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Former Senator Chris Dodd Set To Head MPAA
Hugh Pickens writes writes "The Hill reports that former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut is set to become the new chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, taking over the $1.2 million position and the job of coordinating the policy goals of the various member studios. Interim CEO and president Bob Pisano says the organization's unwavering focus on its top priority will remain: increasing the federal government's efforts to stop online film piracy. The MPAA is optimistic about its legislative prospects this Congress, thanks to the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee (headed by Dodd's close friend Senator Patrick Leahy) last year before stalling in the full Senate. The bipartisan bill would make it easier for the Justice Department to shut down websites that traffic pirated music, movies and counterfeit goods. While a member of the Senate, Dodd was an adamant opponent of the FISA bill that granted retroactive immunity to telecoms who engaged in warrantless wiretapping."
...is this good or bad?
no.
Had he chosen to be chairman for the EFF, I'd be surprised. This, however, was simply too predictable.
I always figured he was on the take and owned by the banking industry. So is he on loan to the motion picture industry, or are they the actual owners of record? Or perhaps a time-sharing sort of deal?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
You don't get to lead one of the largest organized bullying organizations ever to exist by being a nice guy. What's his history as a senator? Is he loudly outspoken against teh evuls of piracy? Did the MPAA cut him a big campaign contributions check?
Yeah, the bit about stalling a bill that retroactively gives the OK on ISPs who warrantlessly wiretap is good, but we can't go off of just that. There is always a catch with these sorts of appointments, so let's have the dirt, please.
Government --> lucrative private lobbying position --> contacts in government
I voted for Kodos
Divide a cake by zero. Is it still a cake?
Corruption? What corruption? Those 1.200.000$ are purely for future services. Got nothing to do with past favours, no sir. Not at all. Excessively high paying consultant/board member jobs for former politicians are just good business. Nothing to see here, move along citizen.
Mafia of Police-like Assholes Association?
By and by, Chris Dodd was a pretty good Senator. He was good friends with Ted Kennedy but worked with both sides of the aisle. His stands on technology generally opposed mega-conglomerations and proposed net nuetrality legislation. In other words, from what I know about the guy, I'd say he's a friend of "our side".
What he's doing heading the MPAA, I have no idea. Then again, Jack Valenti worked in the Johnson administration. He established the completely asinine ratings system and fought to make video recording at home illegal. I think Dodd is way more clueful than Valenti was-- although at least Valenti was able to keep the government out of censoring films, which it was threatening to do at the time...
COICA should really be called the Combating Legal, Open Access for Corporate Aggrandizement... or... CLOACA. A perfect fit for Dodd, well-known corporate-whore.
"Remember when I said I would never lie? Well, that was the first time."
We hail our new king, Chris Dodd and wish him succes in his new function.
Wow. 1.2 M. That makes how many snorts a year?
Corrupt assholes. Hopefully populace goes after you after being done with the Mubaraks and Ghaddafis.
Waitress sandwich.
Makes me feel good about getting a flick for a buck at red Box and doing a quickie rip. I didn't used to be this way, I thought five bucks for an older DVD was a good buy, but add the general assholeishness of the MPAA as stated above to that inane FBI warning I have to sit through before the movie starts (anyone else find it ironic that, in the very opposite paradigm of shareware, you get nagged if you pay for it?), and I'm a renter-and-ripper now.
Sure nice to watch mp4's on my phone sans that dumbass warning...
They're interchangeable nowadays.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
the way he and Bawney Fwank ran Fanny Mae & Freddy Mac then the movie pirates wont have anything to worry about. the MPAA will be bankrupt or get a government bailout soon,
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
This move shows the MAFIAA is still putting political cronyism, back-room deals, large campaign bribes err I mean donations above innovation. Dodd is well known for his political maneuvering using his friends and connections.
The old boys club new logo? DHS/ICE takedown image.
bastards.....
that all elected positions in Washington required Corporate sponsorship.
Dodd is just as rotten as the rest but what most people overlook is that even some saintly looking ones get plum jobs for their spouses which tends to influence regulations just as much if not more so.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Like 90% (or more) of those in congress/whitehouse, and at least 2 in the SC (Scalia, Thomas).
Obligatory car analogy:
At the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia there was a jalopy race. One of the cars was a former Indy car. It ran away and hid from the pack.
--
I for one welcome our former Senatorial Overlords.
He will be able to leverage his experience by explaining how the industry kept Henny Youngman from stealing Milton Berle's routines on the olde vaudeville stages, where entertainment piracy was born. MP4? Is that the number of Military Police they used to arrest the pirate?
Gently reply
The GOP loves filthy-rich, tax sheltered corporations, so they protect the MAFIAA from that point of view. The Dems are ardent supporters of 'starving artists', so they protect the MAFIAA from that point of view. Meanwhile: consumers are all criminals that haven't been caught (and blackmailed) yet.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/dec/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2009
Contact Information:
Press Office 202-646-5172, ext 305
Washington, DC
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes:
1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row for Senator Dodd, who made the 2008 "Ten Most Corrupt" list for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial, a scandal which still dogs him. In 2009, the scandals kept coming for the Connecticut Democrat. In 2009, Judicial Watch filed a Senate ethics complaint against Dodd for undervaluing a property he owns in Ireland on his Senate Financial Disclosure forms. Judicial Watch's complaint forced Dodd to amend the forms. However, press reports suggest the property to this day remains undervalued. Judicial Watch also alleges in the complaint that Dodd obtained a sweetheart deal for the property in exchange for his assistance in obtaining a presidential pardon (during the Clinton administration) and other favors for a long-time friend and business associate. The false financial disclosure forms were part of the cover-up. Dodd remains the head the Senate Banking Committee.
2. Senator John Ensign (R-NV): A number of scandals popped up in 2009 involving public officials who conducted illicit affairs, and then attempted to cover them up with hush payments and favors, an obvious abuse of power. The year's worst offender might just be Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign. Ensign admitted in June to an extramarital affair with the wife of one of his staff members, who then allegedly obtained special favors from the Nevada Republican in exchange for his silence. According to The New York Times: "The Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee are expected to conduct preliminary inquiries into whether Senator John Ensign violated federal law or ethics rules as part of an effort to conceal an affair with the wife of an aide" The former staffer, Douglas Hampton, began to lobby Mr. Ensign's office immediately upon leaving his congressional job, despite the fact that he was subject to a one-year lobbying ban. Ensign seems to have ignored the law and allowed Hampton lobbying access to his office as a payment for his silence about the affair. (These are potentially criminal offenses.) It looks as if Ensign misused his public office (and taxpayer resources) to cover up his sexual shenanigans.
3. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): Judicial Watch is investigating a $12 million TARP cash injection provided to the Boston-based OneUnited Bank at the urging of Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank. As reported in the January 22, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Department indicated it would only provide funds to healthy banks to jump-start lending. Not only was OneUnited Bank in massive financial turmoil, but it was also "under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives' use." Rep. Frank admitted he spoke to a "federal regulator," and Treasury granted the funds. (The bank continues to flounder despite Frank's intervention for federal dollars.) Moreover, Judicial Watch uncovered documents in 2009 that showed that members of Congress for years were aware that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were playing fast and loose with accounting issues, risk assessment issues and executive compensation issues, even as liberals led by Rep. Frank continued to block attempts to rein in the two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). For example, during a hearing on September 10, 2003, before the House Committee on Financial Services considering a Bush administration proposal to
At what point, exactly, did it become lawful for all of the largest corporations of an industry to organize in their collective best interests
At the same time the democracy became merely formal, and not real. We have a democracy mostly as a formality. The campaign, elections, and changes in government are carried out. Nobody cares because the results matter little, change little. The parties, candidates, proposals and the policies are fixed outside of elections, in various channels. Real decisions, of things that matter, are made in these various "associations", some publicly known, some secretive, some open meetings that are limited or manipulated, some closed meetings, and so on. The more you want real democratic decisions in a merely formal democracy, the more you will find yourself being pushed towards the side of powerless, parallel, unofficial, or underground organizations. There is really only one principle - whatever the goal, to get real democracy, you *must* get millions of participants. Otherwise you have some small, formal or unrepresentative group. If we'd have a "day of copyright rage", getting millions of civil-disobedience copyright-breakers in public squares, with (logically) police trying to break them up, we'd get real policy debate.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
It was considered ballsy back in the day to be against FISA. So why would a guy that would be against it, suddenly sell out completely to the MPAA Overlords?
What is the MPAA's definition of "traffic" exactly? I mean, one could argue that making available a link to a torrent of a movie is merely providing a service to those who would like to backup their movie collections. It's not the Pirate Bay or whichever site the kids are using now that's responsible for the use that people make of their service.
There's a lot of PDF books to download and nobody's going against the libraries for providing free books that people can scan.
~Syberz
I don't see how anyone could believe otherwise. Government is a business with a primary goal of profit, exactly like every other business -- except that government holds the special right to employ coercion as their business model. For this reason they must be kept under STRICT limits, in terms of both power and revenue, or you end up like we have with the most expensive, most wasteful government in world history, the highest incarceration rate in the entire world, a steady elimination of civil rights (of course slow enough that most of the sheep won't notice), open-ended wars designed to enrich the elite at the top of the pyramid, and a world reputation that makes me ashamed to admit I'm an American.
Again, government MUST be limited in both power and revenue, or this is the result. In the end, a government big enough to "give you everything you want" is necessarily big enough to take everything you have.
It's not only a stereotype that Democrats receive massive funding by the MAFIA.
You dingbat!
You should have played along, got to the point where they trusted you and then fucked them! And if you made more money in the end, all the better!
But noooooooo! You had to stick to principles! With upright people such as yourself, there can be no true justice in this World!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216
It just goes to show, those who make the rules benefit the most by them and every administration is in the pocket of Wall Street.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
really make me sick, someone shot him quick.
Who wrote up this list, a republican?
Judicial Watch is a conservative organization, but in the recent past they have challeged Republicans including former President GW Bush and former house speaker DeLay.
If you're going after corruption as they tend to do, though, you're going to be going after people in power, and in 2009, that meant Democrats.
'Parties and candidates fixed outside of elections in various channels'? You mean channels like primaries
The MPAA manipulates its co-owned news media to keep candidates proposing real change out of U.S. primary voters' mind. Look at how Ron Paul wasn't given much of a chance to speak even in those 2008 presidential debates to which he was invited. He ended up mathematically eliminated from the race before the primaries even got to my state.
Dodd is a corruptocrat. If he was a republican then the comments here would be lit up and turned to 10.
Also, if you boycott the bad guys
In music: How do I boycott the bad guys when grocery stores pay to play the bad guys' music over their speaker systems? How do I convince people to boycott the bad guys when FM radio plays only the bad guys' music and Internet radio would cost a lot of people $60 per month to upgrade their phones?
In TV series, feature films, and video games: Who are the good guys? Or did you mean boycott these media entirely and <hyperbole>join the Amish</hyperbole>?
If Dodd does as well for the MPAA as he did for banking, they will be bankrupt in 3 years. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.
And the MPAA would likewise see any candidate for the House or Senate proposing a return to a sane copyright term as a looney. For one thing, a sane copyright term would involve pulling out of the World Trade Organization, as WTO requires TRIPS, and TRIPS requires Berne, and Berne requires life+50.
It is no surprise to me that one of the lead democrats that brought us the banking and housing disasters of the century ends up cashing in on one of the biggest abusers of government "strong arming" to benefit industry power. "The fish rots from the head" I hope he rides that bus into the swamp it's heading for.
Government official accepts campaign money from corporate interests - legally sound, ethically questionable.
Government official backs legislation favorable to corporate interests - legally sound, ethically icky.
Government official leaves government, goes to work for corporate interests for 7+ figure salary - legally sound, ethically repugnant.
Ex-government official offers campaign donations to new government official on behalf of corporate interests - the cycle is complete.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
a good thing that the Republicans are in charge of the House now? It always seemed like Democrats were too cozy with the "intellectual property" industries...
Judicial Watch, Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation,
Somehow the words conservative and non-partisan do not go well together. I took a look at the web site and was willing to give some believe that they had no agenda, even though nine of the ten most wanted are democrats. When I saw they were representing "Joe the Plumber" they lost the credibility for non-partisan. With all the lucre flying around, it would stand to reason that more then one republican would have the same level of corruption as these top ten.
If Judicial Watch has all this evidence then please, work to get indictments, bring these people to justice and stop wasting time on Joe the plumber. However, if all you have is innuendo, conspiracy theories, rumors, and circumstantial evidence then please Shut The Fuck Up. Accusing my neighbor of being an extraterrestrial means nothing unless I got a picture of him or her climbing into a spaceship. Barring evidence I would be considered a loon and crazy. Currently, the conservative, non-partisan education foundation looks like the crazy neighbor...prove it, in court.
(God I am so sick of this shit. From Rush, to Glenn, to who on the left...making shit up and spewing it out makes for bad entertainment and clouds any chance to attempts to find out the real truth)
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
Sheesh, I'm tired of people having a problem with small acts growing up. In the mind of people like you, are they ironically too good to become successful?
May not be hardcore anymore, but they're still good rock bands (we seem to just be talking a matter of personal preference.)
Never got the hate for American Idiot anyway, although 21st Century Breakdown was a bit of a dud.
Even if someone talks trash about torrents or has other negative traits not related to their work, I can still like the work itself.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
So, from his wikipedia page, I find out that Senator Chris Dodd was in office from January 3, 1981 – January 3, 2011. That's just over 7 weeks ago, and his successor took over the same day.
If I go to the Office of Government Ethics website, I see that they only oversee the Executive Branch, and that in the Legislative Branch, the Senate is overseen by The Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
A that site, I notice a series of postings about proper behavior regarding gifts, training, and Job Negotiations, Post-employment and Influencing Hiring.
Two documents in particular are of interest. First, we have a Feb 4 2008 Memo on Employment Negotiations and Arrangements [PDF]. Second, further down the page we have a Sept 25 2007 bulletin regarding New Ethics Rules regarding Job Negotiations, Post-employment and Influencing Hiring [PDF].
In the Bulletin, it states that "If Senators want to engage in negotiations or make any arrangements for jobs involving lobbying, they must wait to do so until their successors have been elected. There are no exceptions to this rule... What about for other types of private employment that don’t involve lobbying? The same
rule applies unless the Senator files a signed statement with the Secretary of the Senate within three days of beginning such negotiations or arrangements. This statement, which is public, must include the name of the entities involved in these job discussions and the date they began."
Also, "For two years after leaving office, Senators cannot contact any Member, officer, or employee of the Congress on someone else’s behalf (except the United States) in order to influence their official activities."
In the memo, it reiterates the first item, stating that official notice must be given to the secretary of the senate. Of course, there is no nice web searchable index that I found for the Secretary of the Senate or the Office of Public Records. Those might require FOIA requests from anyone who would care to really dig.
The MPAA is optimistic about its legislative prospects this Congress
Well, at least we know the politicians will not investigate the ilegal movie and music cartels and their protection rackets. You buy our crap or else.....
Take Nobody's Word For It.
We have the best government money can buy.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I gotta a bridge for sale.. In New York, not Minnesota. So it's still in pretty good condition.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
And the MPAA would likewise see any candidate for the House or Senate proposing a return to a sane copyright term as a looney. For one thing, a sane copyright term would involve pulling out of the World Trade Organization, as WTO requires TRIPS, and TRIPS requires Berne, and Berne requires life+50.
Great! A whole society just got strong motive to combat copyright with renewed enthusiasm. Many people thought they were just fighting for free movies and music... but when they find out they are actually protesting the WTO and their unfair laws, both passively and actively, they will be much more inspired!
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
This as*clown can't find his way out of an outhouse, and he's the one to tell everyone else what movies are acceptable, piracy and on and on? The MPAA is outmolded, outdated, and needs to be sent to the trash bin of history.
The biggest asshole in government, next to that flaming faggot Bawney Fwank, and he finishes his life working for cunt's that fist fuck single mother's and kids out of court fees. I hope Dodd enjoys his his new job working for the queer's that invented anal. He'll be exceedingly good at it as he moves up his reservations in hell.
For the RIAA that's very easy to answer: because they represent such a tiny part of the music market, that there's no way of using the words "trust" when talking about them, to avoid laughing. Pick a recorded CD at random, and chances are, it's either not on any particular record label, or its label is not a member of the RIAA. The RIAA is to music as Apple is to personal computers -- sure, they have some high-profile entries and are well-known, but they're still a relatively small minority. This is why ideas like "media taxes" are so disgusting; it's like saying Apple should be paid for every PC sold.
This partly applies to the MPAA too, though to a much smaller degree. While I know some non-MPAA film publishers, their industry is pretty darn small.
One word - HBGary. I think the fact that there are dozens of government spy groups doing what is now clearly proven by the HBGary leaks is a great demonstration of the "paper democracy" system we all are fooled to believe in. Sabotage, espionage, public opinion manipulation, lies and deceit are all integral and, worse, fully accepted and primordial parts of the current political system. Informed, knowledgeable, open, fair and vigorous debate on real issues, are now the equivalent of naive, foolish, utopian, sidelined idealists. If you neutrally compare the "debate" of left-vs-right common-man activists, you will find many common complaints, although they fight each other like mortal enemies. They both claim control of the wealthy elites, and abuse of the common people, manipulation by the media, favor of corporations, and they are both saying the truth there. They are only mistaken in their belief that the other side is responsible, while they don't actually combat their stated foe - the wealthy, controlling elites, the 1% who own 90% of everything, who are actively funding their confusion, fanning their flames toward each other. Standard divide and conquer, the old British rulers passed the manipulation skills to the new American rulers, the same as the old rulers.
People in western-aligned countries feel inspired by Egypt, by rebelling. They feel oppressed too, but they don't know where or who to rebel against. It's simple, the rulers everywhere have big outdoor signs with fake faces, fake logos, fake slogans - propaganda. They lie to people, have them work for little, and give them false dreams and trash in return. Some rule with guns, some rule with lies, but the result is the same. People are used. Their life feels empty. Future prospects of real change seem small. Eating from garbage or colorful paper McDonalds food changes nothing important in your hopes and aspirations. Some feel trapped by the body, some feel trapped by the mind. All are trapped and used. We are ruled by money, guns, and lies, whether hidden or visible, pretty or ugly, manipulative or grotesque.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
The best boycott I ever heard of was buy-nothing - boycott the consumer-think http://www.google.com/search?q=buy+nothing
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Bitching about it creates smoke that clouds any attempts to find out the real truth. If Dodd was a republican then these forums would be lit up about how he's a fat cat, corrupt, etc.
Dog bites man. Chris Dodd continues to do evil. This is newsworthy?
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
We can only hope he manages the MPAA as well as he managed the oversight responsibilities of the Senate Banking Committee.
That worked out so well for us all.
-Styopa
We are talking about the most expensive, most powerful government in world history. The US government is business worth literally trillions of dollars. Repeat: TRILLIONS of dollars. Yet every day we see a different politician calling for more revenue, more power, and more spending, because yet another government program failed to meet its objectives.
Clearly, something doesn't add up. Either (a) the most expensive, most powerful government in world history STILL isn't enough to make things right, or (b) government is absurdly inefficient, wasteful, and self-serving with the ridiculous mountains of cash they spend every day.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say the answer is B. The last thing the US government needs is more revenue or more power. What they need is -- gasp -- to cut spending and streamline what they do. Of course, when you're in it for your own self-serving interests, that's the very last thing you'll agree to.
Does it change any of the facts?
I do mostly agree. However at least for music there are places like jamendo. I have found some good stuff lately and its not garage band quality recordings either. Like TenPenny Joke ...
The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
oh, the GODS! How to reconcile the love for all that is Communist and the hate for all that is MPAA?
Agreed. I was with this list up until #4 where it turns into pure right-wing sensationalism, putting the entire piece (and their organization) into question.
From Rush, to Glenn...making shit up and spewing it out makes for bad entertainment...
One good thing is that their ratings numbers are going down as their original fan base gets old and dies off. Their shtick is too boring for long-term consumption by any but total mouth-breathers and certainly too long-winded for a modern audience. People who listen to talk radio idiots for any length of time do it only out of force of habit - if they get distracted by anyone/anything else, it's goodbye. Really, what of any import do they have to say anyway?
That is all.
That POS just moves from running one scam to the next.
You do know that in the US before about 1870 all Corporate charters were for limited times and in the public interest, right?
And that as late as the 1990's some of the big Wall Street investment houses were organized as Partnerships?
Yes, it means the owners have to pay attention and not have their employees do stupid or illegal stuff. Oh, the horror. Quarter-to-quarter thinking is a result of being a public company and creating false value through the public markets.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Depends if your upper class or not: Interlocking directorate [wikipedia.org]
Thomas Dodd did more to defend his class: he had the Nazi gun control law translated to English to form the basis of the US Gun Control Law of 1968.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
If you pay attention to trends, ratings go down when the people the listeners back are in power. When was Rush Limbaugh at his real peak? During the first two years of the Clinton presidency. It started declining when Republicans took control of the house. It follows the same cycle with each election depending on who is the "winner."
Aren't they just grand?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Damn those fascist Republicans!
Er, wait...
He got the bit about the normal people being ruled over by a ruling class using brainwashing and tricks to stay in power (with a huge amount of mid-level smarter people working for the ruling class to help keep them in power), what he got wrong is that it isn't the socialists who are the ruling class, its the capitalists.
...like, go after the Somali Pirates? Save a few lives?
But nooooooo, gotta harass grandmothers & kids that have no money to begin with.
& all because lawyers & the captains of business can't figure out a new business model. Stoooopid!
and keepin' old Castro down