AllThingsD » Motion Picture Association of America

The Full Valenti: Dodd Trades His Olive Branch to Tech for a Howitzer, After SOPA/PIPA Gets Delayed

Kara Swisher — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:32:53 +0000

Poor Chris Dodd — he just got the top media lobbying job in Washington, D.C., at the very moment that the strong-arming-pols, scare-the-children, Jack Valenti era in media lobbying is now decidedly over.

It’s obviously a very confusing time for big media these days, on a lot of fronts. But any of the consummate insider moves once used by the legendarily pugnacious Valenti (pictured here onstage at our first D: All Things Digital conference in 2003) had a hard time this past week, as Internet players went very public in protesting two Congressional bills aimed at combating piracy online.

Not that Dodd didn’t try to cope.

The former Senator — who is now the chief lobbyist for the once much more powerful Motion Picture Association of America — gave a can’t-we-all-get-along interview to the New York Times on Thursday, in which he called for a meeting with techies to come to some acceptable compromise.

Wrote the Times:

“In an interview Thursday, Mr. Dodd said he would welcome a summit meeting between Internet companies and content companies, perhaps convened by the White House, that could lead to a compromise … ‘The perfect place to do it is a block away from here,’ said Mr. Dodd, who pointed from his office on I Street toward 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

But on Friday, after politicians quickly moved to delay both the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT I.P. Act (PIPA) — after successful protests pointing out that the legislation could lead to censorship — Dodd went to the full Valenti again:

“We applaud those leaders in Washington who have chosen to stand with the millions of hard working Americans all across this nation whose livelihoods are threatened by foreign criminal websites designed to steal. As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves; American jobs will continue to be lost; and consumers will continue to be exposed to fraudulent and dangerous products peddled by foreign criminals.”

Foreign criminals! Foreign thieves! Is it just me, or does Dodd sounds like Cher, singing, “Gypsies, tramps and thieves”?

(Let’s be clear, that utterance could never top Valenti’s most infamous quote: “I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.”)

To be fair, Dodd is hindered by strict restrictions on his lobbying Congress until next year. That said, this is not an old-timey, private Capitol Hill fight, but a modern-era, social-media-charged one.

And it’s pretty clear that the old scare tactics used by big media will no longer work as well, as consumers — as much as they like their movies — seem to love their Internet more.

Thus, what has happened is that — at least for now — the MPAA and media companies have lost and lost big, after the typically fractious Web powers decided to lock arms for once and cooperate with a creative, take-it-to-the-people approach of showing a disabled Internet.

Dramatic? Yes. Effective? Certainly. (That Facebook and Google agree on anything? Astonishing!)

Where it goes from here is unclear — the MPAA and its constituents could certainly rally and put forth their own protest. Ironically, the most effective way to do that is not via the airwaves or other former means of broadcast to the public, but on the Web.

Which is controlled by Dodd’s foes. (You see the problem here.)

The answer, in the end, might have to be the cooperation he first suggested.

As he told the Times:

“The companies, Mr. Dodd said, are ‘rethinking everything,’ not just about the bills, but about their relationship with an estranged Silicon Valley. That need for rapprochement, he said, ‘has come home in a way that no rhetoric of mine could express.’”

Much more to come, obvi.

Hollywood Groups Weigh In on FCC Internet Reclassification

Kara Swisher — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:35:39 +0000

An alphabet soup of entertainment-industry groups submitted briefs to the Federal Communications Commission today as part of its request for comment on a framework for broadband services.

Specifically, whether or not to reclassify the Internet as a telecommunications service, which would trigger all kinds of juicy regulatory power.

The Internet has been classified as an information service and not a phone service–a problem now, since a court ruling earlier this year said the FCC has no legal authority over an information service.

Rut-roh!–especially since FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has wanted power to push for net neutrality and faster broadband.

There are all kinds of complex issues at stake, from net neutrality to piracy to open Internet to broadband access–and Hollywood groups have conflicting interests, all related to content distribution.

But everyone’s obvious concern is copyright infringement and how to create rules around it without also having too much regulation or not enough freedom.

Oh, so vexing to explain and so many lawyers clearly involved, so just read this pair of briefs–one a joint filing from AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), DGA (Directors Guild of America), IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees), SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America); and the other a different take from the WGAW (Writers Guild of America, West):

Broadband Reply Comments

And here is Genachowski talking about a lot of this in an interview with Walt Mossberg at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June:

[ See post to watch video ]

Rent. Rip. R.I.P.: RealDVD Takes a Dirt Nap and RealNetworks Ordered to Pay Hollywood $4.5 Million

John Paczkowski — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:01:54 +0000

The Motion Picture Association of America has finally, and permanently, dispatched RealNetworks’s “legal” DVD ripper, RealDVD. On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who in January dismissed Real’s antitrust claims against Hollywood, really dropped the hammer on the company. She issued a permanent injunction barring it from manufacturing or trafficking in RealDVD and ordered RealNetworks (RNWK) to pay the studios $4.5 million to reimburse them for costs incurred litigating against it.

In the end, it seems the software that former RealNetworks CEO Robert Glaser described as a “compelling and very responsible product that gives consumers a way to do something they have always wanted to do” was neither.

“We are gratified by the successful conclusion of this important matter,” MPAA General Counsel Daniel Mandil said in a statement. “Judge Patel’s rulings and this settlement affirm what we have said from the very start of this litigation: It is illegal to bypass the copyright protections built into DVDs designed to protect movies against theft. We will continue to vigorously pursue companies that attempt to bring these illegal circumvention products and devices to market.”

Below, a copy of Patel’s order:

RealDVD CourtOrder –

PREVIOUSLY:

The Judge Was Wrong: RealNetworks's RealDVD Appeal Document

Kara Swisher — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:48:40 +0000

RealNetworks just lobbed its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the case revolving around its DVD-copying software, RealDVD.

A U.S. District judge issued a preliminary injunction against RealNetworks (RNWK) in August to stop sales, and renewed it in October.

In a typical Hollywood move, the Motion Picture Association of America said the software, which allows copying of DVDs, violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In the appeal, RealNetworks said the judge was using the wrong law, that the software was not causing damage to the studios and that the technology is in the public interest and constitutes fair use.

“The District Court committed multiple legal errors in granting Appellees’ motions for preliminary injuction,” reads the appeal.

But, check out the whole appeal and below it, a video interview with RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser that BoomTown did when RealDVD was launched a little over a year ago:

RealDVD Appeal

[ See post to watch video ]

Splitsville

John Paczkowski — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:00:17 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Rent. Rip. Restraining Order.

John Paczkowski — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:38:41 +0000

The legal broadside Hollywood lobbed at RealNetworks (RNWK) last week has upset the company’s carefully prepared plans to offer a mainstream means of legally copying DVDs. A judge has issued a temporary ban on sales of Real’s RealDVD software in the wake of a lawsuit brought against it by the Motion Picture Association of America. Point your browser at the RealDVD site today and you’ll be greeted with the following message:

Due to recent legal action taken by the Hollywood movie studios against us, RealDVD is temporarily unavailable. Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use.”

Good luck with that, folks.

As I’ve noted here before, RealDVD is a nice idea–a $30 software program that easily copies entire DVDs, right down to the menus, bonus features and cover art. And it does so in an ostensibly legal way. What it doesn’t do, though, is prohibit users from ripping DVDs that they rent. Effectively, users are on the honor system, which isn’t exactly a Hollywood-approved DRM scheme.

StealDVD? Well, You Were Asking for It…

John Paczkowski — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:24:28 +0000

Well, that didn’t take long at all, did it? The Motion Picture Association of America has filed suit against RealNetworks (RNWK), seeking an injunction to stop the company from distributing its RealDVD DVD-ripping software. The MPAA argues that RealDVD violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it circumvents the copyright protection that protects DVDs from piracy.

The MPAA “RealNetworks’ RealDVD should be called StealDVD,” said MPAA Executive Vice President and General Counsel Greg Goeckner in a statement. “RealNetworks knows its product violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America’s movie makers and the technology community. The major motion picture studios have been making major investments in technologies that allow people to access entertainment in a variety of new and legal ways. This includes online video-on-demand, download-to-own, as well as legitimate digital copies for storage and use on computers and portable devices that are increasingly being made available on or with DVDs. Our industry will continue on this path because it gives consumers greater choices than ever. However, we will vigorously defend our right to stop companies from bringing products to market that mislead consumers and clearly violate the law.”

The Day After

John Paczkowski — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:00:35 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Sue. Rent. Rip. Return.

John Paczkowski — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:01:55 +0000

Turns out RealNetworks Inc.’s new DVD ripper, RealDVD, is as legal as its creator is litigious. RealNetworks (RNWK) debuted RealDVD this morning and along with it, a preemptive lawsuit against the Hollywood interests that will inevitably attempt to litigate it into oblivion. Brought against the DVD Copy Control Association and a who’s-who of major studios, the suit asks the court to rule that RealDVD complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement not only by retaining the “content scramble system” used to protect DVDs, but by enhancing it with an additional layer of digital rights management protection.

“RealNetworks took this legal action to protect consumers’ ability to exercise their fair-use rights for their purchased DVDs,” the company said in a statement. “We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases. For nearly 15 years RealNetworks has created innovative products that are fully legal, great for consumers, and respectful of the legitimate interests of content creators and rights holders. RealDVD follows in that tradition. We expect to successfully defend our right to make RealDVD available to consumers and consumers’ rights to use it.”

We’ll see, I guess. Clearly the silly little “RealDVD is for saving a DVD you own” disclaimer attached to the software isn’t going to cut it with Hollywood. I imagine we’ll be hearing from the Motion Picture Association of America before the day is out.