Mike Isaac

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Piracy, Google and Facebook Crowdfunding: Ari Emanuel Lets Loose at D10 (Video)

Separated by only a few hundred miles, Northern and Southern California still remain worlds apart. Viewers want a la carte content, and Silicon Valley has created easier ways to give it to them. But Hollywood still wants its money.

Enter Ari Emanuel, one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, who is just fine with Hollywood’s way of doing things but isn’t keen on any new tech that enables the dreaded “P” word (piracy). That’s especially with respect to Google, whose technology Emanuel thinks makes theft easier.

As for Emanuel changing his traditional notions of Hollywood funding, he seems open to new ideas. Most recently, he said he got his hands on a new film script for “Friday Night Lights,” and found himself musing on funding options while visiting at Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s house. Possibilities included a Kickstarter-like crowdfunding initiative powered by Facebook “Likes,” or even Pinterest pinning actions.

During his D10 interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Emanuel demonstrated some relative restraint. But once the Q&A opened up, he let loose the notorious temper on which the popular “Entourage” character Ari Gold is based. After seeing him lambast The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky, I’m feeling thankful that Ari hasn’t opened up a Silicon Valley office.

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