Jack Valenti's Views On The Digital Age

ditogi writes "The Harvard Political Review did a quick interview with the lord of darkness himself, Jack Valenti. He gives his thoughts on government mandated copy prevention, fair use, and lobbying. In response to his famous 'VCR is [to the movie industry]...as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.' quote, he responds, 'I wasn't opposed to the VCR.' And what does he think of his current job? 'I think lobbying is really an honest profession.'" My favorite quote: "In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless." Update: 02/05 20:05 GMT by T : Derek Slater writes "I'm the author of the Valenti article you guys linked to. I've made some brief comments about it on my site, and figured I'd send them along."

Comments

"Fair use is not a law"

[TheFrood]

From the interview:

HPR: The MPAA has backed several bills mandating copy prevention technologies. Critics have lambasted these bills for curbing consumer's "fair use" rights, including the ability to make back-up copies. How can we balance the interests of consumers and the movie industry?

JV: What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law.

Bullshit, Jack. It's right here: US Code: Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107.

TheFrood

Valenti is unaware of copyright statutes

[yerricde]

Jack Valenti said:

What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law.

He obviously has not read Title 17, United States Code, the statutes that specify copyright law in the United States. If he had, he would have seen section 107, which tells the judge what four factors to look at.

And one of the four factors is commercial exploitation. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. If a work is out of print or otherwise not being exploited, then it'd probably be possible for a defendant's counsel to argue that by taking the work out of print, the copyright owner has admitted that the work has negligible market value, that unauthorized copying could not possibly diminish the market value, and that the use of such material is more likely to be fair.

Definition of public performance

[yerricde]

I guess he could get the legal eagles to define 'audience' as one or more people or pets.

United States copyright law, 17 USC 101 defines an audience as "a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances".

My favorite line:

[illuminatedwax]

This is great: "The MPAA tried to establish by law that the VCR was infringing on copyright. Then we would go to the Congress and get a copyright royalty fee put on all blank videocassettes and that would go back to the creators [to compensate for videocassette piracy]."

And of course, the MPAA are the "creators," because who else would ever make a movie? And he's also saying this implies that the MPAA own the right to copy movies period?!

This line, too:

"What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law."

May I point Mr. Valenti to the US Code Sec. 107. - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.
"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."
And he thinks no one should be allowed to copy anything, ever.

I don't see how anyone can take this guy seriously.

Re:no backups !!!

[suman28]

DVD rotting has been stated here in a previous story

Fair Use HAH

[pyite]

"JV: What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law."

This is really laughable, and an idiot like this should not even be ALLOWED to lobby. Sorry Jack, but you don't know Jack. Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 of the United States Code provides a four value metric for determining whether or not something falls under the fair use doctrine. A very good fair use explanation can be found here.

FALSE!

[Riskable]

Have a look here...

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm