MPAA Names Dan Glickman To Replace Jack Valenti

Zordak writes "Fox News is reporting that the MPAA has chosen a new chief to replace Jack Valenti. Dan Glickman is an avid Linux user, a well-known consumer advocate, vehemently critical of the DMCA and a member of the EFF. Ha ha. Just kidding, Dave Barry style. Dan Glickman is actually a seasoned Washington politician, having served as a Kansas representative and agriculture secretary under President Clinton. He has previously been a lobbyist for the Walt Disney Corporation, and his son is the producer of such quality fare as 'Shanghai Knights' and 'Rush Hour.' Don't be looking for that 'approved' Linux DVD player soon."

Comments

Meet the new boss...

[Wizzy Wig]

same as the old boss.

Re:Meet the new boss...

[plj]

Colored by media my ass. You're probably somewhat right about Teddy and Dwight D, but there are many of Reagan's policies I still cannot agree with. Some of them were good, though, but most of them not. Still, nobody's perfect, either.

Re:Meet the new boss...

[Jonathan]

Your perception is mostly incorrect, being colored by the media. Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower benefit from the haze of history

Let's see -- TR started the Forest Service and many national parks -- no Republican since has ever been so environmentally conscious. Your beloved Reagan said "If you've seen one Redwood, you've seen them all.".

Eisenhower, despite being a career soldier, was intelligent enough to realize the danger of the military industrial complex. Reagan just gave bottom-feeding scum corps like Lockheed and Northrop everything they asked for.

and left-wingers are still very angry that Reagan's policies ended the cold war and saved the U.S. economy.

Communism collapsed of its own accord, helped by the struggles of people behind the iron curtain, which the US never helped despite their desperate pleads (We also screwed over the Czechs and Hungarians by not lifting a finger when they rebelled in the 50's and '60s) Read up on East Germany's "Swords to Ploughshares" movement, for example. Without those protests, the Berlin Wall wouldn't have fell.

Anti-piracy

[Chitinid]

The MPAA and RIAA need to realize that they make many billions of dollars each year, even though they charge non-optimal prices for their content. If they charged less, I think they'd actually make more money. I hope this new guy realizes that the cost of the litigation against your average file-sharer is likely more than the gains against piracy. The key here is simple economics: more people would be able and willing to pay if music and movies cost less.

Maybe, maybe not.

[Space cowboy]

You know, paying lip-service to the demands of your 'enemies' (hey! they're not going to see us as friends) is a time-honoured "solution" to a sticky problem. So if the MPAA comes out with 'Linux users can be legitimate users if they do X, Y, and Z", even if this only applies to Linux *vendors* , they could claim a certain amount of brownie points in a courtroom.

"They refused the compromise we offered", "They steal (sic) our IP", "We demand the death penalty", (with the exception of the latter, at least I hope) these are reasonable "court" arguments. Consider the case of the clueless judge (sorry your honour, but it's a fact that most of your kin aren't technically aware), the "industry expert" (read: paid shill), the "compromise offer", and the cold hard law.The 'rock and a hard place' doesn't come into it. Yes I'm aware I'm mixing my metaphors, it's late :-)

Let's hope they continue to deny us a 'reasonable' way of doing what we want - at least then we have a reasonable argument that they're being unreasonable. This is more important than most realise, I think....

Simon.

he's a good lobbyist

[pedantic bore]

Well, what did you expect?

It looks like this guy knows how to lobby very effectively. The MPAA is an organization whose primary purpose is to lobby for the interests of the motion picture industry. Were you really expecting someone who would take things in a new direction? (he was probably hired based on his ability to keep things the way they are!)

The only thing that's surprising to me is that he doesn't seem to have much connection to the industry. I would have expected an insider to be promoted instead of someone being hired in.

conflict of interest

[Kallahar]

Doesn't this seem like a huge conflict of interest? I realize that there's no laws against it, but wouldn't the other MPAA members worry that this guy's kid works for only one of the member companies?

Ask Slashdot?

[Spaceman40]

Anybody think we can get an interview/Q&A session with this guy? If we can let him know a little more about our position (was it the journalist from MIT that interviewed Valenti?), maybe we can avoid an out-and-out war, and let him know we really care about this stuff...

Re:I Work At USDA, And That Ain't Necessarily So.

[bgeer]

If he saw you in the hall, he'd say hi. He mostly ate in the regular employee cafeterias, instead of the Secretary's Dining Room (which has pretty the same food, but also wood paneling and table service).

So your point is that he doesn't piss acid and breathe fire? Real bad guys don't wear black and have metal masks and claws, they wear nice suits and smile and express compassion for the common man. Then they go to work and figure out how to make money by exploiting people who can't defend themselves.

Re:I Work At USDA, And That Ain't Necessarily So.

[_Sharp'r_]

Every government program every written into law in Washington has cost more than it was "supposed" to. Is there anyone out there that doesn't already realize this fact?