti claimed that "just a few keystrokes on an ordinary household computer will enable people throughout the globe to make perfect copies [of DVD movies]."

Looks like DeCSS is obsolete now anyway, anybody know which keys it is you have to press?

I wants my free movies

Op-Ed rhetoric

[underwhelm]

This op-ed was reprinted in my local paper (www.startribune.com), so I wrote a response.

Even if it is obvious from his testimony that he did not write this and does not have the knowledge or experience to make the claims he makes, it is of limited usefulness to point out that the words are not his. They are the words of the MPAA, and of the motion picture studios.

I think they see their case against Corley is weakening, and they are moving back to the public manipulation through fearmongering tactic that has worked for them for so long. We'll see if the strib publishes my reply.

Smart Judge, methinks

[Proteus]

The judge has ordered that all depositions, etc -- in fact, anything not containing "trade secrets" -- be released to the public. I especially like this bit:

"Given the extent that you folks have gone out and solicited publicity," Kaplan said, "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Sounds like we have a sensible judge who might just see this whole thing as the farce that it is. Let's just hope the final ruling is just as sensible as the release order.

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