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MPAA Names Dan Glickman To Replace Jack Valenti

Posted by timothy on from the mouthpiece-is-a-euphemism dept.

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."

11 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Meet the new boss... by Wizzy+Wig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    same as the old boss.

  2. Replace? by GuyMannDude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

    --
    watch this
    1. Re:Replace? by Artifakt · · Score: 5, Funny

      Plus, it may accurately describe the situation for industry employees, i.e. the average Gaffer or Best Boy may get a credit and a base income that works out to about 75,000 $ a year, and that may not look like much from Jack's point of view, but he's asking a customer base that has an average income of about 31,000 $ a year to think of these employees as little guys, and that implies the customers themselves are sub-little. Doesn't sound very complementary does it? "Hey, you guys are making a third or so of what I consider a little guy's salary. Instead of me lobbying to get you all 75,000 $ a year, I want you to do the right thing no matter how much it hurts, and help these guys who are already making 2 1/2 times what you do. It's important that THEY don't get screwed." It sounds kind of like "Clean your plate, bankers in Switzerland are starving tonight".

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  3. Respect to MPAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I am going to respect change in the MPAA by changing my downloaded bittorrent movies from...

    Movies Downloaded
    to
    Downloaded Movies

  4. Dan Glickman by theJerk242 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    How can you play with my emotions like that, you insensitive clod?

    --
    Red Bull gave me wings and I flew into the ceiling fan.
  5. Re:Lobbiest by Surak_Prime · · Score: 5, Funny

    Um, Sonny Bono, not Bono. Please don't confuse people who might think that our future Secretary General (when the world gets all cool and Bill and Ted's revolution comes) might have done something heinous like that!

    Be Excellent To Each Other.

    --
    :::The Spear in the heart of the Other is the Spear in the heart of You; You are He - Surak of Vulcan:::
  6. Wha...?! by Caraig · · Score: 5, Funny
    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.
    Urge... to kill... rising....
    --
    "I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
  7. Damn! by JuliusRV · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dan Glickman is an avid Linux user, a well-known consumer advocate, vehemently critical of the DMCA and a member of the EFF.

    When I read that sentence, all of a sudden my heart opened up and I was filled with joy and happiness! I felt incredibly warm and fuzzy all over!
    The next sentence almost killed me :-(

    How insensitive and cruel some people can be!

  8. Ask Slashdot? by Spaceman40 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

    --
    I [may] disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
  9. I Work At USDA, And That Ain't Necessarily So. by saudadelinux · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    I didn't think the house band in Hell would play this badly.
  10. About Glickman by LongShip · · Score: 5, Informative
    During the 1980's and 1990's I lived in Wichita, KS and was very active in Democratic politics. In conjunction with those activities I got to know quite a bit about Dan Glickman and his family. In short, he is a compassionate person who is as far from being an ideologue as one could want. I cannot think of anybody as MPAA director who would be better for the free software movement.

    I suggest that those developers involved in software projects which are impacted by MPAA policies get in contact with Dan and present their cases in a reasoned and non-confrontational way. We may be able to partially turn around MPAA silliness.