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

Replace?

[GuyMannDude]

This new guy might be taking the job of Jack Valenti but I ask you who could possibly ever hope to "take the place" of good ol' Jack?

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

GMD

last time I checked...

[SuperBanana]

Don't be looking for that 'approved' Linux DVD player soon."

I'm sorry, but I just really have a pet peeve for geeks who don't show the slightest business-world saavy.

First off, there ARE approved DVD players running Linux, if I'm not mistaken.

Second, if by "approved" you mean "MPlayer will have the little DVD industry logo", change "not soon" to "never". There are royalties involved, and that's never going to change. The DVD consortium cares about profits from the royalties first and pleasing the movie industry second (what's the movie industry gonna do, go to another format? Stop releasing DVD disks? Uh huh).

"Supporting open source, non-royalty-paying, market-share-stealing-from-royalty-paying-players, pirates-movies-easy-as-1-2-3, bypasses-our-forced-previews-and-FBI warnings software" has never been on anyone's(manufacturers, DVD standard consortium, movie industry, MPAA) list, and if you even suggested it, you'd be blown out of the room by the severe laughing fit that resulted.

Between gasps for air, grabbing their sides, and wiping their tears, they'd say, "oh look, he's so naive, isn't that just the cutest thing in the world".

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

[saudadelinux]

I work at USDA, and was here during Glickman's time. He's a pretty regular guy.

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).

His official portrait on the Patio (just past the Visitor's Center, if you come in the Whitten Building) shows him standing behind his chair, jacket on the back of the chair, with a kind of sarcastic look on his face. All the others have the usual standing-there-button-up-jacket sort.

When 50 black farmers demonstrated in front of Clinton's White House for better treatment from USDA, Bill called Dan, and Dan put together the Civil Rights Action Team (CRAT). This team made 92 recommendations to ameliorate the problem, and they were put into place by the Civil Rights Implementation Team (CRIT).

Glickman gave his full backing to this effort, which, frankly, was resisted in some of the USDA agencies cited in the CRAT Report

He always struck me as a pretty fair, stand-up kind of guy, so it wouldn't surprise me if well-reasoned, non-hostile Linux advocacy were presented to him, a major victory could be won.