Shocker: Despicable Conduct From Disney

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Phil Lelyveld, (email) a Vice President for Disney, has written to the FCC to tell them to ignore Digital Consumer's comments on the Broadcast Flag issue. The Broadcast Flag is an inter-industry conspiracy to turn over the keys to general-purpose computing to Hollywood studio execs -- under this proposal, no one will be able to ship digital television technology (like DVD recorders and FireWire) without Hollywood's permission. Lelyveld wrote to the FCC -- who are taking comments on the proposal -- without mentioning his day-job, to tell them that Digital Consumer, a civil liberties groups with more than 40,000 members, is nothing more than a "two dot.com millionaires" working to create a world "where we are all artist/waiters." Joined the EFF Yet? (or is it time to renew?) Update: 12/06 14:55 GMT by M : Lelyveld is not a lawyer. Here's a summary of his background.

Comments

Disney

[Tempelherr]

Well, apparently Disney and Hollywood itself seem to have the ultimate goal of controlling the consumers and their end of it and more. The amount of time and money spent on all of that must be exhorbitant.

Just think...if just half of their effort that was spent on influencing government regulations were focused on truly making artistic/good movies, think of the truly creative products they could come up with, isntead of rehashing old ideas. Especially with Disney's latest movie, which did rather horrible at the movies. I can see why.

Surprise, surprise

[Evil Adrian]

I'll probably get trolled for this... but c'mon, folks, the whole attitude in the United States is "ME! ME! ME!" and people will get what they can, however they can, and the more they get, the more they can rationalize and justify putting any ethical considerations aside.

So who's surprised that a big company like Disney is sending some fucking lawyer to do clandestine dirty work for them in the name of profit?

Where did Lelyveld say this?

[Darkforge]

As others have commented, the story submitter provided no links to the offending document; no evidence that Lelyveld has written anything despicable to the FCC.

Interestingly, Google has (as of yet) no mention of the phrase "where we are all artist/waiters."

Are we supposed to believe that the story submitter a whistleblower of some kind? Or what?

Digital Slaves

[katalyst]

What's happening to this planet ?
(1) You can't buy a cd/dvd/firewire product w/o permission.
(2) Taxi drivers have to pay royalty if their passengers listen to radio.
(3) New audio cds which will not work on standard audio equipment, but only on PCs with security locks.
(4) The DMCA which just abt doesnt let you comment/work on any digital product.
(5) Billing Kazaa users - no small amounts either
(6) MP3 compression usage now demands a royalty fee.(br) These people seem to be forgetting that they exist because of us, the customers. And they are trying to upset those very people that help them stay in business. These guys are trying to push us into a corner and will probably start charging us for the air we breathe... soon. It disgusts me, and OPEN SOURCE makes all the more sense to me. Looks like there is gonna be a war... on intellectual property and rights.. soon.

Re:Digital Slaves

[Martigan80]

These people seem to be forgetting that they exist because of us, the customers

Interest groups, that's all it is. These businesses are interest groups with a hell of a lot of money to get the government to see things their way. There are barely any interest groups for consumers. Do you know why?

People just want to bitch a little and that's it. It takes the average Joe/Jane too much time to get active; they would rather sit down and surf, watch TV, or even just vegetate rather than driving somewhere for a meeting or to even write a damn letter. I bet more than half the people here will bitch all they want, mod people up or down-but writing a letter takes too much time. This is where abrasive idealists like Stallman come in trying to rally up the masses and get moving. If you look at it we are an interest group here, how many people are here? I'm sure there are enough to really get some things done if we just banded together and tried it out, hell we can see how fast we can bring down a web site after the article is posted, just imagine if we did this on a constant basis.

Ring-ring-ring-ring.....OH crap I'm late for work.....clunk!

Re:Why the focus on Disney

[Anonymous Coward]

For years, a large amount of Disney's revenue has come from dipping into the public domain, i.e. Cinderella, Snow White, Robin Hood, etc. If anyone truly understands the value of public domain, it is Disney. When it comes time for Steamboat Willy to enter public domain, Disney pulls out the pocketbook and buys itself some legislation.

These lawyers aren't taking the initiative without direction. There have been numerous Disney lawyers doing this for the past thirty years.

Re:Why the focus on Disney

[Alsee]

don't necessarily chastise the guy for enforcing what he believes to be right.

Since when does what a lawyer says have anything to do with what he believes?

-

Re:Legal virgins?

[bakes]

I second the endorsement of the EFF ... but shouldn't we be above throwing money at a problem? ;-)

Especially when Disney/Fox/AOL-Time-Warner/etc have far more money than the EFF can rustle up. Don't get me wrong - the EFF is surely worthy of support - but you won't beat these guys at their own game.

Write letters to, or telephone, the FCC and tell them what you want. Get petitions signed and send them in. Explain clearly and eloquently why you want the opposite of our good buddy Phil. Venting of the spleen usually accomplishes very little to further your cause, and can often prejudice people against your argument.

Re:Applicable Quote

[opencity]

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years , the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future.

The same could be said about oil and munitions.

But one can at least say, however the market chooses to remunerate them.

As a tech-savy musician, I saw Napster coming way ... uh ... back in the day. I also know a lot of roadies, audio techs and graphics people that get a lot less work lately. Music was over valued, now it's going to be undervalued. If you build castles made of sand, don't complain about the tide

Today I saw a promo on TV about guys who had big time tech jobs and were now delivering pizza. Internet skills were over valued, now they're going to be undervalued. How many programmers does the world need? Labor is always devalued systematically, and US and Euro tech workers are now going to compete more and more with an entire world of poorer people

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemoller

Re:dollars

[djupedal]

I think you're confusing marketing and mass production with the ability of a single individual. Don Henley can't sit in his studio and burn CD's by the millions, now can he? But he can put up a website, with 10 or 20 MP3's, and let me use PayPal to download the ones that interest me. Can Don make money this way? Depends on his overhead and success with his fans. Can he get stinking rich? Not until the corporate stench leaves the room, no.

The major houses have no qualms about taking advantage of any artist they sign. None.

Anyone that imagines I can cause pain to a recording artist by duplicating his/her CD at home needs to study the economics of the recording industry just a bit closer. I worked in that industry just long enough to decide there was nothing glamorous about the way signed artists are treated.

My point is this...the houses make a profit any way they can. I make a statement any way I can. One of us can sleep at night.

Re:Lost Government

[Gonarat]

We lost control when
1. Congress became a full time job
and
2. When it started costing Millions of Dollars to run for office.

When the Federal Government started, Congress was not a full time job. Representatives came to Washington to take care of business, then went back home to Represent. As time went on, being a Representative or Senator went from a service position to a full time job. While this may not seem to be a big issue, it has lead to career Congress People (I don't know any 100 year old Congress People *Strom-cough*, do you?).

The biggest problem today is the amount of money it takes to run for office. A Representative has to run every 2 years, so that means they must come up with Millions to run every even-numbered year. A Senator has it a little better, their term is 6 years, so they have more time to raise the Money.

The result of these costs is that to run for Congress, one must raise the funds to run campaigns. A major source of these funds are (surprise) major Corporations. Most Congress People are not going to do anything to upset those who have helped them get elected -- and since most Slashdotters do not have megabucks to donate, that means we are ignored.

He's being honest, you know.

[twitter]

When he says, "We do not want to live in the world DigitalConsumer.dot is trying to create for us, where we are all artist/waiters." He really means it. Phil Lelyveld would hate to have a real job and do things for people. He does not want to live in a wold that does not sustain his and a few select others ability to rape everyone else.