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Valenti's "Boston Strangler" Testimony
Seth Schoen writes "'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.' Jack Valenti said this in 1982 in testimony to the House of
Representatives on why the VCR should be illegal. He also called
the VCR an "avalanche" and a "tidal wave", and said it would make
the film industry "bleed and bleed and hemorrhage". This speech is an
important part of history, yet until today it had never been published
on-line in its entirety. Valenti's testimony was published today by Cryptome.
It's essential background reading if you want to see just how little
the MPAA's arguments have changed in two decades." Compare to the Analog Hole document and they're virtually identical (except Valenti was playing on anti-Japanese sentiment then, and today it's anti-pirate sentiment). Of course, the MPAA was unsuccessful in plugging the "VCR Hole" - insufficient lobbying and clueful judges stopped them. The MPAA successfully adapted to the changing times and today sells about 70 million cassettes for rentals and 600 million cassettes for home viewing every year (both numbers are on the decline due to the rise of DVD).
Quick! Pirate that testimony! Put it on a tshirt! Set it to music, dictate it and sample it!
Remain calm! All is well!
Valenti -- "Now, they are up to 6 hours. They are going to be up to 24 hours. Pretty soon, they will have a cassette that will record all year long"
And it only takes 2 days to rewind.
Best Windows Freeware
[VALENTI:] I am going to stand, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman, cause I have what is known as "visual aids." I know they are visual; whether they are aids or not is something you will have to determine later on.
Mr. KASTENMEIER. And whether they are copyrighted or not.
That is priceless, and Valenti just ignores him and presses on as if nothing happened!
Asikaa
Come in, twenty-seventy-seventy, your time is up.
Some one should mass mail Valenti with copies of his 1982 speech, along with some fresh batteries for his clue meter . . .
"The earth is undoubtedly flat." --Valenti talking to the Queen in the early `1400's
"Television is never going to be successful."--Valenti talking to himself in front of a bathroom mirror in 1919
"I haven't had an erection in 12 years."--Valenti talking to his wife in 2001.
-bgs006
Find Valenti and other societal rejects at inmates.com.
Yay for Slashdot... [...] God damn you guys are fucking pathetic.
You know, I discovered something recently. There are, it seems, lots and lots of other websites out there. You may not believe this, but Slashdot is not, in fact, the only website! What put me on to this was one of the links I saw in one of the articles here... it actually went to another website! As hard as it is to believe, there is actually some sort of rebel faction of websites that are not under the Slashdot dominion! Anyway, I thought the folks like yourself that are endlessly raging against the /. machine might just want to try some of these other websites instead. We'd miss you, of course... well, not really, but you are welcome to believe that if you like.
I'll bet real pirates are pissed that their image has been hijacked for the sake of copyright protection.
Pirates used to be swarthy, maruading, swashbucklers, living adventurously on the high seas. Now the term has been relegated to the description of pimply-faced, 16 year-old, recluses, downloading techno MP3s in the middle of the night.
The whole ordeal must be quite disheartening for them.
mod to -1
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker and Tits
Hammer of Truth
Ok, I know I'm late to the party, but I just have to get this out, if for no other reason then to preserve this in a /. post for my own personal reference and amusement:
...
From the testimony of Jack Valenti:
(Jack addressing "Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen of the committee." I am going to stand, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman, cause I have what is known as "visual aids."
Jackass. I think Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen of the committee know what a fucking visual aid is.
I am merely coming to start off by talking about the American film and television industry, not as an economic enterprise, but as a great national asset to this country, to the U.S. Treasury and the strength of the American dollar. And I am not just talking on behalf of people whose names are household words, like Clint Eastwood and some of his small band of peers.
No comment.
... But now we are facing a very new and a very troubling assault on our fiscal security
Nice contradiction there.
Now, these machines are advertised for one purpose in life. Their only single mission, their primary mission is to copy coyrighted material that belongs to other people.
(Johannas Valenti, owner of the Townsville horse and buggy dealer, 1912:) "The only reason the sell these cars is for one reason: to put me out of business. See, here on the window sticker: 'Get there faster than a horse and buggy.' I rest my case your honor."
Now, again, citing the fact that 100 percent of these machines are made in Japan and 85 percent of all of the blank tapes are made in Japan, and I say that, Mr. Chairman, because I. have to keep coming back to this trade asset because if the Congress doesn't act, then what we are going to be doing is exporting our jobs out of this country to another country, beyond the real of our own shore.
My grandmother heard similar things in Nazi Germany.
Now, let me tell you something about how this business works. My God, Clint Eastwood and Terry Semple, who is the head of Warner Bros., who is in this room, can speak to this with for more accuracy and understanding than I, but I think it is important to a brief summary.
I'll review God's testimony later. Oh, and what's with this obsession with Clint?
The permission of the copyright owner is required for the use of their programs in all markets. Now, I those markets include theaters, cable, pay cable, pay television, prerecorded cassettes, network television, syndicated television, video discs. Every one of those markets is going to be competing for Mr. Eastwood's new film "Firefox." They are going to license that film at a negotiated price. (bolding mine)
I LOVED Firefox, especially when they blew them damn copyright infringing commies right out of the frickin sky!
blah blah blah this is boring. Time to eat. Bye
_______
2B1ASK1
That will insure that the accountants running the broadcast media eventually fuck themselves.
...
After all... Reruns of "My Mother the Car" are all gravy aren't they?
And who needs anything else as filler between the commercials?
Some soulless, humourless scum sucking, unimaginative accountants proceed to do the math, eliminate unnecessary expense like content production, reproduction and then
And then the artists are forced to find other distribution channels and income models.
And then the content producers die of cash starvation.
And then the broadcast media die of cash starvation and then...
Then the xxAAs and their leadership can be taken to a small field in central Jersey and introduced to the end of high-powered weapons without the stocks.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.