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Copyright For Sale: What the Sony Docs Say About MPAA Buying Political Influence

Posted by timothy on from the public-servitude dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The linkage between political funding and the major copyright lobby groups is not a new issue as for years there have been stories about how groups like the MPAA and RIAA fund politicians that advance their interests. Michael Geist digs into the Sony document leak to see how the MPAA coordinates widespread buying of politicians with political funding campaigns led by former Senator Christopher Dodd to federal and state politicians. The campaigns include efforts to circumvent donation limits by encouraging executives to spend thousands on influential politicians, leading to meetings with Barack Obama, the head of the USTR and world leaders.

3 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So they petition to protect their hard work by MitchDev · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, it's not a democracy, it's a plutocracy

  2. Against Wikileaks smear campaign on Slashdot by zedaroca · · Score: 3, Informative
    I know these leaks didn't come out trough Wikileaks, but since they republished them we are seeing a lot of stuff that nobody was talking about, here are some examples, got from "this day in wikileaks" (bolds are mine):

    The US State Department recruited Hollywood to boost “anti-Russian messaging“.
    Sony pirated multiple books about hacking, while aggressively campaigning against piracy.
    Emails reveal concerns in the US over the secrecy of the TPP talks.
    The leaks included a draft of the international VOD and DHE agreement between SONY and Google
    Sony received nearly $48 million in tax breaks in 2011 and 2012 after donating to New York Governor Cuomo.
    Ben Affleck demanded PBS program “Finding Your Roots” hide his slave-owning ancestor.
    Sony changed the Snowden film press release to remove “illegal spying” from the description of NSA’s activities
    Sony cameras are used as a part of the guidance system for Israeli rockets bombing Gaza
    Sony Chiefs met with David Cameron ahead of the Scottish referendum
    Corrupt product placement practices used in Dr. Oz show

    I really hope that slashdot doesn't become another place of pro-government propaganda, as that really pisses me off. The information was already out there, but their republishing obviously did us a favor (us that care about government accountability or knowing the truth anyway). We already have enough media outlets against information out there, let's keep this one useful.
    I would never know the above facts if it wasn't for them, as 1. I believed the propaganda that it was mostly employee information and didn't feel comfortable downloading it and reading, and 2. it would be too much work for me to look into the e-mails.
    Now that I know these stuff I feel like someone more informed than before. I hope the Slashdot community stops being against information.

    By the way, since I haven't seen here a link to their press release, with the leaks, here it is.

  3. Re:We can learn from this by SrLnclt · · Score: 3, Informative

    Indeed... I believe the count is 4 our of the last 8 Illinois Governors (dating back to the '60's) ended up in federal prison. I'm amazed they found anyone to run for the office last year - it's like a 50/50 chance if you are elected that you will end up incarcerated. And that's just counting the ones doing stuff openly enough to get caught...