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

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.

Comments

We can learn from this

[RoknrolZombie]

Seems to me like this is a pretty solid way to identify most of what's wrong with our political structure so that we can fix it.

Unfortunately it will probably just be used as a "how to" manual.

Re:We can learn from this

[gstoddart]

Yup, essentially the politicians have set it up so they can be openly bribed/bought off to give corporations more consideration than the rest of us.

If this doesn't show how corrupt and broken the system is, I have no idea what will.

There's no way the politicians will change the law so they can no longer get paid ... it's simply too lucrative.

They're all crooks, and should be thrown in jail.

Re:We can learn from this

[AmiMoJo]

Yeah, but... but... Assange! Look at that guy, a fugitive from the law, hosting these documents to boost his own ego! Forget the corruption, look at THAT guy!

Re:We can learn from this

[Anonymous Coward]

How about we not say Sony (or other corporations) did it, but actually name those individuals orchestrating these bribes and those cutting the checks?

Re:We can learn from this

[poetmatt]

Considering they used their money to make this into the system, I see absolutely no reason to simply say "it's okay, they're using the rules they created".

That's 100% wrong and dishonest.

Re:We can learn from this

[gstoddart]

They are just playing by the rules of the system, as is. Not sure you can fault them for that.

Oh, horseshit.

Corporations bought and fucking paid for those rules. That doesn't make them good.

It means the politicians have been corrupt long enough that idiots think that a broken and corrupt system is just "the rules of the system".

Eat the rich, and shoot the politicians if this is the fucking status quo.

Re:We can learn from this

[DrJimbo]

Great post! But I take exception to this statement especially in the current context where people think it is wrong that we have the best government money can buy:

You have to accept that we are a competitive species, not a collaborative one. We may do things together, but only in the perspective of self-fulfillment. It's as if individual growth is hard-coded in our genes. Maybe not you, certainly not me, but in average, yes.

I agree that in general we all want to improve our lot in life. I disagree that it is built into our genes for us to screw over our fellow humans in the process. It has been documented in books such as Mutual Aid: a factor of Evolution that cooperation within a species is a much more effective (and prevalent) strategy than competition within a species.

In addition, even if some mild forms of competition within a species are beneficial, I totally reject the carte-blanche you offer to even the most sadistic and psychopathic behavior in the name of "my genes made me do it".

If your assumption that we are for the most part all psychopaths is true then we as a species are completely and totally fucked. The overwhelming evidence is the vast majority of humans are not psychopaths. The problem is that almost literally by hook and by crook we have developed a system where psychopaths tend to rise to positions of leadership in corporations and they have used their power to almost totally subvert the government to their antisocial whims.

If you look up the definition of "psychopath":

a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior.

you will see that what you described is psychopathic behavior. While this aberration may have a genetic component, that doesn't make it right; it doesn't mean it is widespread; and it certainly doesn't mean we should develop a system that puts psychopaths in positions of great power.

Those skeletons don't like daylight

[jandrese]

I guess we know why Wikileaks is under the smear campaign now. These sort of leaks are bound to make some people uncomfortable, although I doubt they will do much in the grand scheme of things. The people who care already suspected, and the people who don't care still don't care. Having some hard evidence to throw in the face of the naysayers helps, but is not likely to change much since they were mostly shills. Not many regular people believe that big corporations are not complicit with political corruption. They just don't know what they can do to fix it, other than hoping that other people elect better politicians (not theirs though, because they love their Congressman).

Re:So they petition to protect their hard work

[MitchDev]

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